Coronavirus re-emerges in Italy, migration becomes a target for politicians

POSALLO, Italy – With the summer vacation season approaching in Italy, the outbreak of the Covid-19 case has fueled anti-immigrant sentiment, although the government says migration is a small part of the problem. .

The president of Sicily, Nello Musumesi, last week ordered the closure of all migration centers on the island, saying it was impossible to stop the spread of the disease in facilities. However, the court blocked him, saying he did not have the right to stop him, although his order drew Italy’s challenges, as Italy faced a re-awakening of the polarized debate over immigration in a country hard hit by the epidemic.

In Pozzlo, a city in southern Sicily, the rate of infection is highest among newly arrived migrants, with the center-left mayor, Roberto Ammatuna, trying to balance the threat of coronavirus outbreaks with a duty to rescue migrants in distress at sea. .

“Our citizens need to feel safe and secure, because we are here on the front lines of Europe,” he said in an interview in his office overseeing the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean. “No one wants migrants who are sick with covid,” but, he said, “we can’t stop rescuing people at sea.”

In one week in August Gust, 73 out of about 200 quarantined migrants in Pozzlo tested positive. About 11,700 migrants have arrived in Sicily since June, and 3 percent tested positive either at the time of arrival or during the quarantine period imposed by the Italian authorities on the shelters.

But Franco Loquetelli, president of Italy’s Superior Health Council, a government advisory body, said the role of migrants in bringing the Covid-19 back to Italy was “minimal”.

According to Italy’s National Institutes of Health, about 25 percent of the new infections reported in the country in the first two weeks of August were imported. More than half of them were Italians who had traveled abroad, and many others were foreigners who lived in Italy and were returning to the country.

According to the Italian Ministry of Health, less than one percent of the total were new immigrants.

Although outbreaks have been reported in migration centers, the threat of a general resurgence of the virus has been exacerbated by the influx of migrants from the Mediterranean Sea and from Eastern Europe to Italy.

Last week, in a ship carrying hundreds of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, about 20 people tested positive for the Covid-19, circling around Sicily. They were removed by the cloud after the mayor, before finally docking at Southeast August Gusta.

The leader of the opposition Immigrant League party and former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said of Sicily on Twitter this week, ‘Outlaw State’. “The onslaught of illegal immigrants, the rise of infection, Sicily is breaking up.”

The message that Mr. Salvini, whose political origins arose out of fear of immigration and crime before he and his party were ousted from government last year, has been taken up by other right-wing politicians like the League. Declined in popularity.

“We cannot afford that this land, after all its efforts and success in the fight against the epidemic, finds itself in a difficult situation due to lack of control,” said Massimiliano Federiga, a member and president of the League of Friuli. Venezia Giulia region.

Mr Federiga was speaking at a rally outside a facility in the northeastern city of Udin, from where nine had fled. The center, designed for 2,050 people but hosting 60 asylum seekers, was set aside after some coronavirus cases were found there.

Many Italians say the real issue with migration is the need to limit the spread of the virus to existing centers, which are not designed to quarantine and isolate people.

Gianfranco Schiavane, vice president of the Association of Juridical Studies on Immigration, said in a telephone interview that “there is no explosion of arrival.” “However the big difference, with loneliness and quarantine, is the complexity of arranging arrival.”

Dr Carmelo Lauretta, in charge of disease control in the Pozzlolo area, said such centers usually have enough showers and bathrooms for six people. “But not for Covid.”

This month, the Italian government banned dancing in nightclubs and dance halls, acknowledging that people let their guards down. Many regions introduced testing at ports, airports and train stations. But controlling the spread of the virus among the approximately 60,700 migrants living in large shelters across the country is a major challenge.

“Foreigners in Italy are at higher risk of getting sick because they are more isolated, living in poorer health conditions and in larger groups,” said Matteo Villa, an immigration researcher at Italy’s Institute for International Political Studies. “But it has to do with segregation, not with their race or origin.”

In early August, the virus spread to a migration center in Traviso, northern Italy, infecting 256 of the 293 people established there, making it one of the largest coronavirus clusters in the country.

Bexo Sanyang, a 28-year-old Gambian migrant who shared a room with two young men who tested themselves before catching the virus, said in a telephone interview. “There was no choice.”

Mario Conte, mayor of Traviso, Mr Salvini’s party, said the spread was inevitable, given the conditions at the center. “This shows failure by the state,” he said.

He said keeping about 300 people in one place is already complicated when things are normal. But with Kovid, “it’s totally inadvisable.”

Many migrants coming to Italy are passing through the Western Balkans because simplifying anti-covid measures could allow them to travel through Greece, through Italy and then northern Europe. Right-wing regional governments in Italy have called on Rome to close small crossings with neighboring Slovenia and send more and more people across the border.

Among those trying to move to Italy was 23-year-old Shahid Mehmood from Pakistan, who was sent back to Slovenia in June.

“When I told my parents that Italy pushed me back, they didn’t believe me because they said Italy would not push back,” he said by telephone from a Bosnian camp where it ended later. “But that changed with the coronavirus.”

Although some politicians incite anti-immigrant sentiment, many Italians say they are more concerned about people across the country allowing their guards to leave after re-opening travel links, despite the necessary testing for people coming from many places.

In Pozzallo, the 800-passenger boat now offers daily connections to Malta, which Italy considers dangerous after a recent coronavirus outbreak.

“I’m more concerned about this and she has a covid after two days with a face mask for not having a face at youth parties and discos,” said 17-year-old Isabel Gugliotta, sitting at the Pozzallo Beach Bar.

“Why should I worry about migrants?” She said. “Anyone can transmit it. We all need to act responsibly. ”