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LONDON – “I have never felt so abandoned and disappointed in my life,” writes Chris Cauduro. “Seeing fellow Italians reduced to sleeping at the airport and thinking that now they are still there waiting for news and help that does not arrive. What a pity! “It is one of the many voices that arise from a group created in a short time on Facebook:” Collective action Italians blocked in Great Britain. “There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of our compatriots, who have been trapped in airports from London Heathrow and Stansted for the suspension of flights decided by our government, as well as by most European countries, to limit the contagion with the new aggressive variant of Covid that has emerged in the British capital and in the southeast of England. with children, young people, the elderly, people who work here and were preparing to return for the Christmas holidays or who had come for a study, work or tourism stay, and who now no longer know when they will be able to return. Among the economic difficulties, the little information and the immediate problem of where to find a place to sleep.
“I want to understand what is the use of having Italian citizenship at the moment,” Juliana Severino asks on the page created specifically on Facebook. “Never, in my entire life, would I have thought of being abandoned like a dog by Italy. You are a citizen only when you need it, but you stop being one in an emergency ”. Giovanni Lombardo: “Guys, I’m so sad, they blocked us all, what should we do?” Alina Diaconu responds: “We must not give up and keep fighting until they send us back home.” And Sara Bolognesi echoes her: “Guys, let’s not give up. We contacted the newspapers, unity is strength ”.
It is a chorus of desperate complaints. “I had the flight for tomorrow to return to Sardinia,” says Stefania Solinas. “I’ve been here for two months, they fired me and from tomorrow I’m away from home because I have to leave home. Can you tell me how to behave? The only thing I can do is go to sleep at the airport, I’m in the m…. total, sorry for the French but it is the truth ”. Someone shares a link to Italian television broadcasts about what is happening. Gloria Londra shares the link to an article in “Repubblica”, the interview with Dr. Valentina Sangiorgio, who was trapped in Stansted with her mother when she was about to board the plane to Milan: “My odyssey of the Italian trapped in London”.
Luisa Campedelli writes a post from Italy: “I am the mother of a boy who last night was blocked with his girlfriend after registering at Stansted. They were about to return to Italy for good, after a period of work that could not continue due to Covid 19. They did not return to eat Pandoro with the family and then return to England. So they no longer have a job or a home in London. What happens now? Is it possible that we cannot have some information? Is anything being done to bring our loved ones back to Italy? “Then there are those who share opinions on the possibility of compensation:” We are entitled to a refund of the ticket and airport taxes, “writes Giovanni Demetrio Mosello,” I know, little consolation. Only for those who have found out about the cancellation of the flight at the airport there is the right to on-site assistance “. But he adds that “the cancellations caused by the measures of authority for the containment of the Covid are part of the causes of force majeure not foreseeable by the airline, it is certainly not good news for those who are homeless.”
Still. Lorenzo Ravagli: “This morning I went to leave my home at the Italian Consulate.” Angelo Frusciante: “Hello guys, we are all in the same situation, but I see it difficult.” Ciro Di Domenico: “I have a ticket for January 1 and it has not yet been canceled.” How and when will it end? Perhaps we will know more after the meeting of the 27 EU countries this morning in Brussels. But tam-tam social media right now is the only form of communication and mutual support that helps London’s Italians cope with the idea of not being able to go home.
