28 March 2012
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How
a child dies in Venice
11-year-old Afghan boy dies to avoid controls by the border police
He was fifteen years old. No, he was twelve. Maybe, in reality,
he was only eleven. As the day progressed, his age changed several
times, turning increasingly younger. In any case, he was a boy.
He was found dead in Via Orlanda in Mestre, Venice, run over
by the lorry under which he had hidden to escape the checks by
the border police. Why, one would wonder, does an Afghan minor,
a figure that is well protected by international conventions,
by the ECHR, and even by the Bossi-Fini law [on immigration],
risk his life in such a way in order to avoid being intercepted
by the border police?
Because, by now, all the migrants, and also those Italians who
want to know the truth about things, know: in the ports on the
Adriatic [coast], anyone is sent back, in a summary way. Regardless
of their age, status or their life story involving wars and persecutions.
The boy who died on the past 22 June, also under a lorry, had
been rejected five days earlier. He was an Iraqi Kurd, he could
have sought asylum, but he did not find any interpreter, mediator
or lawyer who could listen to his story and protect his rights.
He did not meet the CIR (Consiglio Italiano per i Rifugiati,
Italian Council for Refugees), which is paid by the Ministry
precisely to do this, and has recently complained publicly about
the difficulty of working in a place in which it appears that
access is forbidden even to the people who need to be given information
and possibly defended.
The nameless boy who died last night in Marghera came from Greece,
a country where human rights are in serious jeopardy for everyone,
as the latest episodes that have swept across the Hellenic republic
show, but especially for migrants and asylum seekers. UNHCR and
Amnesty have been urging the suspension of returns to Greece
for some time, but it seems as though this practice continues
constantly, on a daily basis, with all the violence and deaths
that it entails.
On Saturday 29 November a citizens' assembly in Venice discussed these matters. The data presented is clear and authoritative, and its acts have been published on this website. What emerges from them is a border management system that is arbitrary and only tailored towards security concerns. A child attempted to escape this system to be free. He did not want to be returned, and died when he had almost succeeded. His hands did not manage to hold on, and it is not difficult to imagine that instant in which everything ended. The huge responsibilities of this tragedy begin in Afghanistan, passing through Turkey and Greece, but they end in the port of Venice.
Alessandra Sciurba
11 December 2008
[unofficial Statewatch translation]
This article first appeared on the website of the MeltingPot Project at http://www.meltingpot.org
"Come muore un bambino a Venezia"
(original, in Italian), available at :
http://www.meltingpot.org/articolo13723.html
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