Popular Migrant Rest-Stop Center in Rome Forced to Close
It has been home to over 35,000 transiting migrants since May thanks to the generosity of local volunteers, but Rome's Baobab reception center is being shut down -- with a shopping mall among the options to take its place.
The former glassworks in a small street near the Italian capital's main stations was converted by an army of unpaid helpers to host tens of thousands of migrants who pass through on their way to countries further north.
Less than a third of the 315,000 migrants rescued at sea and brought to Italy since 2014 have applied for asylum here, with many of the others making use of pit-stops to rest, freshen up and wait for more money from home before continuing their journey.
The Baobab -- with the motto "protect people, not borders" -- was one of the key pit-stops. Although the initial plan was to take in up to 220 people at a time in small rooms with bunk beds, the center housed up to 700 people per day this summer, thanks to a vast goodwill network.
Dozens of volunteers worked shifts on site, while shops and local residents offered crates of food, clothing, blankets and hygiene products. Pope Francis sent mattresses and pasta.
And though it was not an officially-recognized center, Rome's city council paid the rent -- 25,000 euros ($27.190) a month for the operation and its annex kitchen -- and took care of the rubbish collection.
But the owner of the site wants it back, possibly to build a shopping mall on the land. With the lease expiring at the end of April under court order, the council has bowed to the inevitable and is closing the center’s doors early.
A locksmith was expected on site Friday to padlock the gates. But with dozens of volunteers refusing to leave until the last 30 or so migrants were found another place to stay, Rome's prefect agreed to give them more time rather than carry out a forced eviction.
"It is not just the 30 that concern us today, but the 10 people (who need accommodation) tomorrow, the 20 the day after that, and the 200 next week," Andrea Costa, one of the center’s veterans, told AFP, calling for alternative housing to be made available.
Kofi, a 33-year-old Ghanaian, is one of the final guests. Rescued from a boat off Libya at the end of November, he was brought to Sicily and simply told to leave the country. Lost, he contacted the police, who gave him a train ticket to Rome.
While new arrivals have dropped sharply in recent weeks because of bad weather in the Mediterranean, nearly 3,500 migrants were rescued Thursday and Friday off Libya -- and some have the Baobab's address in their pockets.
Between its faded walls, there are still blankets on the beds, children's toys in the rooms and bags of clothes in the corridors -- and despite the closure underway, on Friday kilos of apples and clementines were delivered.
The Italian Council for Refugees (CIR) has insisted Baobab and its volunteers were filling a gap on the sidelines of the vast network of official reception centers throughout Italy.
Many of the residents were Eritrean refugees, who -- along with Syrians and Iraqis -- are destined to be transferred abroad under a re-allocation program to other European Union countries.
But the CIR warned many would do much to avoid being shipped off to Lithuania or Portugal, even if it meant haunting the run-down areas around the train stations of Sicily, Rome and Milan in the hope of finding a new Baobab.
Source: Agence France Presse
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