Ablaye Fall left Senegal because he was ill in Senegal. Widespread poverty, an uncertain future, ill parents, no work. Ablaye wanted to fly to Europe. It would have cost less. That would have cost a few hundred euros. Certainly not 2000 euros like the big trip, first on land and then on the ship. But Ablaye couldn’t get on the plane. He didn’t even try knocking at any of the European embassies to get a visa, maybe just a tourist visa. Because he already knew – as all prospective African migrants know – that the European embassies refuse these visas out of hand.
Traveling is impossible if you weren’t born in the right country. Senegal is certainly not a just country in this sense. Italy, on the other hand, does. There are A series passports and B series passports according to the Passport Index classification. With the Italian passport you can visit 174 countries. Only 66 with a Senegalese passport, almost all in Africa, none in Europe. With the Somali passport 44 countries including Haiti, Maldives, Mozambique, Malaysia. No nation in Europe. If you were born in Africa, you can only travel in Africa. The Syrian passport allows you to visit 38 countries, as does the Afghan passport. Many Syrians and Afghans would like to flee the war and the Taliban, but cannot, at least not legally. Or rather, they can enter Europe illegally and then, once here, apply for a humanitarian visa. But first they have to risk their lives, crossing borders, walls, seas and spending thousands of euros. And so, human traffickers proliferate, who are paid well for migration routes that risk death. Just as happened to the migrants who were shipwrecked off the coast of Crotone.
Just like Ablaye, who miraculously arrived on Lampedusa. “My boat broke down, we were 120 people, only 62 survived. I saw a two year old girl drown in front of her mother, I saw her right in front of my eyes. I saw a compatriot of mine disappear into the sea, he had left me his mother’s and father’s phone numbers before he died to warn them if he died. Today, Ablaye is a guest in a reception center run by the Il Girasole cooperative in the province of Florence. He started working as a tailor and sends money home every month. He doesn’t forget the Mediterranean: “At night I still dream of these moments in the middle of the sea, sometimes I can’t sleep.”
Next to him Kwasi Amankwa from Ghana: “I was in Libya for two years, I worked in Tripoli, then the Libyans locked me up, they tortured me, they bathed my body and whipped me on the back. Then I left in a boat, we were 150 on board, there are only 15 left, the others are all dead, I saved myself because I can swim». Kwasi would also have preferred to travel comfortably by plane, but when he hears about air travel, he laughs: “It’s impossible for us Africans to travel by plane, they don’t issue visas unless you’re rich.”
Visa requirements are almost impossible to meet for most would-be migrants. For the issuance of a visa, the traveler wishing to enter Italy must have medical insurance valid for the Schengen countries for reimbursement of medical expenses, assistance and repatriation in the event of death or illness, for a total of 30,000 euros. And then there’s the harder part. Proof of sufficient means to cover the cost of living is required. Evidence that is required can be bank statements from the last six months, for example. And above all, supporting documentation of the socio-professional status is required. In fact, it is required that the prospective migrant be well. And that is why visas are not granted in most cases.
It is therefore impossible to enter Italy regularly, except with the Flows Decree, the measure that has brought about a million foreigners to Italy in the last twenty years and that the Meloni government enacted after the Cutro tragedy). “But the Flows Decree also works with a dropper – said Nazzarena Zorzella, lawyer of Asgi (Association of Legal Studies on Immigration) – It is a difficult instrument to implement because it crosses an invisible job offer and demand, that is, the Italian employer has to hire his own employee who is still in his home country, so without really knowing him, in fact he has to hire him remotely, but it is complicated for an entrepreneur to hire remotely without knowledge and guarantees.
And it often happens that the mechanism does not work as it should, both because many countries are exempt from the electricity regulation and because a large part of the entries apply to some kind of seasonal work. In addition, employers complain that there are bureaucratic delays that make it difficult to issue the security clearance, which often arrives months after the request.
– Traffickers and migrants because the river decree does not stop the departures of Domenico Affinito and Milena Gabanelli