A group of 34 refugees (33 Eritreans and a Somali woman) has spent their first night in Italy in a former elementary school in the village of San Lupo, in the Sannio region, outside Benevento (not far from Naples).

They were welcomed by the mayor Irma de Angelis in accordance with the project “Small Municipalities, Large Solidarity”, as part of a wider EU initiative for the 12007-2013 period.

The refugees were also welcomed by representatives from the NGO’s “Connecting People” and the “Amistade Consortium” of Benevento. In the town hall there was a related event attended among others by Soulib Briss and Fabiola Conti from UNHCR Italy. The group of refugees began their ordeal five years ago, traversing several African countries; the group include nine women, two of whom pregnant.

“As mayor and citizen of San Lupo – said Irma de Angelis yesterday – I am pleased to be here today to welcome you and assure you that the town and the local people are happy to receive you. San Lupo, even if small, is generous and all of us will try to help you integrate in our territory”. Orazio Micalizzi, vice-president of ‘Connecting People’, which manages the facility offered in San Lupo as well as the welcome Center where the fefugges were housed before in Salina Grande (Trapani, Sicily), told the refugees:

“Our consortium, with the backing of Amistade, will assure you will get all the services that you need; at the end of the Easter holiday, the various activities provided by the project, starting from Italian language classes, and all the children will be promptly enrolled in local schools and kindergartens”.

Connecting People shall also handle the management of training, socialization and orientation programs, apprenticeships in small artisanal factories and tourism facilities in the area of Benevento. Giuseppe Lorenti, training and research manager at Connecting People stressed:

“the consortium shall ensure for the 24 month duration of the project all services and activities needed to achieve a true socio-economic integration of the recipients, aimed at ensuring them, once the project is over, the greatest possible degree of independence. Apart from the basic housing and foods services, the guests will be given cultural mediation services, social, first-aid and psychological assistance.”

As for San Lupo, it was rebuilt after an earthquake in the XV century on a spur of rock at 500 meters elevation now traversed by a municipal highway linking Benevento to the town of Campobasso. San Lupo is famous for its olive oil but its citizens over the past century have spread throughout the world, from North America to Australia, the country shall now reach, thanks to the newly arrived residents, a total population of some 800 people.

Remembering the 18th century fountain of Capodacqua and, through its saint, the ties to France, the mayor conclude a chat with MISNA saying: “Milca, a nine year old vivacious Eritrean girl, made me smile when she said: yes, I like San Lupo, but I was hoping that it had the sea..” Source(Misna)

According to the Jerusaelm Post, Katz warns Sudanese, Eritrean migrants “every day are advancing dozens of meters closer to Dizengoff on their way to Akirov and Ramat Aviv.”

The problem of African migrants in Israel is so dire that it requires the immediate building of a labor camp for asylum-seekers in the South, Member of Knesset (MK) Ya’acov Katz (National Union) said on Tuesday.

Katz, chairman of the Knesset’s Committee on Foreign Workers, presented his panel with a proposal on Tuesday to build a city for migrants a “reasonable distance” from the border with Egypt, which will be the only place in Israel that infiltrators are legally allowed to live in Israel.

Katz said the refugees will be employed in the construction of the city and the recently approved border fence with Egypt, as well as road construction projects in Israel’s south.

Such labor will be a burden on the infiltrators and will “encourage them not to recommend to their relatives to follow them to Israel,” he said.

“They might even ask to pay another $2,500 each to the smugglers who brought them here, so that they will take them back home,” Katz added.

In a press release issued on Tuesday titled “Tel Aviv: Wake up!” Katz said the Africans infiltrating the Sinai border threaten the state’s Jewish character and could negate its existence.

“Over the course of 100 years the people of Israel have built a Jewish state here. Over the next 10 years, the African infiltrators could change this forever,” Katz said.

“We are all together in the same boat which is in danger of sinking. The Titanic was a strong ship as well, but it also sunk in the end,” he said.

In the press release, Katz – without giving a source – cites figures showing that between 1,000 and 2,000 people illegally enter Israel through the southern border each month and between 22,000 and 25,000 already live here.

According to Katz, in six or seven years, that last figure will be between 75,000 and 100,000.

Katz said he recently visited Arad with his committee and “we couldn’t believe our eyes. The entire city has been conquered. The schools in Arad and Eilat are filling with Eritrean and Sudanese children. As of today, some 10 percent of the residents of Arad are Sudanese or Eritrean, Muslims and Christians.”

The “infiltrators” constitute an enemy “surprising us from the rear” and are part of a plot by “the leaders of Sudan and Eritrea, in cooperation with Egypt, to take over the State of Israel,” he said.

Katz warned that the “infiltrators” had already “penetrated [Tel Aviv’s] Hatikva neighborhood, have flooded south Tel Aviv and every day are advancing dozens of meters closer to Dizengoff on their way to Akirov [luxury towers in north Tel Aviv] and Ramat Aviv.”

“A long time ago, people stopped being surprised that the majority of Tel Aviv residents are willing to sell off Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. But surprisingly, in my eyes, they aren’t bothered that their city is turning into an Eritrean and Sudanese city,” Katz said, adding that it “boggles his mind that the secular, liberal and elitist public has lost the will to live.”

Also on Tuesday, Katz toured farms in the Arava along with other MKs, where he called on the government to drop limits on the number of foreigners allowed to work in agriculture.

Shevy Korzen, executive director of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, called Katz’s statements “appalling, racist, and xenophobic” and said she was “shocked that someone could say such things in Israel.”

Korzen also said that Katz’s figures were “baseless” and that over the past four or five years a total of 20,000 refugees entered Israel. She said Katz’s figures are “simply not true and are only meant to put fear into the hearts of Israel.”

“I think it’s extremely ironic that on the eve of Pessah, Ya’acov Katz, who is a religious person, seems to be missing the irony that he is suggesting that people who are running from persecution and are asking for asylum in Israel should be placed in camps that they will be forced to build themselves and be forced to work in hard labor. It seems he followed Pharaoh’s guidebook and is doing what was done to Jews in Egypt,” Korzen said.

ROME, Italy, March 22 (UNHCR) – The picturesque Calabrian hilltop town of Riace on the sole of southern Italy seems to have a lot going for it; glorious weather, fields of fruit, mountain scenery, great food and the nearby Mediterranean.

Yet, in the 1970s and 1980s, people were leaving the region in droves and heading to northern Italy, other parts of Europe and even further afield, unable to earn a decent living back home. Riace was well on its way to becoming a ghost town. There were hardly any shops, the last bar had closed, nobody was working in the fields and there weren’t even enough children to fill the local school.

Fast forward to today and the town is thriving, its solid stone houses echoing with laughter and happy voices, its mediaeval streets busy with artists, traders and tourists. But many of Riace’s 1,700 inhabitants are not even from Italy.

Much of the credit for the turnaround in the fortunes of Riace goes to Domenico Lucano, who, working with UNHCR, has set an example of how integration can work in a country under fire for its tough immigration policies. Mayor Lucano came up with the brainwave of repopulating the town with irregular migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, the Lebanon and Somalia.

It’s a story that has enchanted German film director Wim Wenders, who has made a half-hour documentary drama about Riace shot in 3-D. The premiere of “Il Volo” (The Flight) was held in Rome on Friday with the support of UNHCR, whose regional representative, Laurens Jolles, attended. “The film portrays refugees and migrant workers in a much more positive light,” said one person who attended the screening.

Wenders, whose work includes the award-winning film “Paris, Texas” and the “Buena Vista Social Club” documentary, had first come to Reggio Calabria in September last year to film a short fictional story about migration in another nearby town, Badolato.

But he changed his mind after meeting some refugee children – three Roma brothers from Serbia and a nine-year-old Afghan boy called Ramadullah – who were living in Riace. Wenders decided to make something a bit longer, which would tell their story and that of the mayor and his vision for the town.

“I realized I was more attracted to the children’s stories than to the one I was shooting,” said Wenders, adding that real “people are always more important than fiction.” The result is a moving documentary drama that could help people to understand the reality of immigration and how foreigners can contribute to Italian society.

Lucano, the courageous mayor, recalled how the transformation of Riace began 12 years ago. “A boat carrying some 250 Kurds [men, women and children] was brought by the wind to our shores,” he said, referring to a boatload of people who had probably set off from North Africa in the hope of reaching Europe. “At the time, Riace was dying,” he added.

The Kurds had landed close to the spot where a scuba diver in 1972 discovered the so-called “Riace bronzes” – two exquisite full-size statues of bearded Greek warriors – and briefly put the area on the map. “The wind has brought us a special cargo, and who are we to turn it away,” Lucano thought at the time, reasoning that the refugees were simply following in the footsteps of Greeks, Arabs, Normans and other past visitors.

Lucano set up an association, Città Futura (City of the Future), which began offering migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers free board and lodging as well as electricity in Riace’s empty houses so long as they agreed to work for a living and learn Italian. “The Kurds [eventually] went to Germany, but left their mark,” Lucano noted. “Riace opened its doors to Eritreans, Ethiopians, Afghans and schools were able to reopen.”

The newcomers have been repaying the faith shown in them by helping to revive the fortunes of Riace. The women make handicrafts while their men are involved in construction and opening shops; both are helping to bring in the tourists, who can now stay in renovated town centre buildings.

Today, about 250 of Riace’s 1,700 citizens are foreigners. They include many Palestinian refugees resettled recently in Italy with the help of UNHCR after spending years living in dusty Al Tanf camp in the no-man’s land between Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile, Laura Boldrini, UNHCR’s spokesperson in Italy, said the refugee agency was happy to support the example being set in Riace and other nearby towns. She also praised Wenders’ film, saying that Il Volo was “a tremendous tool for awareness-raising that upholds a model of cohabitation based on exchange and mutual interest, both for refugees and for the development of local communities.”

SAO PAULO, Brazil, February 8 (UNHCR) – It’s a long way from home for African refugees and asylum-seekers in Brazil, and life can get pretty lonely. But the more resourceful ones, with UNHCR’s encouragement, have been using the internet to reach or stay in touch with family and to ease their integration.

Take Euphrem D’Fagbenou, who felt really cut off after arriving in Brazil a year ago from his native Benin in West Africa. But his life changed after he started using an internet café in Sao Paolo run by Refugees United, a Denmark-based organization that helps reunite refugees through its web site.

“I talk online with my relatives in Africa at least once a week. But I also come here to meet friends that I have made in Brazil, look for jobs and read news about Sao Paulo,” said the 23-year-old, who fled Benin after suffering persecution for his membership of a trade union.

Yonas Samuel fled Eritrea in 1998 to escape persecution for his political activism and he also found it difficult to adapt after arriving in Brazil from South Africa in 2009. Above all, the 53-year-old was worried about his wife and daughter, whom he last saw two years ago in Zimbabwe, before heading to South Africa.

Samuel also found out about the Refugees United centre in downtown Sao Paolo, which provides free internet use to refugees and asylum-seekers on Mondays and Saturday. Once on a computer, he logged onto the Refugees United site and registered.

In his profile, Samuel noted that his nickname was “espresso.” His wife, who had also signed on with Refugees United from her new home in the United Kingdom, read his profile and realized that this man was her husband. Espresso was his favourite drink and the family always teased Samuel about this.

He and his wife were soon chatting online. “It was very exciting,” recalled Naomi Maruyama, a Refugees United volunteer who was with Samuel when he made contact with his wife online. “He said we gave him back a reason to live.” The couple hope to be reunited in the UK, where Samuel’s wife has refugee status.

These two examples show how access to computer technology can help refugees and asylum-seekers in urban centres around the world. More and more outlets offer access to refugees. Samuel for instance, also uses the computers at a downtown centre run by SESC Carmo, a private sector-funded social services organization that works with UNHCR in Brazil.

SESC Carmo’s internet café has 16 computer terminals, which are maintained by volunteers and available to refugees as well as the general public. “About 120 refugees use our computers every week. Each person can be connected for up to 30 minutes a day, but we still have queues,” revealed Denise Collus, a social worker with SESC Carmo.

She said more and more refugees and asylum-seekers were using the service, explaining that “the internet helps to break the solitude that many of them feel.” For some, it is the only way to keep in touch with relatives overseas, while others find it invaluable for their integration. “The online search for employment has become quite common,” Collus said, adding that many refugees use their e-mail address for all correspondence.

Collus said that most of those using the internet were aged between 20 and 35 years old, while noting that “the refugees who come to Brazil are usually well educated.” A lot of them read newspapers from their countries and listen to regional music online.

And they can rely on a lot of sympathy from the volunteers at the internet cafes, such as journalist Karin Fusaro, whose Jewish ancestors survived the Nazi occupation of Poland and emigrated to Brazil in the mid-1950s. “I always had an unfulfilled desire to work with refugees because of this past,” she said.

Meanwhile, Euphrem D’Fagbenou is happy for the first time in years. “I have made many friend here, including other refugees and the Brazilians who work here as volunteers [for Refugees United],” he said. “Here I feel at home.”

Sweden plans to give priority to refugees from Somalia and Eritrea in its efforts to resettle an estimated 1,700 to 1,900 United Nations (UN) refugees this year.

“Eritrean refuges in Sudan and Libya, who are fleeing the totalitarian regime in Eritrea, need the international community to make a contribution and do their part,” Dan Eliasson, the head of the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket), told Sveriges Radio (SR).

Each year, the Riksdag allocates funding allowing the Migration Board to bring between 1,700 and 1,900 refugees to Sweden under the UN’s quota programme.

Currently, Sweden is one of 19 countries which accept quota refugees on an annual basis.

While Sweden last year gave priority to refugees from Iraq and it the surrounding area, changing circumstances have resulted in a switch in focus.

“The situation continues to be tough near Iraq, in refugee camps in Jordan and Syria,” Eliasson told SR.

“The humanitarian situation is still difficult, but somewhat better. The situation in the horn of Africa is tougher. And so we, together with the UN refugee committee, have decided we can change direction somewhat.”

The shift will result in roughly 600 fewer Iraqi refugees coming to Sweden in 2010. Meanwhile, about 850 refugees will be transferred to Sweden from camps in Kenya, Sudan, and Libya.

“Somalia is a country which is in the process of imploding. The fighting around Mogadishu and the south is fierce and people are suffering,” said Eliasson. Source: (The Local)

The UN refugee agency has entered into partnership to warn thousands of people about the dangers they face by crossing the perilous sea waves that separate the Horn of Africa from Yemen.

In a news release published here Tuesday, the agency said it has long been trying to spread awareness about the dangers, but people still keep making the perilous crossing.

In a bid to reach a wide audience, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have teamed up with the BBC World Service Trust to air a weekly radio broadcast about the risks.

The first 30-minute “Lifeline” program was broadcast on Saturday on the BBC’s Somali service.

It will become a weekly feature over the next six months, when the Gulf of Aden sailing season is at its height.

Aside from awareness material, the Saturday afternoon program will also carry general information of interest to migrants and asylum-seekers.

“The program has come just in time. It will help people understand the dangers that they are likely to face,” said Hodan Hassan, a UNHCR community services officer in the northern Somalia port of Bossaso.

Every year, tens of thousands of people, mainly Ethiopians and Somalis fleeing poverty or conflict and persecution, pay smugglers to ferry them across the Gulf of Aden to the Yemeni coast.

Many never make it, drowning or dying from beatings, shark attacks and other dangers. So far this year, around 300 people have drowned or are missing at sea and presumed dead.

Put together by the BBC World Service Trust with the help of migration experts from UNHCR, IOM and other agencies, the program will help people make an informed decision about whether or not to cross the gulf or to seek asylum in neighboring countries.

The UN agency said the program will feature Somali refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen talking about the opportunities and challenges of life in exile, and also from internally displaced people in Somalia.

Interviews with migrants and asylum-seekers show that many would not have undertaken the journey had they known about the risks involved.

In a country where literacy is low and national TV and newspapers non-existent, radio is one of the best ways to reach out to the population as many people have access to a radio set.

The smugglers stop sailing in July and August when the seas are too stormy. Since the beginning of this month, more than 190 boats have arrived at the Yemen coast carrying almost 10,200 people, bringing the total number of arrivals since January to more than 50,000.

UNHCR also hopes the BBC program will sensitize host communities in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen about the plight of migrants and asylum-seekers and the reasons that lead to their flight.

“It will help in reducing xenophobic feelings directed at Ethiopian migrants and asylum-seekers by the host communities,” said Hassan. Source: (People’s Daily Online)