Italians start campaign to help immigrants

When the photo of 3-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi lying dead on the beach in Bodrum, Türkiye, shook the world and stirred public conscience about the migrant crisis in Europe, in many major cities in Italy, a number of organizations and individuals started campaigns to help migrants.

A teacher at a secondary school in Portogruaro, northern Italy, and some migrants being taken in by local people. (Source: La Repubblica)

On the outskirts of Milan, a humanitarian organization called "Amici dei bambini" (Friends of Children) said that in the past two days, it had received more than 300 requests to foster migrant children, and the number of Italian families nationwide calling its hotline to confirm their willingness to adopt migrant children reached more than 2,000.

"After seeing Aylan's photo, many people searched online and contacted us offering to adopt migrant children," Diego Moretti, an official with the organization, told La Repubblica newspaper.

In Oristano, on the island of Sardinia, Paola Medde, a nurse, was shocked after seeing pictures of Aylan. Using Facebook and Twitter, the mother of two called on the islanders to help migrants, including children.

She herself also confirmed that she was willing to adopt a child to Italy to seek asylum. Many Italians responded to Medde's proposal, including many mothers. In Turin, 40 families registered with the city government to take in immigrants.

Meanwhile, many Italian youth and students have responded to the call of the humanitarian organization "System for the Protection of Asylum Seekers and Migrants" (Sprar) and the Migrant Center of the city of Parma to take in North Africans and Middle Easterners fleeing war and poverty.

Sprar, who is currently helping 150 people of Syrian, Eritrean, Afghan and Iraqi origin who have come to Italy to seek asylum, is asking young people and students in the city to help their peers seek refuge in Italy.

Chiara Marchetti, in charge of this assistance project, told La Repubblica: "City residents as well as students interested in the project can help immigrants find a place in their homes, in dormitories, in the apartments where they are staying. Many people have signed up for this program and shown that they are willing to help people in such difficult situations."

Sprar will select a group of 20 young people and students to support the project, which has a very clear goal: to facilitate the integration of immigrants into life in Parma.

In exchange for free accommodation in Italian homes, migrants and asylum seekers in other countries are required to perform community work such as caring for lonely elderly people, volunteering in theaters, participating in neighborhood children's programs and taking Italian language courses.

In Portogruaro, Veneto region, northern Italy, locals have also facilitated the arrival of 54 new immigrants since last July.

The government arranged for these people to stay in a school and the people of this city not only helped them with meals, clothes and blankets, but also created conditions for them to form football teams, then arranged for them to participate in local amateur tournaments.

Veneto currently hosts more than 5,000 migrants and for the past two months the region's president, Luca Zaia, a politician from the anti-immigrant Northern League party, has stubbornly resisted the Italian government's demands to take in more asylum seekers.

Many local politicians have also spoken out against the request, arguing that the concentration of too many immigrants in the area could increase crime rates in the area, as well as affect tourism, which is one of the area's biggest sources of income.

Although anti-immigrant sentiment is growing in many places, including eastern Sicily, following the arrest of an Ivorian immigrant accused of killing an elderly couple, and in Rome, where anti-immigrant riots have occurred in residential areas, humanitarian movements are also beginning to take place in many places. Meanwhile, Italian politics continues to be divided and conflicted regarding this issue.

The Italian government has insisted that it will do its best to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants, while right-wing parties, especially the Northern League, in an effort to gain support from voters who are concerned about the worsening security situation, have repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the ruling Democratic Party (Pd) on this issue.

Since the beginning of the year, Italy has rescued and received nearly 120,000 immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East who arrived in the country by sea from ships departing from Libya.

The Italian Interior Ministry estimates that this year the number of people arriving in Italy by this route could reach 200,000.

Last year, Italy received 170,000 people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in the hope of building a new life. That is an unprecedented number./.

(According to Vietnam+)