Let’s start with the theme of the Festival: the Mediterranean, a crossroads of mafias, migrations and dreams.
«When we thought about this theme for the Festival (Here the complete program) we still had vivid in our eyes the images of the tragedy of Cutro, on the Ionian coasts. However, we did not think that, after a few months, an even greater tragedy would have occurred off the coast of Greece, bearing witness not only to the dramatic topicality of the issue of migrants but also to the need and urgency to address it”.
The center of everything is the Mediterranean.
«For centuries it has been considered the cradle of our civilization, the sea that united three continents, the place of fundamental exchanges for human development. But today it is a cemetery for those fleeing countries at war, the effects of climate change, the economic crisis and religious or political persecution. It demonstrates the inability of the West to build legal and transparent access routes that do not force people into illegality”.
What is the link with the mafias?
«The mafias in the Mediterranean have built solid relationships, not only from the point of view of the exploitation of human trafficking. This sea is now a crossroads where not only the destinies of people fleeing, whom we are unable to welcome, but also economies, strategies and alliances between criminal networks intersect».
Can you give us an example?
«Gioia Tauro is a very important port in the Mediterranean and at the same time one of the ports where the results of these criminal trafficking are increasingly intercepted. But that’s not all: during our Festival we will deal with the events of Malta and above all of Libya».
In the beginning it was Gaddafi, then Erdogan: human trafficking is increasingly a political tool. Is financing the countries of the southern shore to “retain” people the solution?
«Not at all, on the contrary: it’s part of the problem. Also due to the nature of the interlocutors, it has proved to be a bankruptcy strategy that risks supporting totalitarian regimes or real criminal gangs, as happened with the disintegration of Libya after the ouster of Gaddafi. We only end up granting them a weapon of blackmail always aimed at the port countries. We need to deeply rethink this approach.
As?
«During the Festival we will talk about it at length and from different perspectives through, for example, the presentation of specific books, the meeting with the NGOs that operate daily at sea in search and rescue operations for the shipwrecked and the dialogue with political and institutional interlocutors , including the magistrates who investigate these events. The goal is to take stock of the situation, going beyond propaganda and simplistic visions, developing different solutions”.
You will also host realities already active in the reception sector, precisely on the occasion of World Refugee Day.
«This year, for the first time, the Festival is extended by a day by hosting tonight (20 June 2023, ed) an event dedicated precisely to World Refugee Day in which all the Lametino associations, secular and Catholic, gather to think about the theme of hospitality».
A welcome that has been unjustly criticized in recent years, starting with the Riace case.
«In recent years, Lamezia Terme and Calabria have been a positive example of good hospitality. Just think of the experience of Riace and many other small municipalities that have opened their abandoned villages and uninhabited houses to hospitality. In an attempt not only to provide accommodation but to build a new community together with the immigrants based on coexistence with the local population, on job opportunities and relationships. All this despite a stubborn persistence that has tried to transform these experiences into what they were not, recounting them in a different way, while they are virtuous examples».
Stories that however coexist with others, such as those of the Municipality of Campobello of Mazara where Matteo Messina Denaro was a fugitive for years and who in the last month distinguished himself for the eviction of two former factories where the seasonal immigrant workers employed in the surrounding fields lived – in degrading conditions.
«Personally, I have known similar experiences up close in the Piana di Gioia Tauro, between Taurianova and Rosarno for example, where these people live in conditions bordering on the bearable. However, every time, it seems that this is an emergency when instead they are situations that have been going on for decades: it’s been since the death of Jerry Masslo (the South African refugee killed in the Caserta area in 1989 by a criminal gang, ed) that we always talk about the same things ».
Situations in which criminal organizations then thrive.
«It is a fact that agriculture in our country needs seasonal foreign labour, which it systematically resorts to, and it is a fact that these people move periodically from one area to another. It would be more logical, humane and appropriate to manage the phenomenon legally, to protect workers. Keeping them in such precarious conditions instead pushes them more and more into the hands of criminality, which exploits them in one way or another: either with illegal hiring or through harassment of various kinds”.
Thus it risks becoming a problem of public order.
«These people suffer harassment of all kinds but then when they react, as happened with the revolts of Rosarno and Taurianova, a dangerous mechanism is triggered. There is no doubt that the local authorities, the regions and the national government, which has precise responsibilities on this issue, should all do more and do much differently».
Should we have established channels of legal entry?
«The prevailing choices of the last few decades have forced thousands of people into a state of illegality, who if they had had another chance would have entered our country legally or would have obtained legal recognition of their stay in Italy. Many hypotheses have been made in this regard, such as the temporary work permit ».
Would this be enough to counter the phenomenon of clandestine immigration?
«The condition of clandestinity is not a choice of those who enter Italy, but it is imposed by those who do not want these people to enter and push them into illegality. The important thing is never to close your eyes.’
The problem of the mafias seems less present in public opinion.
«There is a weakening in the attention and in the contrasting action. The idea that, fortunately, blood no longer flows in the streets and that there are no excellent victims makes criminal organizations perceived as less dangerous and present and instead today they are very present and have not given up on violence. They have set it aside and resort to it as often as necessary for their business.’
Have they changed their skin compared to the massacre season?
«They have adapted to the new times and so must the community in law enforcement action. In the 2023 edition of our Festival, in which the 30th anniversary of the attempt to export the massacres from Sicily to the rest of Italy falls and in which Matteo Messina Denaro, the most important fugitive remained of that season, was arrested, we intend to deepen the legacy of that strategy, which luckily failed. But this hasn’t stopped the mafia organizations, which still aim at major illicit trafficking, public procurement and the opportunities offered by the Pnrr. This is why we want to keep our eyes peeled and we stubbornly continue to put our finger on the wound».
As?
«This year we have taken a step forward, which will make its debut on the last day of the Festival when we will present a newborn network of demonstrations against the mafia. We have put together our “Trame – Mafia Book Festival” in Lamezia Terme with “Restart! – Festival of anti-mafia creativity and rights”, held in Rome; “Noi contro le mafia”, which takes place mainly in the Reggio Emilia area, passing through the work on the territory of “Avviso Pubblico” in Mantua; and “LegalItria”, in Puglia. It is an open network, which we have called “Piazze connection” and for which we have chosen a common reading taken from a book by Giacomo Di Girolamo a few years ago, paradoxically entitled “Against the anti-mafia”. The provocative idea is that in order to strengthen and make anti-mafia more effective, the latter must change, adapt to the new challenges. And we are committed exactly in that direction».
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