Per la libertà di movimento, per i diritti di cittadinanza

A general indemnity act is needed, not only in order to find manpower in agriculture

On Thursday, April 9th thousands of e-mails were sent to the Government and to Italian prefectures, urgently demanding a general indemnity act for more than 600.000 people lacking a permit of stay and currently living in Italy.

The mail bombing has been the first action of a wider campaign started by a call which involved many participants, including many organizations and individuals of the “We are here – indemnity now” campaign platform, who are also demanding indemnity for ongoing proceedings (for those who have expired, expiring or temporary permits of stay) and an end to the expulsions, detentions in return centres (CPR) and current or foreseen removal procedures.

The campaign is proceeding in these days with several virtual initiatives, such as the publishing of pictures of signs and messages supporting the demand of the indemnity, and pictures of the stories of those facing obstacles and hard conditions and living deprived of any right.

The more time goes by, the more social unequalities emerge: everyday we get more contacts by those facing both health and economic emergency. They tell us they have no documents, they have lost their jobs and have no food or money for supplies, and they ask us what they can do in order to become “regular” and survive the lockdown.

The “We are here – indemnity now”campaign expresses strong opposition to any proposal that does not include a general, unconditioned indemnity, thus it refuses any proposal about an indemnity achieved through the release of a permit of stay due to natural disaster.

This permit of stay would be functional only to find manpower in agriculture: it is a six months permit, limited to emergency and impossible to convert into a permit of stay for work. The only result would be to preserve the current system of exploitation of migrant labour, while overwhelming at the same time the relevant departments with short term proceedings.

To denounce this absurdity and explain the reasons of a general indemnity, an online press conference is convened on Wednesday April 15th, 11 a.m.

The conference can be followed live on the FB page “Siamo qui – Sanatoria subito
Info: [email protected]