Immigrants’ Protest in Sardinia

Twenty seven immigrants of Asian and North African origin, staying at an agriturismo turned reception centre in Tonara, Sardinia, have staged a protest outside the main police station (the Questura, which as well as being a police headquarters will also house the immigration offices) in Nuoro, the regional capital, saying that at Tonara they are being treated like animals.

Tonara really is very remote, right in the middle of Sardinia, it is in the mountains 64 kilometers from Nuoro. Presumably the migrants were taken to Tonara, as they are being taken to places all over Italy, for their asylum applications to be processed. The agriturismo has been let, in effect, to Social Services.

‘We have already checked the house’, emphasises the acting vice prefect ‘We have spoken with the manager of the agriturismo and ourselves verified the conditions. The migrants all have refugee status: hot meals, clean beds, mobile phones, personal clothing and Skype (symbolic of the priorities of an Italian, even in central Sardinia!). ‘This protest surprises us . . . no one has complained before now, we suspect there are other motives, the case will be looked into further.’

Hardly surprising that the migrants are getting a bit frustrated, way out there in Tonara, and this is surely not going to be the first and only of these sorts of event, for the centres really are springing up everywhere, see also Rural Reception.

The article concerning the protest (in Italian) in La Nuova Sardegna, Nuoro edition.

Yesterday trenches and bayonets, today you expect an iPhone

‘Y esterday trenches and bayonets, today you expect an iPhone’, the slogan of a neo-nazi group in Rome, the subtlety of which is beyond me, anyway they chucked flour and eggs at a queue of people at the Apple store, who were waiting to get a first go at an iPhone6. I missed this story when it happened as, as it happens, I was in Zurich marvelling at the height, muscles, zoot suits and shiny shoes of the bouncers at the Apple store, controlling those queueing to get a first look at the iPhone6.

The shopping centre at the Porta di Roma seems to have been laxer on security than the Swiss – somewhat surprisingly, given the opportunity to wear a menacing suit and snarl.

Newspaper report (in Italian), here IPhone day a Roma, blitz di Blocco studentesco: uova e farina contro clienti in fila