Pozzalo

According to UNHCR, of the more than around 150,000 people who arrived in Italy by sea in 2015, over 16,000 landed at the port of Pozzallo. Most of those arriving there were from Eritrea, and were young.

The first reception centre (CPSA) in Pozzallo, in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, is set to become one of Europe’s “hotspots”. The centre was set up as a place of reception where migrants, refugees and asylum seekers could receive initial medical assistance, be identified and photographed, and where their intention to request international protection could be ascertained, before being transferred to other centres.

In December 2015, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced it would end its medical activities in the centre and its psychological support projects in the Province’s secondary reception centres, citing undignified and precarious conditions of reception, including overcrowding and a lack of legal information and protection, and raising concerns that a “totally inadequate” model of reception could become the norm for first reception in Italy.

Many very young people undertake a very hard journey to Italy in search of a future.

This report describes their first days in Italy, which result in their passage through the Cpsa, or first reception centre. Here the migrants and refugees are filed and clinically analysed and their future is decided.

The waiting time, which should only be 48 hours, turns into weeks due to inefficiency. Inside the centre there is not much, only sharing with hope the wait that binds them in knowing their future.