ROME // His dream was to forge a new life in Europe. But Samuel Appieh's hopes lie shattered after he was forced to flee from a town in Italy that has been wracked by the country's worst racially charged violence for decades. The 26-year-old Ghanaian was one of more than 1,000 mostly African immigrant workers who were evacuated for their own safety last weekend after two days of race riots in Rosarno, in the southern region of Calabria - at the tip of the toe of the Italian boot.
The violence has revealed a dark side to the land of Dante and Da Vinci, which was until recently culturally and racially homogenous but is now struggling to integrate around five million migrants from Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Eastern Europe. The clashes left nearly 70 people injured, including 19 police officers, 17 locals and 31 migrants - one of whom had to have emergency brain surgery after being struck on the head.
The trouble was sparked by a group of Italians shooting at some of the Africans with air rifles and pellet guns on the outskirts of Rosarno, a town of about 15,000 inhabitants in one of the most impoverished parts of Italy. Furious immigrants, who said they have spent years working in slave-like conditions, burned cars and smashed shop windows. Locals then retaliated by beating them with bars, trying to run them over and setting up barricades.
"If you are black and from Africa, Italians treat you like an animal," said Mr Appieh, one of an estimated 8,000 immigrants who work in Calabria, earning ?20 (Dh106) a day for picking oranges and tangarines. "We were angry - the same thing happened last year, and the year before that - Italians shooting at Africans." He had to be evacuated to an immigrant reception centre in the port of Bari, on the Adriatic coast and is still in shock. "If someone shoots a dog, they are sent to court. You can't just shoot a man and get away with it," he said.
The violence set off a furious debate about the country's treatment of the hundreds of thousands of legal and illegal immigrants from Africa and the Middle East who are paid rock bottom wages to do jobs that are shunned by Italians. Italians were shocked by photographs of the disused factories in which the Africans lived with no heat, light, running water or bathroom facilities. Many had pitched tents on the concrete floors of the abandoned buildings, while others were living inside the silos of an old oil factory, crawling in and out through a small hole.
Italy has been accused of hypocrisy in its treatment of immigrants - happy to exploit them in sectors where cheap labour is desperately needed, but failing to ensure that they live in humane conditions with adequate pay. Living conditions were "often worse than in refugee camps in Africa", said Alessandra Tramontana, a medical official with Médecins Sans Frontières."Everyone - the authorities and employers - is aware of the miserable conditions of these immigrants," said Loris de Filippi of MSF's Italian branch.
"Throughout southern Italy, illegal immigrants work for us in a situation that resembles slavery.There is widespread hypocrisy." Within hours of the Africans being evacuated, authorities moved in with bulldozers and started demolishing their makeshift homes, revealing a tangle of dirty mattresses, plastic buckets, rubber boots and items of clothing. In the national soul-searching that has followed, the Vatican weighed into the fierce debate, with its semi-official daily newspaper accusing Italians of being racist.
In an unusually forthright attack, L'Osservatore Romano said the violence towards farm labourers had revealed a "mute and savage hatred towards another skin colour that we thought we had overcome". Anti-racism protesters staged a demonstration in a piazza in Rome, carrying oranges covered in fake blood to symbolise the violence towards immigrants and their exploitation in Italy's citrus fruit harvests.
There was criticism, too, from abroad. In Geneva, the United Nations said the violence revealed "serious and deep-rooted problems of racism against migrant workers". Egypt condemned the attacks and voiced concerns about Muslims living in Italy. Hossam Zaki, the foreign ministry spokesman, criticised what he termed "a language of hatred" and alleged a "massive campaign of attacks" against immigrants.
"The latest violence is only one facet of the numerous violations that immigrants and ethnic minorities in Italy are exposed to, including Arab and Muslim minorities," he said. Italy's leaders reacted angrily to the suggestion that the country is inherently racist. The foreign minister, Franco Frattini, who this week went on a tour of several African countries, said: "No one can accuse us of racism."
A survey carried out by a respected daily newspaper, La Stampa, suggested that blanket accusations of racism were unfair. Nearly 50 per cent of respondents said that they felt more sympathy towards the immigrants than to the residents of Rosarno, who claim they treated the foreigners with kindness. The ugly scenes in Rosarno have also raised concerns about the part played in the whole system by Calabria's ruthless mafia, the shadowy Ndragheta, as the son of a local organised crime boss was among those arrested on suspicion of attacking the Africans.
Samuel Appieh, who back home in Ghana was an unemployed mechanic, hoped that Italy would be the Promised Land, after travelling across the Sahara and paying people traffickers $500 for the boat passage from Libya. Instead, he encountered deep prejudice when he reached Italy in September. "I can tell you, most Italians are racist. If we were allowed to work legally, we could pay taxes, we could give something back to Italy. But instead they treat us like animals."
* The National
