Freespot – Vallecrosia – 24-25 February

Posted on 2016/03/11 by contrabbandieridifiori

We arrived a bit shyly to the Freespot. We were hungry and tired after a day of driving. We didn’t know what to expect, or if anyone would be there. We were standing outside the door, in front of a glass window covered by brown paper, wondering what to do. Just then, a boy and a girl came out to light a cigarette and welcomed us warmly.20160226_121752

There was a meeting scheduled, but it was getting delayed because some people were stuck in other activities, such as bringing food and covers to the migrants at the train station. In the meantime, we told a bit about our trip and we tried to understand what they do and what happened in the past.

Some of the activists are in the area since last summer’s No Borders camp, which was destroyed by Italian authorities on September 30th. There were some violent fights against the police, and I guess that might have caused some divisions in the group. Eight activists got the foglio di via, which means that they would occur in problems with the police if found within the municipality area. Finally, this group decided to rent a place in the next town: Vallecrosia. This is Freespot, where we are now.

Some of the local population are supportive, taking clothes or stopping by for a chat, but some others look suspiciously at this bunch of young people hanging around migrants. The unknown is scary and the issue became a media drama-story: this is why it is important to create integration. Freespot organised a movie projection with discussion and a free school for migrants (which opened the day before we arrived). They hope it will become an exchange: Italian classes held by local volunteers, and Arab classes held by migrants, for example. They might organise a clothes swapping event too, to show that solidarity is not only for migrants but for everybody.

A few hours later, the meeting started. For us, it was a great opportunity to understand better who they are, what they do and what they aim to do. Everybody was a bit tired so the actual discussion about the identity of the group was rescheduled for Sunday. It is a heterogeneous group of people coming from different backgrounds: some fighting against injustices for a long time, some new to the experience. They will decide if they want to be part of an extended network helping migrants around Europe: from Greece to Lampedusa to Calais. This would involve adhering to three principles: monitoring, information to migrants and reception. Freespot is now ready to open, so they are looking for ways to bring the migrants there without incurring problems with the police. They plan to do a comunal dinner every Friday (or maybe more often? We’ll see!) so that people can discover the place, and come back if they need more help.

20160226_122055This group of motivated young people impressed me. They are so passionate by what they are doing and spending a lot of their time to help other people, expecting nothing in return. Actually, in return they often have to face the police, because even simple humanitarian actions like taking food to people stuck at the train station is now illegal. The meeting went on for hours and the activists, as tired as they were, still tried to listen to everybody’s opinion, not to interrupt each other and get to some conclusions. The discussion was not structured or moderated by anyone, but the ones with more experience tended to explain things to the newer ones or summarize the debate at times. I admired them because for me it would be so challenging. Never ending meetings are the main reason that always kept me from engaging deeply in any activist group. I like to go straight to the action, but I realise the debate is really important and it requires patience to coordinate actions of different people!

There would be so much to say. About the situation of migrants, who get ping-ponged from one nation to the other, who get dehumanised by the law and who keep fighting to decide about their own lives. Or about the police, that carries on controls across the borders based on the colour of skin (you are black? You get off the train! Later we’ll check if you have documents or not…), keeps the migrants in containers and indicts volunteers who are just expressing their solidarity – being human. And about the network of solidarity of people across the borders, about the demonstrations and the camp which was born spontaneously on the rocks in Ventimiglia last summer.

But I’d better let you hear directly from the people who are living this first hand:

 

 

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