by Alessandra Cardone
ROME, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Despite worsening weather conditions in the Mediterranean, the influx of migrants and refugees to Italy has showed no signs of decreasing and the country's capital city is struggling to cope with it.
Over 168,300 people have arrived by sea in the country by Nov. 20 this year, a figure which already exceeds the total 154,000 registered in 2015, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Hundreds of them are stranded in Rome.
Authorities in the Italian capital set up a network of reception centers, but there were not enough available places to house everyone.
An emergency shelter was created by volunteers within the Baobab Eritrean cultural center last year. It assisted over 60,000 people between June 2015 and November 2016, according to the organizers.
Then authorities shut down the center in Dec. 2015 and many housed there started to look for makeshift shelters across the city. In the end, they gathered in the area east of Tiburtina train station, a major transport hub in Rome. Volunteers who had assisted them at the Baobab center followed them.
"Since we have moved here some four weeks ago, we have assisted 100 to 200 people a day on average," Viola Deandrade Piroli, a volunteer for Baobab Experience, told Xinhua.
"Most of them are young adult men, but there are some women, and a few unaccompanied minors."
Volunteers would bring three meals a day and clothes offered by citizens and shop owners, while doctors would provide free medical aid. Yet, winter has arrived, and nights are getting cold.
"The major problem now is that these people are sleeping on the street," Deandrade Piroli explained.
Migrants had first tried to take shelter under a platform roof, but they were cleared away by railway officials, according to the volunteer.
"Then, they moved to an underground parking lot of the station, which had been renovated but never opened...After a few nights, the police cleared them out again, and walled up all entrances to the parking lot," she said.
The majority of people in Tiburtina came from Eritrea. As such, they would belong to one of the nationalities currently eligible for relocation within the European Union (EU), which means the chance to be transferred legally and under humanitarian protection to live in another European country.
Others, like Yusuf Mussa, 35, came from Ethiopia.
"I have been here at Tiburtina station for nine days now," the man said.
He said he had taken refuge in the facility of the Baobab center for a while last year, soon after arriving to Italy by sea, and then moved to Germany.
"My uncle lives and works legally there, so he could help me...I had also taken a German language course on the Internet for some three months when I still was in Ethiopia, to be ready to get a job as carpenter," he said.
Yet, soon after he had arrived in Germany, the police brought him back to Italy, because here was where he had been fingerprinted. The little money he had saved after the sea crossing was gone in the trip to Germany.
"My last chance is to ask for asylum here in Italy, and I have already taken an appointment at the police headquarters. Meanwhile, I have no warm place to spend the nights."
Since the closure of the Baobab facility, volunteers and civil associations have lobbied the municipality to set up a new first reception center large enough to host all migrants and refugees transiting in Rome. Meetings have been going on for some months, but the municipality has not yet taken a final decision.
Meanwhile, a group of legal professionals volunteered to provide counselling and assistance with bureaucratic procedures. Having to deal with stranded people, however, made their job harder.
"Our major problem is to make them understand that it is extremely difficult now to pass borders if you are illegal and have no papers. The situation is very different from last year," said Valentina Brinis with the legal support network for Baobab.
They explain to people how to become legal in Italy, and how to move legally across Europe, she added.
"Many times, we spend an entire afternoon or night speaking to some stranded migrants (near Tiburtina station). Then, the day after, they are gone...moved to another place across the city that is maybe just less cold."
"That is why, from our point of view, it would be much easier if the city authorities provided a first reception center to house all the people, and in which we could operate."
