CHRONOLOGY  

March 8 Foggia. In Borgo Mezzanone detention camp, 87 Egyptians try to prevent their deportation, destroying pieces of furniture and setting fire to some mattresses.

April 2002. Turin. The ‘carabinieri ‘cops’ try to stop an information initiative against deportations and to identify the participants. The latter refuse to hand in their documents claiming that they are all ‘clandestine’. When a heated altercation follows, a lot of immigrants show solidarity to the comrades and shout slogans against the cops. Since a fight is about to start, the ‘carabinieri’ cops withdraw, waiting for reinforcements. In the meantime, the ‘clandestine’ disappear.

May 2002. Turin. Unknown people storm an office of the Lega Nord party in the daytime, leaving anti-racist writing on the walls and damaging a few computers.

May-June 2002. Turin. ‘Four days against deportations’: public meetings, information points, a gathering in front of the offices of Alitalia (the air company responsible for deporting immigrants) and a march.

June 2002. Turin. A group of angry people invite the inhabitants of Porta Palazzo area not to put up with control technology and damage one of the many cameras that spy on the area.

June 8 2002. Foggia. 35 men from Maghreb escape from Borgo Mezzanone camp after attacking two ‘carabinieri’ cops who were on guard.

August 31 2002. Melendugno (Lecce). During the morning, some demonstrators interrupt and disturb a meeting of the municipal council with trumpets. They shout their contempt at the mayor who had banned a demo and an exhibition in San Foca (an area belonging to Melendugno council) against the detention camp ‘Regina Pacis’. Leaflets are distributed to the people outside.

September 4 2002. Trapani. Some immigrants who try to rebel in Serraino Vulpitta detention camp are violently beaten. The reason for the uprising is that the authorities wants to hold them for 30 more days in the camp, even if they have already been held for 15 days in Lampedusa detention camp. Another immigrant tries to commit suicide, hanging himself at the bars of the camp, after he hears that his brother has died. Exasperation causes immigrants to break out in anger: two immigrants cut their veins, another two are wounded. As an answer, the authorities lock them up in a cell and keep them from going out in the corridors.

September 21 2002. San Foca. Four men attempt to escape from Regina Pacis detention camp. After a fight with the ‘carabinieri’ cops, two fugitives are unfortunately recaptured.

November 3 2002. Monteroni (Lecce) Demo in front of the main church in the village, where archbishop Ruppi (one of the people responsible for the management of Regina Pacis camp) is celebrating a religious event. An exhibition about immigration is shown in the square, banners are opened up and leaflets are distributed. Finally, the archbishop gives up his intention to greet the crowd and runs off through the rear door to avoid walking in front of the demonstrators.

November 12 2002. Lecce. Around 7 pm a group of demonstrators gathers in front of the Prefect Office, where 11 Home Secretaries of the Adriatic-Ionic area are about to have a gala dinner. The next day, the same ministers are supposed to hold a summit to strengthen measures and develop a plan of ‘alert and rapid reaction against illegal immigration’. The demonstrators show their anger with whistles, trumpets, and megaphones. Road blockades are carried out sporadically and thousands of leaflets are distributed to passers-by and to drivers.

November 13 2002. Lecce. During a demo organised by the local Social Forum against the summit of the 11 ministers, a few irreverent demonstrators throw some rotten fruit and eggs at the cops, the journalists and the security service of the Social Forum.

November 14 2002. Agrigento. All the 95 people imprisoned in San Benedetto camp break out in revolt during the night. The immigrants also attempt to escape, by breaking down the armoured doors using pieces of furniture. A great number of cops are lined up outside. In the end, five immigrants, who are thought to be the organisers of the revolt, are arrested. Another immigrant is arrested for other reasons.

November 20 2002. Casarano (Lecce). Fifteen people burst into the hall where a conference is held and unfurl a banner against detention camps and deportations. The conference, organised by AN (the Italian fascist party), presents the ‘Bossi-Fini’ law (the racist law on immigration). MP Mantovano and priest Cesare Lodeserto are among the participants.

November 22. San Foca. Forty immigrants escape from Regina Pacis camp after a fight with the ‘carabinieri’ cops. Only seven of them succeed in gaining freedom. All the others are recaptured in the days that follow and are eventually violently beaten as a reprisal.

November 30 2002. Bologna. Three men try to escape from Via Mattei detention camp around 6.30 am. When they are stopped by the Red Cross staff, they set fire to the mattresses that are in the camp, another 37 immigrants follow their example. They also throw whatever they can, mainly TV sets, since the furniture is fixed to the floor. After a couple of hours, they are locked in the little sports ground, where they are held in the rain till the afternoon. The building is seriously damaged and 15 immigrants are later moved into jail.

March 2 2003. Bologna. At 10 pm, two immigrants attempt to scale a gate in order to flee from Via Mattei camp. They are captured by two ‘carabinieri’ cops and dragged inside a room. The other prisoners of the camp start shouting and throwing objects against the door where the two men have been taken. The latter are being harshly beaten by the cops, who receive information about the immigrants involved in the escape attempt from the responsible person from the Red Cross, who is the director of the camp. After a while, the cops and the director leave the room. When they come back, the cops have truncheons, shields and helmets. The immigrants have locked themselves inside a room, the cops break down the door and start brutally beating all of them. When they finally get out of the room, they throw tear gas canisters into it and close the door. Afterwards, they line all the other detainees up in the corridor and start beating everybody again, even those who are already wounded. Following the beating, twelve cops and a nurse from the Red Cross would be investigated. Seven of them would be cleared by judge Orazio Pescatore.

March 28 2003. Trapani. Taking advantage of the fact that the guards are not watching them (they are, in fact, busy with a tank track providing the camp with water), twelve immigrants manage to escape from Serraino Vulpitta detention camp. It is not the first successful escape attempt to happen in this detention camp for immigrants. Serraino Vulpitta camp, which was the first to be introduced in Italy, is infamous for the massacre that occurred on December 29, 1999, following a revolt and a fire, where six North Africa immigrants died. Leonardo Cerenzia, former prefect and director of the camp, was accused of multiple murders and of committing criminal negligence. A door was locked from the outside to prevent immigrants from being rescued from the fire (police claimed that they had lost the key).

April 3 2003. Modena. Seven immigrants, including a boy from Ghana who had previously attempted to flee without success, escape from the camp by passing through an air pipe.  38 immigrants have escaped from the camp since October 2003, 8 of them have fled from the hospital.

April 14 2003. Brindisi. Two young Rumanian women try to escape from Restinco camp. Only one is successful; the other hurts herself by falling from the wall that surrounds the camp.

April 26 2003. San Foca. Four Rumanians attempt to escape from Regina Pacis camp and beat two ‘carabinieri’ cops who try to stop them.

May 3 2003. A group of North African immigrants destroy the canteen of Regina Pacis camp in protest against their deportation notice. 8 carabinieri are injured.

May 10 2003. Lecce. Soon before the start of ‘Giro d’Italia’, the most important cycling event in Italy, some writing appears on the roads of the trajectory: ‘Free all Immigrants’, ‘Ruppi is a killer’.

June 11 2003. Lecce. The front door of the ancient baroque cathedral ‘Duomo’ is set on fire. On the walls these writings appear: ‘Free the Immigrants from the concentration camps’, ‘Ruppi and Lodeserto are criminal bastards’.

June 20 2003. Trapani. About 30 immigrants locked up in Serraino Vulpitta camp fight against the order which states that they must be moved to Regina Pacis camp and then deported. They throw objects at the ‘carabinieri’ cops, whose reaction is very harsh and brutal. 

June 29 2003. Turin. Two uprisings break out in Corso Brunelleschi camp, one during the night and the other during the afternoon. Both of them are caused by the decision to deport a group of immigrants. The cops react and violently beat the rebelling immigrants. In the end, two immigrants are injured and the place is full of broken glasses, burnt mattresses and various other damages.

In the same day, in Via Corelli camp in Milan, a group of immigrants who have been moved there from Bari Palese camp, go on hunger strike to protest against the rejection of their asylum request and the imminent deportation.

July 27 2003. A group of demonstrators enter Bari Palese camp by breaking the fence, which cause 20 imprisoned immigrants to escape.

July 28 2003. Turin. Outbreak and escape from Corso Brunelleschi detention camp: 11 immigrants manage to escape and gain freedom, another 11 are soon recaptured. At 1.30 am the immigrants scale an 8 meter high wall and run off. The escape occurs after a demo claiming the closure of the camp. During the visit of a few MPs, a revolt breaks out: some mattresses are set on fire and some fences are broken.

August 15 2003. Lamezia Terme (Catanzaro). 40 immigrants escape from the camp, but are soon stopped and beaten.

August 30 2003. Trapani. The ‘carabinieri’ section of Serraino Vulpitta camp is set on fire, following the beating of a very young detainee. After one hour, the section of police is also set on fire.

September-October 2003. Lecce. The local newspapers write about the many writings on churches and palaces against Regina Pacis and its management (Cesare Lodeserto and Francesco Ruppi) and for the freedom of all immigrants imprisoned there.

October 2003. Four attempted suicides in Regina Pacis have occurred in just 15 days.

November 8 2003. Lecce. In Lecce and Lequile two cash machines of ‘Banca Intesa’ (the bank that finances Regina Pacis) are set on fire and destroyed. In Lequile some bank notes are also burnt and the inside walls of the bank are damaged. A few leaflets against Regina Pacis are left on the spot.

November 9 2003. Lecce. Another cash machine of Banca Intesa is blocked with glue.

November 24 2003. Lecce. An Algerian prisoner in Regina Pacis attacks Lodeserto with a stick and injuries him.

December 3 2003. Calimera (Lecce). A lot of posters and writings against Catia Cazzato appear on the walls of the village. The woman is a doctor employed in Regina Pacis and is responsible for writing false reports about the beatings of immigrants, maintaining that the prisoners inflicted the injuries on themselves in order to try to escape from the camp.

December 12 2003. Agrigento. In San Benedetto camp, eight men from Maghreb have dug a hole in the wall for two days in an attempt of escape. Unfortunately, just as their work is ending, the noise they are making alerts the cops.