Italy’s migrant purgatory

 Ravenna

At a car park a short walk from Dante’s tomb, one of the gang of illegal immigrants who tell motorists where to park and hound them for cash agreed to talk to me for €20.

His name was Billy, he said, and he was 22. He was from Senegal and a Muslim. He had come to Italy by fishing boat 14 months ago from Libya, where he had arrived via Mali and Algeria. He paid €200 for the trip (the going rate is said to be at least €1,000) and his boat landed at Lampedusa, 160 nautical miles from Tripoli. ‘Why did you come?’ I asked. ‘In Senegal, no jobs,’ he replied. No war either, I pointed out: ‘You’re not refugees.’ ‘Yes, we are,’ Billy insisted. ‘Tribes are fighting in Senegal.’ Last week, this car park near Dante’s tomb became a national story when a woman police officer vented her frustration on Facebook. She had told one of the migrants to leave drivers alone, but he had refused. ‘There’s nothing you can do to stop me,’ he crowed. Her Facebook diatribe was undoubtedly racist. She now faces the sack. Billy had had nothing to do with it, he said, but he knew who had. ‘It was a Nigerian and we shouted him never come car park again. Senegalese not like Nigerians. Senegalese good people.’ I had never met a Muslim called ‘Billy’ before, so I asked him to write down his name. He couldn’t write. He spoke poor Italian, no English and — oddly for a Senegalese — no French. He makes seven or eight euros a day at the car park, he said. The police had fined him — it was unclear for what, exactly — a couple of times. Once, the fine was €400, which he had not paid.