| Sad plight of Nigerian exiles living as third class citizens in Italy |
| Wednesday, November 01, 2006 |
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Deborah Gabriel |
Many Africans from Niger Delta have migrated to Europe
Sylvester Igbirobo Ukusare
 The political system back home is not stable. The government is too dictatorial and not democratic. This is the reason that many of us are staying behind.
Sylvester Igbirobo Ukusare, Secretary General of NANNDN
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Many Nigerians from the Niger Delta region moved to Europe to escape unemployment and corruption Many Nigerians from the Niger Delta region moved to Europe to escape unemployment and corruption at home, but those in Italy are not faring much better, as Sylvester Igbirobo Ukusare told Black Britain.
Twenty four years ago Ukusare went to Italy to study and is a graduate in contemporary philosophy. He intended to return to Nigeria after completing his degree but was deterred by the political situation. He told Black Britain:
“The political system back home is not stable. The government is too dictatorial and not democratic. This is the reason that many of us are staying behind,” he explained.
Ukusare told Black Britain that himself and many other ‘exiles’ in Italy are put off from returning to Nigeria because of insecurity, unemployment and corruption: “There is no employment, the money is not circulating – it’s circulating within the few. How can 90 per cent of the citizens be poor and just 10 per cent are fine?”
According to Ukusare, because of this many Nigerians are living in Europe and will not return to Nigeria until there are positive signs of change. He also said that the situation in the Niger Delta was also a major factor in Nigerians from the Niger Delta leaving the country: “Many of the Nigerians in Italy, just like in London – they are all from the Niger Delta, they are from the South,” he said.
Today, Ukusare is Secretary General of the National Association of Nigerians Niger Delta Natives in the Diaspora (NANNDN) and campaigns of behalf of “repressed” Africans living in Italy. He told Black Britain: “The mission of our organisation is to unite Africans from the Niger Delta, other parts of Nigeria and the African continent, in order to protect our civil rights.”
Ukasare has written many articles and confronted the Italian authorities about their actions towards immigrants, but not without repercussions: “I personally was being intimidated by the authorities,” he said, adding: “I was told ‘if you want to condemn our system go back to your country; this is not your country.’ I have been in Italy for 24 years but we have no rights here.”
For Nigerian immigrants living in Italy, it could well be a case of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire.’ In a country which is politically geared to the far right, attitudes towards immigrants border on the fascist and with former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi being ordered to stand trial on corruption charges, is it any better than Nigeria?
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Sad irony of Nigerians living as third class citizens in Italy
Ukusare says the system in Italy appears to favour prostitutes
I was told ‘if you want to condemn our system go back to your country; this is not your country.’ I have been in Italy for 24 years but we have no rights here.
Sylvester Igbirobo Ukusare, Secretary General of NANNDN
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Ukusare said that Africans in particular are treated like aliens and are officially referred to as “Estra communitario” meaning foreigners, or people from another planet. He said: “This expression alone tells you that the system is racist.”
He told Black Britain: “The way we are being treated here is beyond human dignity.” According to Ukusare, foreigners are denied the right to participate in the democratic process, a right reserved for citizens. Even those individuals who become nationalised are intimidated not to vote against the government.
“You are not really free, you don’t have your liberty,” he said. There are no African representatives in Parliament and Ukusare told Black Britain that there are no Africans in prominent positions within Italian society.
He said that Africans are frequently intimidated by the police and are not free to move around within society. State permits that allow immigrants to live in Italy restrict them to unstable and unskilled work: “We have no freedom of movement here or freedom of expression,” Ukusare told Black Britain.
Racial abuse is not uncommon. Ukusare said Africans are called “monkeys” and often ridiculed as streets sellers trying to earn a living. “They refer to us blacks as delinquents; they don’t regard us as even human beings,” he said.
Italy is a destination point for human trafficking where many Nigerian women end up working as prostitutes. But Ukusare told Black Britain that it is not only Africans who are culpable, but the system in Italy exploits the situation.
He claimed that prostitutes from Nigeria are given passports and citizenship ahead of people who have legitimately been in Italy for a long period of time: “They have more respect for them that those of us who have studied here,” he said. Ukusare referred to a “mafia-type movement” controlling the trafficking and management of prostitutes from Nigeria to Italy.
Yet at the same time in recent weeks 150 Nigerians were deported. Ukusare said that a frequent tactic used by the authorities is to withdraw the state permit which requires a new application where the individual is treated as a new arrival and therefore does not have any political rights.
According to a new immigration report Beyond Alternation , at the end of 2005 there were just over 3 million immigrants in Italy; two out of 10 foreigners are Africans, with Moroccans forming the largest African group.
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