The movement born out of the community and the work on legal assistance of Ex OPG, jumps into the needs and necessities of the migrant community that are raised during assemblies.
The goal was at the beginning to mostly help young boys who needed to get out of the immigration reception facilities due to the bad conditions. Little by little two parts of the movement have grown and stabilized, the legal assistance for documents and work and the political movement, the first has the goal to ensure free and accurate assistance to migrants in need, and the second to self-organise workers with the same urges. The campaigns and practices started and initiated by MMRN all come out of assemblies that function as a signaling place where the needs of the community are expressed. The goal is therefore also adjusted to the new needs of the community.
The community and people assisted are mostly composed of Africans ( western and northern) and South Asian people. The first category is mostly for the residence and asylum documents, the other (especially Srilankan, who are the most numerous foreigners in the city) for work permits.
Recently the group of Nigerian women and LGBTQI+ migrants has increased the group, especially the trans women from North Africa and South America are a vulnerable group that needs extra attention from the community. Some cases have come to our helpdesk of young African boys, mostly minors, forced into prostitution to obtain drugs.
Women assisted are mostly victims of human trafficking, this had made it necessary to open a legal desk specific for women run by women and to organise specific assemblies only composed of women to talk about their needs. They have shown incredible strength during the last demonstrations leading the parade.
Talking about the gender perspective, men are focused on documents and work (in order to keep on having the residence permit). Women as they are in general speaking more vulnerable are looking for ways to be (in our perspective not as much as they need) safeguarded. However, the status of refugees that generally all of them receive is the result of hours of meetings, persuading them to not fear the people they work for. Health care for women is in particular concerning and difficult to arrange. Issues with all the sickness related to the forced work of prostitution, the help for access to abortion, and the help for their babies have a heavy load on the organising teams. The relationship we have built with the anti-trafficking agency makes it possible for many of them to enter a specific path for a change of life.
In procedures to obtain different kinds of documents that will lead the migrant's access to the needs, almost all institutions are involved, from police to Italian administrations, schools, posts, hospitals, etc.. Most of the procedures would be easy if the authorities would know the law of access to these services, or were equipped with cultural mediators. That makes the struggle for migrants' rights constant and widespread. Of course, here we can divide into two kinds: Alter out of Ego: the ones we fight alongside and the ones we fight with. In the first almost all the local and national bodies, on the other side, associations, labors, committees.
Every victory comes from the fight. We can describe the action points this way: Legal assistance: hearing the problems of the persons in need, identify those which can be resolved for the biggest amount of people.
Assemblies: starting from the ones just with the militants (to understand if there is a chance for a mass demonstration) and then enlarge to the plenary assembly. Demonstration: show up a large group of people organized and motivated who have reasonable proposals.
Result: we win (hopefully) or we lose.
Making it possible for hundreds to get theìr residence permits, or assisting them through all the different procedures about documents or other kind of stuff (asking no money) has made the movement recognizable at a local and a national level.
The community grown around the movement has created a stable home for all those who need help or want to carry on a struggle against exploitation and racism.
Always make the practical and the political levels walk together:
The help desk would be simple humanitarian aid without a movement that through moments of political mobilisation has snatched victories (ex: privileged interlocutions with some institutions,etc..) But it as well important to remember that no victory is permanent and requires a constant effort to not lose what we have won.
Writer: Maurizio Coppola- Dario Esca- Abdul Kadir Monaco Abdullahi Omar