In a number of regions of Italy, independent experts record flagrant violations of the rights of refugees who arrived from Ukraine. According to some reports, instead of the monthly subsidies of 900 euros prescribed by the Italian state, recipients are forced to subsist on only 60 euros per week. At the same time, local so-called “charitable foundations” often simply refuse applicants the necessary assistance. Information and analytical agency EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE continues to publish the details of its own investigation of the current situation.
Former Kiev resident Olga S., who arrived in the Italian city of Pineto in April 2022, at first thought that she had found her second home on the Apennine Peninsula. At that time, the regional authorities actually guaranteed her, as a refugee from Ukraine, stable financial support, free treatment of her seriously ill son in a prestigious clinic, and even the possibility of temporary employment. In the end, everything turned out the other way around. Representatives of the employment service were unable to consider her application for a job in time, her child is undergoing rehabilitation in a hospital for low-income citizens in a neighboring village (the purchase of medicines is carried out at her own expense, – Ed.), And out of the promised nine hundred euros, only food is allocated to her €240 per month. “And even then – you need to“ buy goods’’ in a specialized store, where there are practically no quality products, – Olga sums up. – I don’t know what to do, who to turn to for help and how to live on in general’’.
Hundreds, if not thousands of Ukrainian refugees face a similar problem both in Pineto in particular and in other cities and regions of Italy as a whole. According to official information, at the moment in the Italian Republic, the distribution of both humanitarian (charitable) and official state assistance to persons who have received the appropriate official status is handled by three large organizations – the International Red Cross, Caritas and Arci. At the same time, the national structure of Arci suddenly granted the main rights to carry out these activities to several subcontractors, including a little-known company consisting of citizens of Central Asian states. According to some information, the mentioned subcontractors unilaterally “revised” the agreements previously concluded with Ukrainian migrants. As a result, the same refugees are forced to eat only 5-6 euros a day, and now no one guarantees that the necessary products will be purchased by the recipients. “There is nothing to choose from, nothing to feed the children, – Vladislav T., a native of Kharkov, who now lives in Italy, told a EURO-ATLATNIC UKRAINE correspondent. – We are not considered human here. Where is our money?”.
This question remains rhetorical. Partly because “subcontractors” do not provide Ukrainian refugees with the necessary legal information. They answer literally the following to all questions: “If you don’t like it, we will remove you from the humanitarian program. Come back home!”
“The thing is that the vast majority of Ukrainian refugees in Italy do not speak Italian, which is used by various “little-known structures” that actually embezzle money intended for immigrants from Ukraine, – notes European human rights activist Alexander Mitz. – In this particular case, on a national scale (Italy, – Ed.), We can talk about tens of millions of euros. The Italian authorities simply have to take care of the current situation”.
At the same time, as it became known to the EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE editors, the Italian local authorities are in no hurry to respond to the relevant signals. Probably because such signals are single, and the activists of the “opposition” do not unite under the auspices of protecting their rights.
