EXODI. Migratory Routes from Sub-Saharan Countries to Europe | Medici per i Diritti Umani

EXODI. Migratory Routes from Sub-Saharan Countries to Europe

The interactive web map is built on the testimonies of 1.000 migrants from Eritrea, Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Sudan and other Sub-Saharan Countries. Five major routes are described from West Africa and the Horn of Africa to Europe passing through Algeria, Libya and Egypt. Among the factors that lead to migration, less than one migrant out of ten, is pushed by economic reasons. Regardless of their motivations, all migrants face dramatic conditions in crossing the desert and the Mediterranean. Nine out of ten witnesses were victims of intentional violence, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment in the country of origin and/or along the migration route. The psychological consequences of these extreme traumas are often more insidious and debilitating than physical injuries: a “hidden epidemic” to which asylum countries, must provide answers on the health, social and cultural level.

Exodi

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Rome, 13th September 2016 – Medici per i Diritti Umani/Doctors for Human Rights Italy (Medu) presented today at the Foreign press center in Rome EXODI. Migratory Routes from Sub-Saharan Countries to Europe.

EXODI is an interactive web map built on the testimonies of 1.000 migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa collected in nearly three years of activity (2014-2016) by the operators and volunteers of Medici per i Diritti Umani/Doctors for Human Rights Italy (Medu). They are part of those 730 thousand men, women and children landed on Italian shores in the last 15 years, of which more than half in the last 32 months. The map describes in the simplest and detailed way the Migratory Routes from Sub-Saharan Countries to Italy, the difficulties, the violence, the tragedy and hopes encountered during the trip by the protagonists. This map is addressed to all those who want to understand and deepen the human experience marking our time. In this sense, EXODI is not only a map showing the stages and paths, as well as a report with data and statistics, but above all, a testimony that describes life stories. It is an interactive and in progress web map that will be continuously updated with new testimonies gathered from all those who will share the story of their own journey.

The information was collected in Sicily (in the Centres of Special Reception for Asylum Seekers/CAS of Ragusa and in the Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers/CARA of Mineo) and in Rome (in informal reception centres and at Medu Psychè Centre for rehabilitation of victims of torture). Testimonials were also collected in Ventimiglia and Egypt, specifically in Aswan and Cairo. In all these places Medu’s work guarantees social and health support to migrants, first medical assistance as well as medical and psychological rehabilitation services for victims of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. Through updated data EXODI aims also to describe the physical and mental consequences of the journey on the health of an entire generation of young Africans; a journey in which, as a witness said, “you are no longer considered a human being”.

On 1.000 migrants assisted and interviewed by MEDU, 870 are men and 130 are women, the average age is 26 years. Among these migrants, 133 were minors and nearly all have been met at informal settlements in Rome. All the migrants interviewed in Sicily were asylum seekers hosted by institutional centres, while in Rome and in Ventimiglia, the migrants were mainly migrants in transit towards other European countries and in Egypt, the migrants were mainly refugees and detained migrants. The majority of the migrants in Sicily were coming from West Africa, while in the other places they were coming from the Horn of Africa.

Among migrants from the Horn of Africa, and particularly from Eritrea, the main reason for migrating is the indeterminate compulsory military service, a system equivalent to forced labor. The factors that push to migration from the West African sub-Saharan countries are far more heterogeneous; among the people interviewed by Medu, the first cause is still political persecution and economic reasons are quoted only by 10% of migrants. Without doubt, most of them – like Eritreans fleeing from a dictatorship – are running away of a set of tragic circumstances which often represent a threat to their life itself. On the other hand, in the last few years, a progressive increase of denials of international protection requests (62% in 2016), could be observed in Italy, among which the main nationalities of applicants, are several countries of West Africa such as Nigeria, Gambia, Mali and Senegal.

The main route from West Africa goes through Niger and Libya reaching Italy via the Strait of Sicily (Western-East route). The average duration of the journey from the country of origin is 20 months. The average time of stay in Libya is 14 months. The North African country represents for migrants from West Africa, a place to live and work for a certain time, even if in terrible conditions. The main route from the Horn of Africa goes through Sudan and Libya reaching Italy via the Strait of Sicily (Eastern-central Route). The average duration of the journey from the country of origin is 15 months. The average time of stay in Libya for migrants from the Horn of Africa, the majority of them from Eritrea, is 3 months. Ethiopia and Sudan are the countries where Eritrean migrants remain longer. The routes are operated by a diverse and complex set of smugglers and traffickers. The sums paid by migrants to tackle these routes, generally higher from the Horn of Africa, can vary greatly because there are many contingencies and variables that may affect the timing and the cost of the trip. For example, the possibility to switch from a transit home to a place of kidnapping or to a prison in passing through countries like Libya, Niger and Sudan is very high.

The extreme traumas like torture and the repeated violence is a tragically common experience along the journey from Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. More than 90% of the interviewed migrants said that they had been victims of extreme violence, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment in the country of origin and/or along the migration route, particularly in detention and abduction places in Libya. Deprivation of food and water, poor hygienic condition, frequent beatings and other kinds of blunt trauma are the most common and widespread forms of ill-treatment. There are also more specific forms of torture, both physical and psychological. Nine out of ten migrants said they had seen someone die, be killed, tortured or severely beaten

In the reception centers in Sicily (Mineo, Ragusa), 82% of asylum seekers followed by medical-psychological team of Medu (162 patients) still had physical signs consistent with the reported violence. In addition to physical signs there are often more insidious and debilitating psychological and psychopathological consequences. Among the mental disorders most frequently detected by doctors and psychologists of Medu, there are post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other disorders related to traumatic events but also depressive disorders, somatization related to trauma, anxiety disorders and sleep disorders. When Shiva, 10 years from Liberia, draws the sea, she always colors it with black, as for her, who survived a shipwreck to reach Europe, the Mediterranean is now only death and pain. Often these disorders receive less attention than physical illnesses, are ignored or late diagnosed. This not only involves chronicity and worsening of the clinical case, but causes serious difficulties in the integration path of migrants in countries of asylum. This phenomenon is causing today in Italy a sort of hidden epidemic that need adequate answers on the health, social and cultural level.



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Medici per i Diritti Umani/Doctors for Human Rights Italy (MEDU) is a humanitarian independent organization. Since 2006 MEDU provides medical aid and socio-sanitary guidance to refugees living in precarious conditions through different programs. The project “ON TO: Stopping the torture of refugees from Sub-Saharan countries along the migratory route to Northern Africa” is funded by the European Union, the Open Society Foundations and Oxfam Italy and implemented in Italy (Sicily and Rome) by Medici per i Diritti Umani (MEDU and in Israel by Hotline for Refugees and Migrants (HRM) and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR). The purpose of the project is to enhance the identification and rehabilitation of victims of torture and ill treatment through direct provision of psychological and psychiatric assistance and to build a wide-ranging awareness campaign, to inform the public and relevant authorities in Italy and Europe on the issue of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment along the migratory routes from Sub-Saharan countries to Italy.




Document type: Press releases, Report