I visited the CARA in June 2015 and interviewed its director as part of a larger research project investigating systems of refugee reception in the Province of Foggia. The authorization process to enter the structure was troublesome; eventually, I was admitted to interview the director, while being strictly forbidden to speak with asylum seekers.
I observed three categories of occupiers.
Martina Manara Associate Researcher
First, there are refugees and holders of humanitarian protection awaiting the renewal of their permits to stay in the country. Of those issues handles it the local Questura, but in Foggia, bureaucracy is
often inefficient, causing long and repeated delays for several months.
In this way for refugees, the RUNWAY, the informal settlement next to the reception centre, becomes a place where they they can wait for the issuance of documents without incurring living expenses.
Second, there are regular and irregular migrants who settled in the runway permanently. they work as capo-negri (literally: black
chiefs) operating as an intermediary for Italian bosses by recruiting illegal workforces among
migrants in the runway and asylum seekers in the CARA.
Third, some temporary squatters move into the
runway to work throughout the agriculture season as tomato pickers. Temporary squatters are
the largest group in the settlement and they usually occupy overcrowded prefabricated
shelters and live in poor and precarious conditions.
Pinto Margharet