Press release

HUMANITARIAN PROTECTION - NICOTRA (UN PONTE PER): 'CANCELLING IT IS A FAVOUR TO THE MAFIA AND THOSE WHO EXPLOIT MIGRANTS'

Rome, 18 April 2023 - "Cancelling special humanitarian protection for people who risk their lives and freedom in their own country is an act unworthy of a civilised country that proclaims itself democratic. It is not true that - as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been repeating for days - there is no such protection in other EU countries. If anything, the opposite is true."

This was stated by the co-president of Un Ponte Per who is currently taking part in the presidium of the world of associations and solidarity that is taking place in Piazza Madonna del Loreto in Rome to protest against the 'Cutro decree'.

'The cancellation of special humanitarian protection,' Nicotra explains, 'will throw thousands of human beings into clandestinity and will certainly not stop the flow of people fleeing wars, persecution and famine. A red line is thus dangerously crossed, giving a gift to those who exploit black labour and to the criminal organisations towards which people deprived of protection will be pushed. This madness must be stopped."

"We know that the Cutro decree is the child of political choices that have seen, in past years, the criminalisation of migrants by governments of different political orientations. It is about breaking with a bankrupt line that has produced more insecurity for all and increased deaths at sea," concludes the Un Ponte Per co-president.