Migrants staying in a church in northern Italy should be transferred to facilities with access to better health care, two Italian rights organizations say. They say public authorities have a duty to support the parish, which cannot cope with the current virus measures.
The Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and Doctors for Human Rights (MEDU) published a statement on Tuesday, calling for migrants to be transferred from the Vicofaro parish in Pistoia to "government and non-government facilities that can ensure respect for the health and sanitary measures" amid the coronavirus emergency.
ASGI and MEDU want access to reception facilities "even for
people without a valid stay permit." Alternatively, the groups say authorities must ensure "minimum health and sanitary
standards for the people being hosted at Vicofaro."
Migrants in Vicofaro need support
The church of Father
Massimo Biancalani in Pistoia has provided a home for undocumented migrants who would otherwise have nowhere else to stay. Biancalani has allowed migrant to sleep in his church, providing them with beds and sleeping bags.
In a statement, ASGI and MEDU said Father Biancalani "courageously opened the parish's doors, offering people an
alternative to the street and providing a service to the entire
community."
They added: "Therefore, we feel that in such a delicate time, the situation at Vicofaro ... requires institutional support, given that it cannot cope with the health and sanitary measures required at this time."
The two associations said that they sent a joint letter to the prefect and the mayor of Pistoia as well as the governor of Tuscany
on March 25. They said that public authorities had a duty to set up "any appropriate hospitalization measures in suitable places for people who do not have a proper dwelling."