Tensions have risen between Rome residents and migrants in the outskirts of the Italian capital. Alleged fighting between an Eritrean youth and local children led to some of the area residents going to the center housing migrants to punish him. An Eritrean youth was stabbed during the clashes.
On Wednesday, a street fight in the Tiburtino III area in the outskirts of the Italian capital between an Eritrean migrant and some children led to clashes between area residents and migrants staying at Red Cross facilities there. An Eritrean youth was stabbed in the back and has been hospitalized. There had been tensions before in the area around the Via del Frantoio.
From tension to violence
The incident happened during the night between August 29 and 30. Some of the residents say that the Eritrean youth argued with some of the local children and allegedly started throwing rocks at them. The mother of one of the children involved in the fight reportedly went to the Red Cross center to demand an explanation and said that she had been taken hostage by the migrants. After the woman asked for help, some of the residents say that they pulled her away forcibly and that the Eritrean migrant was stabbed in a moment of tension.
The youth currently hospitalized is expected to recover within a 30-day period. Police intervention prevented the situation from degenerating and the entrance to the Red Cross facilities is now guarded by police. Some of the area residents spent all of Wednesday outside the center in protest and moments of tension occurred when migrants entered and exited the facilities.
Difficult coexistence
After the incident, the prosecutor's office opened an inquiry for attempted homicide of the man injured and Carabinieri are seeking to understand exactly what happened. Those involved have given different accounts of the incident. ''I did not throw rocks at those children,'' the Eritrean youth said, who lives in a reception center in the outlying area of Tor Tre Teste while awaiting relocation elsewhere in Europe. Some of the others migrants have said that he is a ''good person''.
Pamela, the woman who went to the center, said that she had been ''taken hostage for an hour along with my 12-year-old nephew, dragged inside the center twice and hit. I was afraid I would be killed. There were about 50 of them.'' One of the migrants at the center said that ''they always blame us''. Meanwhile, the level of intolerance among residents has been rising. ''We are not racists, but we have had enough,'' some say, calling for the shutting down of the facilities.
''Go away. Go back to your country,'' one of them yelled. Two opposing protests were held in late June on whether or not the center should be able to remain in the area. The far-right movement Casapound had demanded the closing of the facilities while left-wing and migrant rights groups called for it to stay.