"We asked the institutions of the Italian Republic to take their share of responsibility for Silos," said Domenico Costa at a press conference on March 4, speaking on behalf of the Co-op Alleanza 3.0's board of directors.

The co-op owns the Silos ex-warehouse area, a run-down facility near the Trieste train station occupied by hundreds of asylum seekers who arrived via the Balkan route.

After failing to obtain shelter in the city's public facilities for migrants, these individuals set up at Silos, where they are currently living in precarious health and hygiene conditions.

Co-op calls for a better solution

"All the actions Co-op Alliance 3.0 implemented during the last two weeks and months are aimed at the safeguarding of migrants," said Costa. The co-op, he said, is calling for the establishment of a better living solution for them. This is the job of the public institutions, not the co-op, he added.

He said the co-op "has always tried to support migrants" but cannot solve the problem on its own. The co-op, he continued, is currently trying to sell the Silos property to the city.

According to ICS, the emergency is 'fabricated'

Last month, the president of the Italian Consortium for Solidarity (ICS), Gianfranco Schiavone, called the Silos situation "a fabricated emergency".

According to Schiavone, "the number of arrivals remains very low in Trieste...on average four people a day."

He called the lack of adequate housing for migrants in Trieste "an unacceptable administrative malfunctioning on the part of the government and of the Ministry of the Interior."

"The Italian State cannot say it is unable to shelter four people a day," he said.