"I am a refugee, not a migrant who came here to work because I was facing hunger in my home country. I came here to find a safe place. I left my country because my life was in danger, this is why I asked for political asylum," said Maysoon Majidi to the press.

The Kurdish-Iranian activist was arrested on charges of being a people smuggler and released last October after ten months of reclusion. She answered the press's questions on November 30, before intervening at a venue organized at the concert hall of the Catanzaro Municipality.

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Hunger strike in prison, 'I lost 16 kg'

"Those who ask for political asylum have not lived easily in their home countries, for this reason when a person arrives the person should be shown greater consideration and not looked at with suspicion", said Maysoon.

She also discussed her experience in prison: "The first thing that you think about when you arrive in a democratic country is freedom. When I went on my hunger strike in prison it was because I had not been before the judge and I wanted someone to hear my story.

"I never met with an interpreter. I could not talk to my family. I went on the journey with my brother and I could not speak to him for two months. I knew nothing about anyone. I thought all the 77 persons who traveled with me had been arrested because I did not know the reason for my arrest. I lost 16 kilos. Today I only weigh 36 kilos and 600 grams after ten months in prison."

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Support of the municipality's administration of Catanzaro

The initiative that Maysoon participated in was titled "In Calabria, No One Is a Foreigner."

"This is the mission and fight of our administration," said Gianmichele Bosco, President of the Catanzaro Municipality Council. "In a few years, Calabria risks vanishing, according to emerging data. But we think it’s wrong to target 'dangerous criminals' like Maysoon. They invent terms like human smuggler, while the real smugglers -- those operating from other countries -- remain untouched. These are the people who must be stopped. Instead, certain policies from the right-wing point fingers at so-called 'smugglers' like Maysoon."

Several prominent figures joined the discussion, including the Councilor for Social Policies of the Municipality of Catanzaro Nunzio Belcaro, Secretary General of the Union Filcams CGIL Calabria Giuseppe Valentino, and Emanuele Pinto of the Free Maysoon Committee as well as Salvatore Falcone, penal expert in migration law and Maysoon's lawyer, Giancarlo Liberati.

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