Fuga dalla Cina - Centinaia di cristiani cinesi arrivano in Italia per chiedere asilo religioso

By Cecilia Ferrara and Xavier Plagaro Mussard. Between 2015 and 2016, the toll-free number for asylum seekers, run by Arci and ANCI (National Association of Municipalities), began receiving strange calls from Chinese citizens who wanted to know how to apply for religious asylum and wanted a non-Chinese interpreter to communicate with the operators. These are Christians from the so-called "house churches," evangelical or Pentecostal churches held in the homes of the faithful, where a maximum of ten people gather to pray and sing. In China, however, one can only profess one's faith within official churches that fall under the Three-Self Patriotic Movement or the China Christian Council, while Catholics must belong to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Anything that does not fall within these associations—especially if it involves proselytism—is considered by the Chinese government to be an "evil cult" and must be prosecuted. According to accounts from Chinese Christians arriving in Italy, there is an incident, a murder in a McDonald's, that marks the beginning of a much more intense persecution against evil cults, particularly the Church of Almighty God, the strongest sect. According to Chinese media, a man and a woman in a McDonald's in Shandong killed another woman because she refused to give them her phone number. According to official reports, these two belonged to the Almighty God, and the murder was an example of their brutal proselytizing methods. Of course, Christians claim this was a fabricated incident by the Chinese Communist Party to discredit them. They arrived in Italy en masse in 2015 and 2016, from 84 in 2014 to over 800 in 2016 (data from the Ministry of the Interior). Some pass through asylum centers, but most find homes through their fellow countrymen. They typically work with other Chinese in restaurants or shops but never reveal their Christian origins and therefore never show their residence permits, which are supposed to be for asylum seekers. The first time two Chinese women ended up at a center run by the NGO A Buon Diritto, they used Google Translate to translate their request into "I'm looking for a religious asylum," says Valentina Brinis of "A Buon Diritto." The same NGO, linked to Luigi Manconi, has compiled a dossier on this phenomenon, calling it precisely "Religious Asylum." "They're paranoid and afraid that the Chinese government might control them and reach them in Italy," says Filippo Miraglia of Arci, "that's why they ask for non-Chinese translators." On the other hand, they've never been so free to practice their faith, to gather in large numbers without fear of police raids, and generally to socialize freely. They've formed an association in Rome that brings together about a hundred of them and are fighting to obtain international protection. After the first positive decisions issued by the territorial asylum commissions, the Italian reception system has tightened dramatically: 90% of requests are rejected, and all are appealing, but they are very scared since the first repatriation of two Chinese asylum seekers. They are convinced that they will only find prison and forced labor back home. http://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/53...