Dentro la più grande BARACCOPOLI d'Europa, BORGO MEZZANONE: la città che nessuno vuole vedere

Gates and barbed wire surround the reception center for asylum seekers. Just a few meters from the reception center lies a veritable city built by migrants working in the Apulian countryside. We are in Borgo Mezzanone, a hamlet of Manfredonia, in the province of Foggia. Here, shacks, makeshift shelters, but also "restaurants" and makeshift businesses have swarmed over the abandoned airport runway for over 20 years, forming Europe's largest informal settlement. Inside, more than 4,000 people sleep and live in the summer, waiting to go to work during the harvest season, especially the tomato harvest. And even in the winter, when demand is lower, over a thousand remain, creating a hub for labor intermediation, often irregular, with agricultural producers. The abandonment is primarily social, affecting men and women who, despite countless difficulties, have created a community by pooling their skills. Some provide daily support, such as the international humanitarian organization Intersos, which, with its mobile clinic since 2018, has been a point of reference for those living in the settlement, providing medical care and social and health guidance and helping to improve the living conditions of those who call Borgo Mezzanone home. The Puglia Region itself has implemented many projects over the years, starting with the guesthouse that has allowed hundreds of workers to leave the camp. However, the most ambitious project—the major redevelopment of the Cara—has run into bureaucracy that has resulted in the loss of millions of euros of NRRP funding. Above all, it is the listening to the needs of migrants that is lacking, in a complex reality where humanity seems to have lost its citizenship. We entered the settlement of the former airstrip, amidst images and firsthand accounts.