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Stranded in Castel Volturno
Stranded is the word that the African immigrants use when, crossing the Sahara desert to arrive in Europe, remain still, without money in an oasis of the desert, Dirkou or Agadez, without being able to move forward or go back.
Stranded is also the word that indicates the condition of African immigrants in Castel Volturno, one of the milestones in the journey through Italy, to North of Europe. In Castel Volturno they stop, no one asks questions in the land of Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, in Castel Volturno Western Europe blends with West Africa.
Every morning immigrants wake up at 4:00 to go to the suburbs of Naples to look for some jobs. If they can't find a job they come back in Castel Volturno, it's too dangerous staying outside the "ghetto" without regular documents. They are "obsessed" to find regular permit to stay in Italy, they know that without documents they have no rights so everyone asks for a permit for humanitarian reasons but it's very difficult to get it.
They live a time of a psychological "suspension" waiting for something that sometimes, is the violence of Camorra shooting. In September 18 2008 gangsters of Casalesi clan, the one that threaten death the writer Roberto Saviano the author of Gomorrah, killed six immigrants from Togo, Liberia and Ghana. Police suspect a dispute over drug trafficking; according to combonian missionaries it could be a "message" of Camorra to all African immigrants to go away from Castel Volturno. Near Castel Volturno there's a place called Villaggio Coppola. The village, built in later '60s of 20th century as a touristic center by Vincenzo and Cristoforo Coppola, is sadly famous to be completely abusive and it became a symbol of building speculation in Italy. In 2003 an agreement was signed for the requalification of the territory that means the arrival of large sums of money and Camorra clans want to be in this huge business to clean money from drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
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