A gang of migrants have revolted in their tiny host town in rural Italy, emptying bins in the street in protest of the fact that they have not been provided with free Wifi or a cleaner.
The asylum seekers, who cannot work, are thought to have been requesting a worker to help them maintain their duplex villa in the town of Ceranova, where they have been housed courtesy of the Italian taxpayer for over a year.
According to Italian paper La Repubblica, they have also been requesting free Wifi to make Skype calls to their family and friends in sub-Saharan Africa, where they are all from, and to keep them occupied in their plentiful free time.
The protests began last week with a rabble of 24 migrants blocking off roads in the town of just 2,100 people. They escalated in the preceding days, with the migrants emptying bins into the streets in an attempt to intimidate the local community.
Furious arguments erupted between the local community and the new arrivals, with the town’s mayor, Alessandro Grieco, forced to intervene personally in an attempt to calm matters.
“Obviously it’s very important for refugees to have access to the internet and not just so they can stay in touch with their families,” Barbara Spezzi, who manages a refugee centre near Turin, told The Local.
“The internet helps refugees keep up to date with what’s going on at home and in Italy which helps them integrate into Italian life. It’s also a great learning tool too; we had a case of a girl who was following her university lectures on YouTube”, he claimed.
Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italy’s right-wing Northern League party, told reporters: “They wan’t someone to clean their homes – can you believe it? To keep them happy, let’s send Boldrini.”
Laura Boldrini is an Italian politician representing the Left Ecology Freedom party who used to be a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Since the protest mayor Grieco has meet with the regional prefect and expelled the ringleader of the protests, a 24-year-old man, from the refugee home.
“Until now nothing bad had happened and we are looking into the incident. The migrants have obviously flagged up a few issues for them but this is not the way to draw attention to them.”
“We absolutely won’t tolerate protests like this”, he insisted.
