News Deeply | 12.09.2017
As Italy struggles to provide its migrants with the resources and support they need, refugees are increasingly vulnerable to being exploited. Now migrants are joining activist groups and using their personal experiences to help others fight for fair treatment.
Daniela Sala
CASERTA, Italy – “Kalifoo ground is like a supermarket: Masters pass by and choose the workers,” said Osman, a 33-year-old undocumented migrant in Italy.
Most of the African migrants at the Ex Canapificio social center in Caserta, in southwestern Italy, refer to the places they gather to find work as “kalifoo ground” – slave squares– and their employers as masters.
Kalifoo, meaning “slaves,” is the Libyan word for day-workers. When migrants from Ghana arrived in this part of Italy 20 years ago, local working conditions reminded them of Libya.