Reuters | 24.01.2018
Steve Scherer
TURIN, Italy (Reuters) – A rainstorm buffets unheated apartment blocks on the outskirts of the northern Italian city of Turin where more than 1,000 impoverished African migrants huddle in rooms built to house 300 competitors at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
The plight of the hundreds of thousands of migrants struggling to build a life in Italy is rarely discussed by most political parties, even though immigration is one of the hottest issues ahead of national elections on March 4.
Keen to harness a growing backlash against more than 600,000 migrants who have landed on Italian shores in the past four years, the parties are instead promising tough measures such as mass deportations or halting immigration altogether.
With poor Italians also struggling to find housing and jobs in an anemic economy, offering support to migrants such as those in the Olympic village is not considered a vote winner.