In Torretta Antonacci, in the countryside of San Severo, people continue to die. Not by fate, not by chance, but within a system that has for years bred exploitation, precariousness, and abandonment. Alagie Singath turned 29 on April 2nd. He had lived in the Torretta Antonacci shantytown for five years. Five years spent working in the fields of Foggia and waiting for a residence permit that never arrived. Five years spent between sheet metal and cardboard, in conditions that no society that calls itself civilized should tolerate. He was found hanged in his shack. A suicide, they say. But it's difficult to talk about individual choice when a life is suspended for years amid exploited labor, denied rights, and a total lack of prospects.
His death comes in a context already marked by violence and abandonment. Just two weeks earlier, in the same ghetto, a man had been killed by hammer blows during a dispute. Then came the bad weather: heavy rains transformed the area into a mudflat, submerging shacks and making the only access road impassable. Hundreds of people were left isolated, without help, with no escape route.
We don't know if there's a direct link between the flood and Alagie's actions. But we do know that the context is the same: a fragile existence, exposed to everything, where it takes very little for the situation to escalate.
During the same days, in the countryside of Manfredonia, a young farmhand was trapped in his car during the Cervaro River flood. He was rescued by the Carabinieri. A story with a happy ending, but one that speaks volumes: to be saved, you need to be seen, intercepted, and rescued. In ghettos, this rarely happens.
In Torretta Antonacci, none of this is new. The living conditions have been known for years. There has long been talk of funds allocated to eliminate informal settlements, but they have never actually been used. Complaints, promises, and technical discussions follow one another. But the shacks remain, and with them the precariousness.
We are not facing an emergency, but a model. An agricultural system that relies on migrant labor, flexible and vulnerable to blackmail. A system that passes the costs of living onto workers: housing, security, healthcare. A system that requires invisibility to function.
In this context, legal precariousness is crucial. Without documents, there is no access to regular work. Without residency, there are no services, healthcare, or rights. Life remains suspended, always on the verge of collapse.
When you freeze to death in winter, or die in the mud during a flood, or in the solitude of a shack, these are not separate events. They are different expressions of the same mechanism.
In Torretta Antonacci, the mud will dry. The shacks will be rebuilt. The laborers will return to the fields. And everything will continue as before.
The question is not what happened. The question is why we continue to accept it.
Totò Caggese
https://umanitanova.org/tra-lamiere-e-cartone-torretta-antonacci-morire-di-fango-e-di-abbandono/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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