African refugees "in prison" in the Italian Alps

Montecampione is a ski resort 1,800 metres high in the Italian Alps. Nowadays, the mountain top is covered in green fields full of pine trees. But not all recent residents have found it picturesque. This was one of the many communities all over Italy to receive sub-Saharan African workers fleeing northern Africa during the Arab Spring.
“This resort was a prison, a cold prison,” says Ibrahim Busari. The 30-year-old Nigerian spent five months here after living in Libya for nine years. “I had a good life in Libya, I made good money in my own tailor shop. But when the bombing started I had the leave. Due to NATO, I ended up here.”
He points at the now deserted wooden ski hotel that served as his home along with 100 or so fellow African refugees. The building looks out over Valle Camonica, a 90-kilometre long stretch in north-east Lombardy, and Lake Iseo.
“There’s no public transport during the summer, so to get to the closest village we had to walk for about three and a half hours,” recalls Busari.
Not suited
In spring 2011, when unrest in northern Africa landed tens of thousands of refugees on the Italian island of Lampedusa, local authorities scrambled to create order. As fast as they could, they shipped refugees to mainland Italy.
“They arrived here in their shorts and flip-flops, and up there it's cold, even in summer,” remembers Carlo Cominelli, president of the non-profit foundation K-Pax.
K-Pax quickly collected clothes and shoes from the local population to help the refugees, but it wasn’t enough. “No one ever checked whether the hotels were appropriate for housing refugees,” Cominelli says about the shelters Montecampione offered.
Integration
At a certain point last October, almost half the Africans living at the ski resort walked down the mountain to protest their situation. They were stopped by the police. From there, negotiations with the authorities started.
K-Pax played a major role here. “I personally called all mayors to ask whether we could find a solution for the situation of the refugees. Twelve of them agreed to an integration programme we invented,” says Cominelli.
Some 70 refugees currently reside in Valle Camonica. They live in apartments, go to school, go to work and play football.
Not long ago, Busari was denied a stay permit because authorities believe he is fit to return to Nigeria. He plans to appeal the decision. Most of his fellow refugees are in limbo, waiting for a committee in Milan to decide whether they’ll see Montecampione’s next snowfall.