Italy's asylum seekers lose hope

By Tamsin Smith BBC correspondent in Rome

This week nearly 100 people died making the treacherous crossing from North Africa to southern Italy.

Rickety boatloads of bodies have washed up on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is often the first point of arrival into Europe for immigrants.

Asylum seeker Ali: "Where can I go?"

But what happens to the survivors?

Nearly 500 asylum seekers, many of whom arrived in Lampedusa, are now found living in the derelict Tiburtina railway station in Rome.

They hoped for asylum and a better life in Europe... but is life actually any better?

Treacherous journey

After landing on the island of Lampedusa, Sulayman Ahmed Hamid made an application for political asylum in Italy.

We have no bathroom, no water and no electricity. It is terrible for me because my baby needs more than this Zeg Tsega Serete from Eritrea

Now he is in legal limbo until he hears the result.

He lives with nearly 500 people from Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, many with similar stories, all now camping in a disused railway station, near Rome's city centre.

"I was a political leader in Sudan," he says.

"I left because of the war and because my people were being killed.

"I travelled 20 days to get to Libya where they put 130 of us in a small boat, a very small boat. We were lucky to arrive in Lampedusa alive."

Another man, Ali Mukhtar, says he is rapidly running out of options.

"I live in this place for 2 months now, and it makes me feel totally desperate," he says.

"But where can I go?"

Squalid conditions

The refugees have built a makeshift kitchen with a gas stove and battered stereo, but the rest of this vast brick railway shed is covered in dirty mattresses and blankets.

Many asylum seekers are forced to live in squalid conditions

People lie huddled together and the rain pours through holes in the roof.

There are no lights, no clean water or toilets and the rubbish is piled high.

In a nearby outhouse I find Zeg Tsega Serete from Eritrea hunched over a small gas stove.

"I find it very hard to live here with my [two-year-old] baby," she says.

"We have no bathroom, no water and no electricity. It is terrible for me because my baby needs more than this."

The problem is that people seeking asylum here in Italy are left with little or no state help whilst waiting for their application to be processed.

Lack of support

This means many of them, although they have followed all correct procedures, are forced to sleep rough or live in places like this.

Andrea Accardi works for Medicins Sans Frontieres in Rome.

"It's very different from the situation in the United Kingdom," he says.

There's no discussion about how asylum seekers are living, they just don't matter Aid worker Andrea Accardi

"Once you get in the UK and you apply for asylum you are basically sustained by the system until the end of the procedure.

"Here you are left on your own and you can't work because you have no permit... you end up waiting and sleeping rough often for 12 months or more.

"Italy has only 15,000 asylum applications compared to 115,000 in the UK last year, but it but still doesn't manage to provide a second level of reception for asylum seekers," he adds.

Political pressure

The media shows politicians gushing sentimentally over this week's tragedy of drowned immigrants, but sympathy for the survivors is more limited.

Carlo Giovanardi:These people aren't real political refugees

Calls for Italy to stem the tide of foreigners do not just come from the far-right Northern League Party, but also from some of the more moderate government coalition members.

Carlo Giovanardi is minister of parliamentary affairs and a member of the centre-right Christian Democrat party.

He says Italy just cannot cope with any more immigrants and this includes asylum seekers.

"These people aren't real political refugees," he says.

"A political refugee is someone who suffers political or religious discrimination in their country and their lives are in peril.

"This just isn't the case for Somalia, for Eritrea or for central Africa. If we give asylum to people from poor countries with dictators then we will have to give asylum to millions of people."

A better life?

A recent immigration law, passed last year, plans to improve provisions for asylum seekers and provide assistance, although organisations such as MSF who work with asylum seekers say there is little evidence of any change.

"In Italy just 10% of asylum seekers have access to secondary reception facilities," Andrea Accardi says.

"Everyone else is living like this, it's just not human. There's no discussion about how asylum seekers are living, they just don't matter."

The damp of the railway sheds led to people developing tuberculosis

The communities living here, in Rome's derelict railway sheds, are now faced with a more immediate threat.

The whole site is about to be demolished to make way for a new station.

Medicins Sans Frontieres is pushing the local authorities to find alternative accommodation before winter.

In the chilling damp of the railway sheds, several asylum seekers are now in hospital with tuberculosis while others, such as Sulayman, are just slowly losing hope.

"I'm not feeling well here .. I've never been to a place as terrible as this, even in Sudan, even in Africa," he says.

"Some of us think we will come here and live a better life in Europe, but I feel like a person who is dying little by little, day by day."