This winter, Blessing was placed in a shelter for underage migrants. We give them something to eat. We put them in a reception center. But after that? There is no solution.
Late that afternoon, Sara Creta, an Italian M. Blessing and Cynthia had met on the dinghy, several hours earlier, and were now sitting with some other Nigerian girls. All of them looked underage, though they insisted that they were eighteen.
She said that she had been kidnapped, but withheld the details. As Blessing spoke, Cynthia wept. Creta tried to comfort the girls. Just follow your heart. Three older Nigerian women appeared to be eavesdropping on the conversation. One of themβheavyset, with a sickle-shaped scar on her chinβinterrogated me about my role on the ship, pursing her lips and raising her eyebrows when I told her that I was a reporter.
In Messina, the migrants disembarked in groups of ten. The Italian authorities gave them flip-flops, took photographs for immigration records, conducted medical exams, and registered them with Frontex, the E.
Humanitarian workers introduced themselves to some of the girls whom they suspected of being under eighteen, but none of them accepted help. One Nigerian girl, who, on the Dignity I, had confessed that she was fourteen years old, later claimed that she was twenty-three. The U. Many people who might have been eligible for asylum told me that they had never heard of it. The Egyptians and the Moroccans were pulled out of line and directed to sit under a blue awning, where they remained for the rest of the afternoon, likely unaware that Italy has repatriation agreements with their home countries.
