BOLZANO. Kazmi turned 43 on March 4, he was born in the Pakistani city of Quetta, just over three hours from the southeastern border with Afghanistan, where his grandparents were originally from. A few weeks ago, Kazmi made a very difficult but inevitable decision: to leave his homeland and give his three children a better future. A leap into the dark. A thousand unknowns and just as many fears. The man collected the few essential things and, together with his 38-year-old wife and 9, 5 and 2-year-old children, set out for Sweden. Many of us, sipping a good beer comfortably seated on the sofa at home, will think that Kazmi’s choice was pure madness.
To understand that this is not the case, it would be enough to imagine for a single moment of living in Pakistan, a state at war for decades, on the one hand with India, over the dispute of Kashmir, and, on the domestic front, with numerous armed formations of Islamic fundamentalists. And Kazmi must have thought he did the right thing even when Sweden denied him and his family entry, forcing him to change all plans. Two days ago, the forty-three year old arrived in Bolzano with his wife and children, after having crossed all of Germany. Here, however, he discovered that he, his wife and their children had suddenly become ghosts.
And such they remained until yesterday, April 2, the day they went to the police station to be registered and start the necessary paperwork for the asylum request. Meanwhile, the Pakistani family slept outdoors, in a hidden corner of the new bus station. Despite the temperatures still dropping a lot, during the night, Kazmi and some compatriots living in Bolzano who are helping him have not been able to find him temporary accommodation. “We turned to Volontarius Infopoint – they explain – but the only viable solution cannot be accepted by Kazmi and his wife: the three children would be housed in one structure while the two parents, separated in turn, would find accommodation in other two”.
Pass the latter eventuality, but the spouses just do not feel like separating from their children, especially the two youngest ones. Obviously, no one doubts the seriousness and ability of the operators, but thinking about separating from the children, who obviously do not speak Italian and do not have the measure of what is happening, is an idea that mom and dad immediately rejected. . “The social workers – they continue – told them, all too clearly, that there is no room here, offering the family to pay for train tickets for any European nation”.
This is what Kazmi’s compatriots report hearing in the past few hours, while they were looking for temporary accommodation for the five “invisible” refugees. Meanwhile, the two adults and the three children will stay to sleep under the stars and, it is not at all obvious, that their situation will improve after April 2, with the registration that formalizes their arrival in Italy. Is it really possible there are no other solutions?