(2015) Ponte Mammolo Camp
At around 9:30 in the morning of May 11, 2015, bulldozers and police in riot gear came to clear the migrant camp in Ponte Mammolo, in the eastern suburbs of Rome. They arrived unannounced and the people who lived in the camp didn't even have time to gather their essential personal belongings like clothing, money, papers and medicines. The Ponte Mammolo Camp hosted about 400 people of various religions and nationalities, most Eritrean and Somali refugees, living together in peace for decades. When the police arrived, many of them fled for fear of being held and identified. According to the Dublin Regulation, migrants must be identified upon arrival in Europe, and they have the obligation to apply for asylum in the first country where they set foot. But those from the Ponte Mammolo Camp wanted to leave Italy to be with relatives and friends waiting for them in northern European countries. After the camp was destroyed some local volunteers arranged a transitory camp in an abandoned bus parking.
