120 Somalis stuck in former embassy in Rome

[Coeus]

The former Somali embassy in Rome is now home to more than 120 Somali refugees. Most of them have a temporary stay permit with a request for asylum under consideration. Until the Italian authorities come up with a decision, the refugees can do nothing but wait.

The building is one of the handsome red villas typical of Rome's diplomatic district but the broken windows and abandoned embassy cars rusting in the driveway stand out conspicuously in the prosperous neighbourhood.

The four-storey building is still the property of the Somali state but was abandoned as an embassy after the collapse of the last stable government in Mogadishu in the 1990s.

Hostility
A group of east African men are sitting on the porch. In a hostile way, they ask me about what am I looking for. I ask whether I could talk to Yassim and the reply is abrupt: “He is not here.”

In the foyer, a group of at least ten men are preparing lunch, sitting on mattresses on the floor. The hostility disappears as soon as they realise they are dealing with a Dutch journalist and not a police officer. "Our situation here is very bad," says Mohamed. "There is no light, no heating and no toilet in the villa."

Almost everyone in the villa is Somali. Eritreans and Ethiopians are exceptions. Most of those living in this broken down embassy tell the same story.

They flew their home country; crossed the Sahara to get to Benghazi, the Libyan coastal city; paid someone to bring them across the Mediterranean; entered Italy via the island of Lampedusa, Europe's most Southern point. From there, they got to the Italian mainland where they received a temporary stay permit. And that’s when they were left to their fate.

Neighbours' complaints
"Many Somalis know of this place, so that's why they come here. Now we're around 120. Last month, we were with a bit more. It depends." says one of the men.

Italian police raided the building just over a month ago following complaints from neighbours. But after verifying papers, they sent everyone back to the embassy.

On the stairs to the first floor, there are rats' excrements. 'Rats are our neighbours,' laughs Mohammed. “No, our friend” Ibrahim corrects him.

In one of the rooms upstairs, four men are poking up the fire of something that looks like a barbecue. Their lunch is ready and they invite me to join in.

"No life"
The outside temperature is around 5 degrees celcius. "This is no life," says Youssef, a skinny man in his twenties with sad eyes. 'We can't go anywhere else, every time someone tries to get to another country, they send him back.'

Another one shows his Swedish health insurance card: "I was in Sweden for eight months. There they gave me a room and some money, until they found out that I already had asked for asylum here in Italy. So they sent me back. But here, there is no life. Life is better in Somalia.'

Tens of thousands of people have died and more than a million have been displaced in Somalia since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991 by rival warlords who then turned on each other. This left a vacuum that opened the way to two decades of bloodshed and many fled the country.