Balkan Trieste – The Damned of the Silos
Winter 2024. They arrive from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, then from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh. Men fleeing from misery, from wars, from torture. They have crossed the entire Balkan Route, they have been traveling for months, some for years. They enter from Slovenia to finish the game in Trieste, the last north-eastern border for Europe. They faced unspeakable vicissitudes, overcame rejections, beatings from the border police, hunger and freezing temperatures. In Trieste they are diverted to the Silos, a large building dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, a grain depot that hosted Istrian refugees during the Second World War. Today it is a landfill for humans, an archaeological ruin at risk of collapse, crumbling and inhospitable. A national disgrace. Here among mice, snakes, mud, cold and rain, a painful and dignified humanity wakes up and falls asleep every day for an infinite time. In the limbo of the Silos there are no rights, there are no toilets, the water is collected in cans in Piazza Libertà. They cook on the floor among the rubbish, they sleep in makeshift tents. Three months on average for a response from the Italian state for the asylum request which would allow access, with an initial response, to the planned reception paths. Very long waits despite the official numbers saying that there are no more than six applications per day for asylum requests
