The Western Balkan migration route saw a huge surge of activity last year, increasing by 136% compared to 2021 according to the European Union border agency Frontex, which recorded 145,600 individual crossings, the largest share of any migration route to the European Union in 2022.
So far this year, numbers across the Western Balkan route have shrunk by around 29% but in the first six months, nearly 40,000 migrants had crossed the land route to other parts of Europe.
Some migrants travel across the Western Balkans to Italy, where they often end up in the city of Trieste, which lies just across the border from Slovenia.
Close to the Trieste central train station near the Piazza della Liverta, lies a dilapidated former car park building that is now used as a squat by illegals.
Journalists of the Italian newspaper Il Giornale travelled to the squat where they were approached by a North African man armed with a knife and an axe, who reacted aggressively to the presence of the journalists.
“This is my house, what are you doing in here?” the migrant said as he ran up to the journalists and then stated, “I’m going to kill you.”
“I kid you not, you have filmed inside my house and now I cut your throat,” he said and continued to hurl abuse at the journalists saying, “You can’t stay here, you can’t show this place. I live there.”
According to the journalists, the man appeared to be either intoxicated or high on drugs and was one of the “leaders” of the squat. According to migrants present at the squat he was living there permanently with other men who allegedly work with people smugglers.
The migrants claimed that the North African and his men worked with smugglers to get migrants into Italy and were paid well for helping the migrants reach their intended destinations.
“Most of the time it’s a scam, they promise us to get to a place, we pay but in the end, we never arrive. It happened to many of our friends,” an Afghan migrant told the journalists.
As the journalists tried to film other migrants in the squat, the African “boss” emerged again to threaten them with a knife saying, “You really want me to gut you, I’m not kidding. I’m going to kill you and I’m going to kill everyone in here.”
The journalists proceeded to leave the area and when they received a final threat, “If I see you in here again, you won’t get out alive.”
The conditions of the squat appear dilapidated, dirty and unsafe according to Il Giornale, with “mountains of garbage” strewn across the large building, attracting rats and mice that have caused outbreaks of scabies among the migrants.
Around 150 people live in the squat in abysmal conditions, all of whom are waiting for a chance to register as asylum seekers in the Italian system, which is consistently overwhelmed.
This year, Italy has become the main landing point for migrants coming to the EU illegally, as traffic on the Central Mediterranean migrant route has soared by 137% in the first six months of this year.
Other cities in Italy are also home to similar migrant squats, including Milan, where a former school was being used as a migrant “hotel” in 2021 and became a hub of criminal activity and drug use, according to League MEP Silvia Sardone.
“Unfortunately, these are the results of [the Italian Democratic Party’s] unrestrained reception policies: undocumented stragglers, ghosts in the Italian State, who commit repeated crimes while institutions remain silent,” Sardone said.
“So why don’t they seal [the building]?” she asked and added, “Perhaps it is convenient for them to keep such a large building so full of immigrants, drug dealers, and thieves, away from the [town] centre? The matter is becoming grotesque.”
Another squat in Milan used by migrants may be shut down, however, after the local government announced earlier this year that the disused building on the Via Esterle was set to be converted into a mosque after housing illegals for around six years.
MEP Sardone slammed the Milan government headed by leftist mayor Beppe Sala claiming that the left favoured the Muslim community over local Italians saying, “for the left, Italians count less than Muslim communities to whom everything is granted.”
