24 Afghan children living in Rome sewer

24 Afghan children living in Rome sewer

au.news.yahoo.com

Italian police have discovered 24 Afghan children living in filthy conditions in the sewer system under a Rome railway station, Italian media reported on Saturday.

The children, ranging in age from 10 to 15, were unaccompanied and some were in poor physical condition, the reports said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

this is a prime example of a country not prepared, economically or socially, to take on vast amounts of refugees.
the article goes on to say that they may have infiltrated through turkey.
but how on earth can so many people living in the sewer go unnoticed. especially in one o europes biggest cities.
unreal.

au.news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

i must be the only person who finds this shocking.
screw NK. the launch was a ploy to get your attention.

Actually, there are miles of tunnels underneath most large cities. In the Old World, they are sometimes ancient aqueducts, sewers, or secret escape tunnels. In the New World, they are abandoned subway lines. Just google any major city along with secret tunnels and a load of hits pop up. I had a list of links but somehow lost my post (ARRRG).

Homeless find their way into these ready made shelters. It's not shocking, it's sad.

Originally posted by spearhead
i must be the only person who finds this shocking.
screw NK. the launch was a ploy to get your attention.

No, your just one of the few people browsing ATS at 6am on a Sunday morning...

Not sure what NK and their missile launch has anything to do with this thread but what do I know.

IMO NK launching their missile is bigger news than kids living in a sewer the implications are much more severe.

I'd suggest giving people time to reply to your threads instead of making baseless claims.

This is a horrible situation but as the poster above me said there are miles and miles of sewers and I'm sure there are more than just those 24 around the city.

There are countless homeless kids living all over the world I don't really think it matter where they are living it's all horrible.

Originally posted by spearhead
but how on earth can so many people living in the sewer go unnoticed. especially in one o europes biggest cities.
unreal.

Well actually I wouldn't say it would be all that hard to vanish in the sewers of a large city - if you think about it in terms of civil engineering, for every road, bridge or channelled water way above ground there will be an equally grand (but hidden) project underground. The underpinnings of a city are never seen - but without them city life would be very very miserable.

As for the kids - good that they are getting attention, I bet you would find a few more people and other surprises down there if a full survay was undertaken - but once you find out how to live in a place like that I bet you would know when people are coming and you could hide, or simply leave the sewers for the day.

(BTW) not all underground waterways (aka sewers) are torrents of human waste. Some places you might even get an electric light or access to fresh water from a tap.

[edit on 5/4/2009 by Now_Then]

reply to post by spearhead

but how on earth can so many people living in the sewer go unnoticed. especially in one o europes biggest cities.

Underneath Rome, and especially the Vatican City's wall enclave, lies an enormous subterranean network of catacombs and sewers built since Ancient Roman times.

Some of these were formally used for the burial of the dead (a lot of the catacombs still have human remains in them), but most have long since fallen into disuse and/or been sealed off hastily.

A lot of people, mainly adventurers, like to break into them and wander around underneath Rome looking for treasure, or god's knows what.

It wouldn't surprise me people could live in them unnoticed for so long.

Not many people have a need to go into these sewers and catacombs anymore.

yes yes i understand the size and complexity of a cities underside. but so many children? and from so far away.

it seems to me that they are coming in as refugees, being distributed to houses around the city. they are obviously running away and teaming up underground.

it is sad but there is more to it than homelessness.

reply to post by spearhead

it seems to me that they are coming in as refugees, being distributed to houses around the city. they are obviously running away and teaming up underground.

They're not distributed housing the first place. They're ILLEGAL immigrants.

They're in the sewers precisely because they don't want to be found I'm guessing.

The Italians anyway are fairly heavy handed on immigration, since they've been swamped in recent times with immigrants from Northern Africa & the Middle East, most of which simply get deported back.

Maybe once they acknowledge that people living down there is an issue they will have to address it... It would be a major task to search down there - and even if you do you would have to have regular checks, put up fences and grills. That raises all sorts of access issues for businesses - who would pay the bill?

These 24 kids could of been known about by someone - out of site out of mind.

reply to post by Now_Then

Maybe once they acknowledge that people living down there is an issue they will have to address it...

The Italians have acknowledged illegal immigration as a serious issue plenty of times:

More than 15,000 illegal immigrants entered the EU via Italy between January and July, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said.

Many illegal immigrants arrive on boats organised by people traffickers.

Illegal immigrants arrive in Italy
Many Italians associate illegal immigration with crime

Mr Maroni, whose Northern League party formed part of the right-wing government coalition, has campaigned strongly against clandestine immigration.

Most of the illegal immigrants come across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has launched a crackdown on crime, which most Italians associate with illegal immigration.

news.bbc.co.uk...

The Italian navy and coastguard, which are supposed to halt the boats of the immigrant smugglers, often have to tow them into port or intervene to save lives.

Once on land, the illegal immigrants, known as "clandestini", are held at the emergency reception centre before being transferred elsewhere in Italy.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Minister Maroni says an agreement is in place with Libya that envisages the start of joint Italian-Libyan patrols in front of the Libyan coast on May 15. He added that on that day he expects the flow of migrants coming to Italy from Libya will stop and the problem will be resolved.

www.voanews.com...

Don't get too hung up on kids living the sewers. That's just the tip of the Iceberg here.

Many of these immigrants are being smuggled into Italy via human-trafficking rings operating by the Russian or Italian Mafia.

A lot of these people end up becoming "soldati" for the Mob and start expanding criminal enterprises all over Italy.

[edit on 5/4/09 by The Godfather of Conspira]