Security officials have arrested an Italian man suspected of murdering a Nigerian asylum-seeker who fled Boko Haram’s terror in northeastern Nigeria, Italy’s interior minister said Thursday. The killing reflects the growing xenophobia asylum-seekers across Europe face on a daily basis.
Authorities said the suspect, Amadeo Manicini, verbally attacked Emmanuel Chidi Nnamdi and his wife, Chimiary, while they were out for a walk in Fermo, Italy. Mancini hurled racist insults at Chimiary, and the altercation turned violent when Nnamdi, 36, attempted to defend her. Mancini’s lawyer said he acted in self-defense, but Chimiary said her husband jumped to her defense only after Mancini grabbed her arm. Nnamdi fell into a coma and died Wednesday from injuries he sustained in the scuffle.
Prosecutors on Thursday said they will charge Mancini with manslaughter aggravated by racist motives. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano denounced the attack and said Chimiary will be granted humanitarian protection in Italy.
“The great heart of Italy is not represented by the man who committed this homicide,” Alfano told reporters in Fermo. “The germ of racism needs to be cut off before it can plant a poisonous seed.”
Nnamdi and his wife fled their village in northeastern Nigeria in 2015 after Boko Haram torched their church and killed two of Nnamdi’s relatives and their child, church officials in Fermo said. The couple began the perilous journey to Europe by land. They took a smuggler’s boat from the Libyan coast and arrived in #Fermo, where the Catholic Community of Capodarco received them.
“Why do you leave me in this wicked world?” Chimiary
cried to her late husband during a Wednesday vigil.
Tension has grown in recent months in communities welcoming migrants. Earlier this year, security officials found explosive devices outside four Fermo churches that assist migrants.
The European Union has a legal framework that should ensure the integration of migrants and combat xenophobic incidents, but the directives are not fully implemented, said Judit Tanczos, a legal policy analyst with the Migration Policy Group in Belgium. Tanczos said her organization has received reports of vandalism against migrant reception centers, as well as verbal attacks and, in some cases, physical violence against migrants. The amount of reported xenophobic attacks increased by 50 percent three days after Britain voted to leave the European Union on June 23, Tanczos added.
“These xenophobic attacks happen against asylum seekers on a daily basis,” she said. “It shows once there’s exclusionary speech that allows people to say we don’t want you in our country, people will feel open to do these things and feel they can get away with it.”
Doris Peschke with the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe agreed the rising number of racist attacks across the continent is becoming a worrying trend. Peschke noted cases of people standing outside migrant centers and shouting their opposition to the migrants’ presence. Those opposing migration, though in the minority, often are louder than those who want to help, she added.
“These are people who don’t have a perspective of their own because of unemployment and economic difficulties, and they feel left out of society,” Peschke said. “Some of the populists promise them better chances when there are no migrants. Its not logic, but it’s how it happens.”
Tanczos said European countries need to address the social insecurity many people feel in the face of globalization. On a local level, authorities need to further engage with the local communities where migrants are increasingly arriving, Peschke added. She called for more meeting spaces between migrants and community members in each community to reduce anxiety local residents might have about migrants.
“Many of the parishes across Europe are doing this in many ways, and many people have overcome their hesitation,” she said.
