The pilot action aimed at the professional retraining of refugees, leaving in the municipality of Brindisi, through the creation of a training and empowerment path instrumental to job placement and the activation of an artisanal company with a high social impact.
The proposal was divided into five phases: the preliminary activity necessary for the identification of the local operating partner; the second phase necessary for the identification of the project recipients; so, the phase related to training; and then, depending on the characteristics of the participants, the possibility of participating in the job placement paths and / or continuing with the self-employment paths.
The goal was the reuse and regeneration of a space creating a carpentry workshop, equipped with professional machines, in a building not in use, located on the outskirts of Brindisi.
The Apulia region is characterized by a well-branched reception system with first and second reception structures located throughout the territory. In the province of Brindisi there are a CARA (Reception centers for asylum seekers), with about 200 guests, a CPR (Centers for repatriation), and numerous CAS (extraordinary reception centers) and SPRAR / SIPROIMI project (Protection system for holders of international protection and for unaccompanied foreign minors), that are located throughout the territory in over 15 projects and a total of over 700 places (link).
During the period of stay in the centers, health care and guidance are offered which are useful for getting to know and using medical aids, but this is often not enough to make the recipients of the interventions autonomous, especially when leaving the reception system.
In the Apulia Region one of the most relevant issues, related to the job placement of refugees, is connected with the phenomenon of exploitation of refugees in agriculture and food sectors. The condition of the workers recruited by the informal work system and agromafia (mafia in the agricultural sector) are more or less the same for everyone: no contract, a salary between 20 and 30 euros a day, as well as violence and abuse.
