Otranto cares for refugees (from Albania).

Otranto is a small port on the south-eastern tip of Italy, just 50 miles from Albania. Its location has recurrently brought it into the headlines because the surrounding coast is the easiest landing spot for the big rubber dinghies with powerful outboard engines used by smugglers carrying all kinds of illegal merchandise. They also carry refugees from wars, ethnic cleansing or starvation in Asia and the Balkans. Taking refugees is the smugglers' tactic to prevent the Italian Coast Guard from shooting at them.

The policy of the Italian government has been to discourage the influx. But the Catholic Church of Lecce and Otranto opened all their available facilities as a temporary shelter. Local volunteer groups have time and again rushed to the coast to provide aid. In the worst emergencies groups from other regions came to help.

`The population is warmhearted, but they tend to fear that this influx may threaten the moderate prosperity they have gained through decades of hard work, which most started by migrating themselves,' said Don Mirko Lagna, Vice-Director of the Otranto Caritas, the Church body that promotes and coordinates action for justice and peace.

What has made them keep at it in spite of inadequate cooperation on the part of the state? Before replying he insisted on a visit to Otranto Cathedral to see the huge 12th century mosaic floor. It depicts a gigantic tree with beasts and humans entwined in its branches to represent Genesis, the life of Alexander the Great, the Knights of the Round Table and the Carolingean Knights, the constellations and the months of the year. The tree is not rooted in earth, but rests on the backs of two elephants representing India.

`This shows that contrary to our misconceptions of the Middle Ages, the area from India to Ireland was one civilization with constant interchange between the different cultures,' said Don Mirko. `Otranto, which was an important port since early Greek times, was in the mainstream of this interchange.'

The Don Tonino Bello centre, named after a local bishop who fostered peace and reconciliation, is where the immigrants are brought for the most urgent relief and to be identified. They are under strict surveillance because some may have an interest in escaping before identification, but the centre is run entirely by volunteers.

Since its opening ten months ago 20,000 people have passed through it. Franco Mancarella, a local medical practitioner, was among the first to take care of the boat people seven years ago and gave them all his spare time. His wife, Adriana, and daughter were carried away by his passion and now serve as voluntary nurses.

The volunteers also wanted to pour their experience into something more permanent. They founded Agimi (Albanian for dawn), an association which not only promotes relief work, but also fosters cooperation between the Albanian and Italian peoples and the economic advance of Albania. Its activity extends to helping this area, now in the backwaters of Europe, refind its position in the mainstream of culture thanks to the immigrants from many nations.

Agimi also organizes summer volunteer camps for Italian students who come to improve the facilities, and welcomes volunteers from other EU countries. Joke Wagenans from Antwerp is one of these volunteers. `When you see war and the flight of refugees time and again on television,' said Joke, `it does not quite seem real. It is so far away from peaceful and complacent Belgium.'

The Diocese of Lecce had been providing for immigrants for years, so it is no wonder the Government asked for its cooperation. `They came to us, so we could dictate our own terms,' said Don Cesare Lo Deserto, secretary to the Archbishop. He combines his duties with running the government-sponsored Regina Pacis hostel, in a disused diocesan holiday centre for children of poor families.

Many of the hostels opened by the government under the recent immigration law have run into trouble with riots and immigrants absconding. But none of the 25,000 guests that have been through Regina Pacis since it was open in 1997 has left without permission though the door is always unlocked.

The centre is organized and operated by the guests themselves, not an easy feat to accomplish with a constant turnover. `This gives them the dignity of looking after themselves,' said Don Cesare. The minimal Italian staff, partly volunteer and partly salaried, concentrates on helping each guest to sort out his or her particular problem. Because they feel cared for and treated as human beings instead of office files, they do not want to escape.

Now the government is seeking new ways of cooperating with volunteer groups and has come to Regina Pacis to find out how to do it.