Kurdish-Iranian activist Maysoon Majidi has been held in Castrovillari prison for six months on charges of smuggling.

On the eve of the hearing that will take place in Crotone on 24/7 and that could decide his fate, we issue this call for mobilisation and unity to all those realities and individuals who care about their own freedom and that of others.

In fact, Maysoon's case is not an isolated one, but rather emblematic of the current situation.

In addition to Marjam Jamali, an Iranian woman also detained for smuggling who has just been placed under house arrest pending trial, hundreds of people are arrested on this charge every year and thousands have been unjustly detained since this offence was introduced (see Article 12 of the Consolidated Immigration Act, known as the TUI or Bossi-Fini Law).

In addition, since March 2023, the Cutro Decree has increased the penalties for these alleged smugglers, making them responsible for the death and suffering of migrants.

To this day, the government is keen to identify a 'smuggler', real or suspected, in every boat that arrives in Italy, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of its policy against illegal immigration. It matters little whether these people are women with underage children in tow, like Marjam, artists and women's rights activists, like Maysoon, or frightened teenagers who have been put in charge of a rudder. What matters to those in power is propaganda and statistics about the number of people arrested for smuggling.

With this appeal, therefore, we want to extend and strengthen the network of solidarity created around Maysoon, who fled to escape the repression of the regime in her country and ended up in the clutches of repression in Italy. The fight for her release is the same as the fight for the freedom of Marjam and all the other people accused of being smugglers in prison in this increasingly securitarian country, where the prisons are already overcrowded without the addition of these people arrested for a fictitious crime.

In fact, it is important to reiterate that, apart from the fact that Maysoon and Marjam are innocent of the charges against them, we are against blaming the people who actually drove the boats because, despite the closed borders, the need to leave the country remains. For people without money, it is sometimes necessary to offer to drive the boats as a possible route to safety. These fleeing people, oppressed if not persecuted, become the 'scapegoats' of European governments and public scapegoats.

We want the complete demolition of the border system, its mentality and its modalities, and for this we call for a struggle for freedom that is general and concrete, outside of practices that aim to single out a truly guilty person or take advantage of a stage to show one's flag, while the migrants remain in prisons, CPRs, hotspots and other detention and torture centres, awaiting trial or expulsion.

We renew the mobilisation for the abolition of the Cutro decree and the crime of scaphoism in the TUI, for the liberation of Marjam and Maysoon and for the possibility of a dignified reception in Italy for those who arrive because they are forced by the state of necessity.

In order to support the cause of these people for their freedom and also for ours, we call for an enlarged meeting to be held in the next two weeks, through which we will re-launch the garrison at the court of Crotone on 24 July, where Maysoon's hearing will take place.

We also invite you to take part in the garrison at the court of Locri on 8 July, where Marjam's hearing will take place.Comitato free Maysoon

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