Jerry Masslo

rdf:langString Jerry Masslo

rdf:langString Jerry Masslo

rdf:langString Jerry Masslo

rdf:langString Jerry Masslo

rdf:langString South African

rdf:langString Fruit Picker

rdf:langString I thought that I would find a place to live in Italy, a wave of civilization, a welcome that would allow me to live in peace and to cultivate the dream of a tomorrow without barriers or prejudices. Instead, I am disappointed. Having a black skin in this country is a limit to civil coexistence. Racism is also here: it is made of arrogance, of abuses, of daily violence to those who ask for nothing but solidarity and respect. We in the third world are contributing to the development of your country, but it does not seem to matter. Sooner or later, some of us will be killed and then we will realize that we exist.

rdf:langString Jerry Essan Masslo (4 December 1959 – 25 August 1989) was a South African refugee living in Italy, who was murdered by a gang of criminals. His case deeply affected public opinion on racism in Italy and led to a reform of Italian legislation regarding the recognition of refugee status. The killing of Masslo resulted in the acknowledgement of the need to guarantee adequate rights and duties to immigrants, whose number had grown considerably in the 1980s, reaching 600,000 by 1990 according to some sources; 1.3 million according to others. Shortly after his death, the largest anti-racist demonstration in the country was organized in Rome, attended by 200,000 people. The story of the non-recognition of refugee status to citizens of countries outside Eastern Europe led the government to rapidly issue a decree-law before the end of the year, later converted into the . The law would function as an amnesty law, and recognize the status of non-European foreigners under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and eliminated the 'geographical limitation' for political asylum seekers (as was already established by the Geneva Convention of 1951). Masslo's death is seen as the beginning of a new chapter in multi-ethnic coexistence in Italy.