Davide, the 21-year-old Italian citizen who died from electrocution in the Scampia Rom camp, is still without a burial. Associations such as Chi rom e chi no, Mediterraneo antirazzista, A Buon Diritto, Arrevutammece ets, and Luigi Manconi have written an appeal letter to the Municipality of Naples.
"Born and raised in Naples, died on February 29, at only 22 years old, Italian citizen for two years now, Davide Jovanovic never had a document, not even Italian citizenship allowed him to obtain residence, due to the block on residences imposed by the so-called Lupi Decree, later converted with Law 80/2014 which at article 5 paragraph 1 states: Anyone who occupies a property without title cannot request residency nor the connection to public services in relation to the property itself and the acts issued in violation of this prohibition are null and void for all legal purposes. The Municipality of Naples could have protected the fundamental rights of the person and human dignity, leveraging what is provided by Paragraph 1-quater in which it is established that 'The Mayor, in the presence of minors or persons worthy of protection, may give instructions in derogation to what is provided in paragraphs 1 and 1bis, to protect the hygienic-sanitary conditions' primarily defining which are the categories worthy and then recognizing to them the right of residence and all the rights connected to it. A precedent in this sense comes from the Mayor of Rome, who with Directive no. 1 of November 4, 2022 referring to the aforementioned paragraph 1 quater in a perspective of preventing the hygienic-sanitary risks that could arise in the absence of residence and the impossibility of obtaining the connection to the essential public services, considers worthy of protection, and therefore of the right to obtain residence, individuals belonging to the following categories:
a) People who are part of family units that are followed by social services, or in a condition of particular fragility and social vulnerability such as the presence of disabled people, minor children or people over sixty-five;
b) people who are part of nuclei with an income lower than what is established by Regional Law 12/99;
c) asylum seekers and holders of international protection;
d) people who are part of family units that are in a condition of housing precariousness from the point of view of hygienic-sanitary conditions, as in the case of the absence of connection to the essential public services necessary to ensure respect for the dignity of the person in their daily needs. Why the Municipality of Naples did not want to open to the derogation provided by the Lupi decree, as well as some Municipalities do not recognize the proximity residence, remain questions without any answer, questions that cover gaps in law that prevent the exercise of fundamental rights. Having residence means having the right to exist, to have a document, to social and health assistance, access to the few welfare rights, for hundreds of Rom people, Italian citizens, migrants, who have always lived in the city of Naples, and as in the case of Davide who has never found peace neither in life nor in death, in the so-called unauthorized camps of Cupa Perillo in Scampia and not only. Perhaps because in the eyes of certain politics or the State living in an occupied place, in a Rom camp in the end is like being already dead. The area of Cupa Perillo in Scampia, is completely abandoned by the public administration which we believe directly responsible for growing entire generations in neglect and in housing and existential discomfort, condemning them to survival and not to a fully dignified life, with tragic and disastrous consequences, including the disappearance of Davide, died electrocuted by electricity, for having always been exposed since childhood to dangers that no one could even imagine for their children. The right to residence denied, combined with the inhumane condition of the area, are decreeing the progressive emptying of the area and the end of the history of the Rom communities of Cupa Perillo, in every sense. A forced eviction in full rule, conducted without pity by the coldness of bureaucratic acts and total institutional absence. Today, with the white coffin of Davide suspended outside the Poggioreale cemetery that it is not known where it will be buried, we learn that the right to burial belongs only to those who have residence. Waiting for feedback from the administration, it seems that stubbornly in death as in life a kind of repudiation continues, as if we were not daughters and sons of the same land, of the same world. We urgently ask the public administrations to fill this lack of rights, even if for Davide it is too late, we will carry it on our conscience."