Street Lawyer: A Network Helping the Homeless

There are a thousand volunteers, all over Italy. Professionals who provide free assistance to those who have been laid off, the homeless, or women whose children have been taken away.

di |
street lawyers

A thousand volunteers who they don't waste their time and they help, for free, who can't afford it to pay any parcel for legal assistance. A widespread network throughout Italy, with the latest office recently opened in Perugia. And so the volunteer association Street lawyer it has reached 56 stations in all Italian regions.

STREET LAWYER

More than half of these practices they concern immigrants, legal but poor, and without the means to face any legal dispute. An unpaid fine, a divorce to settle, a pension to claim, paid work under the table: for each of these cases, the Avvocato di Strada association intervenes free of charge, through its network of branches, and also covers legal expenses. There is also no shortage of cases under investigation for the violence suffered by an immigrant, as in the case of SH, attacked and beaten in Milan by two youths who wanted to rob him. The association managed to have the two attackers sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison, and also obtained a prison sentence for the client. compensation of 25 thousand euros.

WHEN STREET LAWYER WAS BORN

The idea of ​​this volunteering format found its genesis in Emilia Romagna, where immigration has become central to the entire productive apparatus. And where cases of discrimination at work immigrants, without whom entire sectors would have serious production problems. Street lawyer born in Bologna in the early 2000s and have been since then over 40 people were assisted for free, with an average of 3.800 applications per year, more than 60 percent of which involve legal but impoverished immigrants. Like Karim, a Moroccan who arrived in Italy with a job in a metalworking factory, but was soon overwhelmed by the economic crisis and the pandemic. Having exhausted his unemployment benefits and mobility, Karim faced eviction, and the association managed to defend his home helping him find a new job, which is essential to paying the rent.

ALSO READ: Visit Bank, a platform where you can donate care to those who can't afford it.

WHAT DOES A STREET LAWYER DO?

The activities of the Street Lawyer Association they are not limited to legal assistanceThanks to the widespread way in which the volunteers work, they also manage to collect valuable data, in the area, regarding the problems linked to the phenomenon ofimmigrationThe lack of housing, the spread of undeclared work, the delays in accessing the pension system, which immigrants also finance with their work. "Our activity also serves to to show that we are not so cynical and indifferent as we are sometimes described” he explains Antonio Mumolo, President of Street lawyer “First and foremost, we are human beings, and then lawyers. Covid-19 has increased poverty, fear, and divisions, and an association like ours becomes an important barrier to addressing problems that are destined to grow even further.

Massimiliano Arena, after many years of volunteering in Africa and South America, he understood that he could do a lot in Italy too, and so opened the section of Street lawyer in FoggiaThe counter is near the train station, and when it opens, a line of immigrants immediately forms, looking for someone who can help them claim a sacred right. Thus arrives the laborer forced to spend 14 hours a day in the fields, working illegally. The evicted man who no longer knows where to go. The homeless man looking for a place to live, other than on the streets.

SUCCESSFUL STREET LAWYER

Recalling his long experience with the association, Antonio Mumolo, President of Street lawyer, It evokes one of these volunteers' most significant successes. Giulia and Alessandra were two young drug addicts whose children had been taken from them. The association managed to track down the two girls' families and obtain custody of the children for them. Meanwhile, both Giulia and Alessandra have recovered from drug addiction.

THE STORIES OF THOSE WHO HAVE CHOSEN TO DEDICATE THEIR LIVES TO THE POOR:

Want to see a selection of our news?

Don't Waste