Thousands of immigrants from more than 30 different organizations are preparing for a demonstration in Rome on Sunday 10 October. They are protesting against the bureaucratic delay for the renewal of permits to stay in Italy. The demonstration will commence at 16.00 from Piazza della Repubblica and circle around the city. Volunteers are already handing out leaflets and asking all stranieri, foreigners, to join their cause.

The official mentioned time it takes to renew a permesso di soggiorno is 20 days, however there are more than 60,000 poor immigrants in Rome who have been waiting for months to get their legal papers. In Rome, immigration documents from different countries are processed differently, with citizens from developed countries, such as the United States, Canada and Australia, getting preferential treatment over those from African, Asian and east European countries,

Leaders from five communities have been staging a hunger strike in Piazza della Repubblica for the last nine days. They are weak from days of hunger, and yet their spirits seem high. I expect to see more than 40,000 demonstrators says Vladimir Kosturi, the leader of Albanian Association. This is not political, above all else this movement is for humanitarian cause, he declared in enervated, yet with passionate voice.

Frustrations of immigrants have been mounting for months, and now it has reached a final boiling point. Different organizations have joined this movement and they are adamant to get the attention of apathetic officials.