Gazzetta Di Mantova reported that some twenty asylum seekers staged the protest to demand free air time to watch their favourite sport in English.
One of them held up a sign saying “We don’t want Anastasia”, the manager of the asylum centre. They also used objects that were lying around to block access to their compound, preventing a female worker from entering. When an employee of the electrical company tried to enter, they attacked him.
Finally, the police arrived at the scene of the protest. The asylum seekers demanded free cable TV access to watch football matches on Sky TV. The cable service apparently was not provided at the institution. They also made some complaints about the food.
Most of the protesters went back in at around 11, with only a few remaining outside.
Islao Petrarca, director of the Versoprobo cooperative which manages the asylum centre, said: “We provide what we need to provide; in some cases also more. But nothing superfluous. We have no intention of satisfying childish requests.”
To watch Sky channels live in Italy, a dish and a receiver are required. The size of the dish will vary from region to region, but a 1.2m one should cover most areas.
One issue is that some communes only allow a maximum of 1m dishes to be attached to a house. If this is the case, then the dish would need to be fixed to a pole. This can get very expensive, plus the Sky receiver needs to be imported from the UK with shipping costs.
As well as all the above the viewer will also need a subscription using a European subscription service. SkyEurope sell viewing cards for 99 Euros per year, depending on the package subscribed to.