Without money or a home, the family now lives at the airport in Elmas: "Here for four days, we are invisible"

Cagliari-Elmas “Mario Mameli” Airport, arrivals area. Quick steps, suitcases rolling on the shiny floor, hugs from those returning and those leaving. And then them, Jhaneth, Aurelio and Olghita: three lives suspended between the blue armchairs and a giant chessboard on the floor. Invisible for four days and three nights now.

Invisible to those who pass by in a hurry, to those who hurry home or to a new journey. And yet, they are there, camped at the airport, without money, without food, without a place to go. "No one has asked us anything. We are good people, we just want to work and have a roof over our heads," says Jhaneth Rojas Sandoval, 46, Peruvian.

Arriving in Sardinia in November 2023, she worked as a carer in Zeddiani, welcomed by a family who helped her with documents and integration. But when the elderly woman she was caring for passed away, her job ended. Since then, she has been constantly moving, looking for a new job found in Oristano, but here too "I was fired because the old lady died". Only to then find herself "with nothing", in the heart of the Cagliari airport, with her mother Olghita and her husband Aurelio Panduro.

“Everything changed from one day to the next,” he says. His voice drops when he talks about his expiring documents: he should get to Nuoro to renew them. “But I don’t have money for the train, or even for food.” He doesn’t want his mother to know how serious the situation is, he doesn’t want her to worry. “No tengo suerte,” he repeats in Spanish. “I have no luck.”

Aurelio, her husband, will be returning to Peru in a few days: "He doesn't have the money to make the whole trip home, it wasn't supposed to go like this, I don't even know if I can get the insurance money."

She and her mother, however, will remain in Sardinia. "We are workers, serious people. We are just asking for an opportunity," she says with the dignity of someone who is not asking for alms, but for a chance at redemption. "Up until now, thanks to my work, I have been able to pay for my daughter's university studies in Peru, I don't want her to know what we are going through: we are good people, patient and with a big heart."

And in the meantime today they will spend another night there, on the airport seats, among the distracted crowd and the departing flights. Waiting for someone to really see them and take care of them.