From Rome
Faced with a socio-political climate in Europe in which some countries block the measures that the European Union wants to take to receive and help the migrantshe Pope Francisco sent a letter to the Archbishop of Agrigento recalling the tenth anniversary of his first papal trip to the island of Lampedusa (Archbishopric of Agrigento), where thousands of migrants arrive every year, many of whom die in the Mediterranean. And in the letter he took the opportunity to condemn those who do not have in mind the death of thousands of innocent people, many of them children, nor the assistance to migrants in need.
“In these days when we are witnessing the repetition of serious tragedies in the Mediterranean, we are disturbed by the silent tragedies before which we still remain inactive and astonished,” Francis wrote. The death of innocents, especially children, in search of a more serene existence, far from wars and violence, is a painful and deafening cry that cannot leave us indifferent. It is the shame of a society that no longer knows how to cry and pity the other”.
“You have to change your attitude,” Francisco continued. The brother who knocks at the door is worthy of love, reception and all care. He is a brother who has been placed on earth to enjoy what exists and share it in communion. In this context, we are all called to a profound renewal of the sense of responsibility, giving evidence of solidarity and exchange”, concluded the pontiff who also asked the faithful not to remain “prisoners of fear” and discriminatory attitudes and the Church that put her on the “path of the forgotten, coming out of herself”.
Those who arrive in Italy
Already when he went to the island of Lampedusa in 2013, a few months after being elected Pope, Francis spoke of the Mediterranean Sea as a “cemetery”.
In fact, already at that time the traffickers of human beings who left Libya, chose the island of Lampedusa to abandon the migrants who were charged an expensive passage (1500 euros, sometimes more), because it is the Italian territory most close to Africa (less than 100km).
Today the traffickers sometimes leave from other countries, such as Tunisia, and make landings in various maritime areas of the island of Sicily and Calabria, among others.
The Mediterranean “has been confirmed as a highly dangerous route for those fleeing violence, wars, persecution, extreme poverty, stressed the humanitarian organization Save The Children. “Migrants trust smugglers even though they are subjected to absolutely unsafe and dangerous conditions, because there is no other way to cross the Mediterranean,” she added.
Despite the complaints of some Italian conservative sectors against migrants, according to the Ministry of the Interior that deals with this issue, requests for international protection (that is, the degree of refugee when escaping from wars or violence) in Italy in 2022 were much less than in other countries. In Italy there were 77,195 while in Germany 217,735, in France 137,195 and in Spain 116,140.
Regarding arrivals, which had consistently decreased during the pandemic period, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, until June 30, 2023, 64,930 migrants (including 8,833 unaccompanied minors) arrived in Italy against 27,633. of 2022 and the 20,532 of 2021. The main nationalities present among the migrants are this year: Ivory Coast, Guinea, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia and Syria.
the last shipwrecks
Shipwrecks are very common in the Mediterranean, more or less important depending on the number of people carrying the barges of the traffickers. In April there were at least two shipwrecks on the route from Tunisia to Italy. The disappeared were 19 in the first case, 3 in the second.
One of the worst tragedies in recent times, however, occurred near Pylos, in Greece.in the middle of last June, where a fishermen’s barge super-full of migrants (there is talk of about 750 people), sank causing the death of at least 600 of them. Not all of their remains have yet been found and may never turn up, experts say. Among the dead were many children. The survivors told the doctors and volunteers who helped them that there were at least 100 children locked in the ship’s hold.
In 2013 (and that is why Pope Francis went to Lampedusa) 368 people drowned near the island and in April 2015 another similar tragedy occurred, always in front of Lampedusa. Between 700 and 950 people were traveling on the ship but only 28 survived.
In February 2023, near the coast of Calabria (in Cutro), a barge with at least 180 people on board sank due to bad weather. 94 people died. This case sparked all kinds of controversy and criticism against the right-wing government Giorgia Meloni, because the security forces that operate in the Mediterranean, the Coast Guard and the Finance Guard, did not act quickly to prevent the tragedy. Attitude that was attributed to government decisions.
As for the dead, in 2022 it is estimated that 1,410 people lost their lives in the Mediterranean, whose remains in many cases could not be recovered. In the last 10 years, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 26,000 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean, leaving from ports in Tunisia and Libya.
What does the European Union do?
For some time the European Union (EU) has been trying to reach new agreements to deal with the migration issue. That Europe needs migrants (and Italy above all), because its population is too old and it does not have enough manpower, it is known. One of the problems is that Europeans have few children and there are no young people to do the jobs that are necessary. But the issue is not well received by conservative sectors who point out, among other points, that European culture will be “Africanized” or “Asianized” if they are allowed in and Europe will lose its roots.
Last March it seemed that the EU had laid the foundations for an agreement. The interior ministers of the 27 member countries of the bloc met in Luxembourg to discuss the migration issue and reorganize asylum for migrants and the management of arrivals. They had been talking about this for nine years and towards the end of the meeting it seemed that they had reached an agreement. Except that two ultra-right governments, that of Hungary and that of Poland, strongly opposed it. So the decision was resent.
A decision will also have to be made on what is meant by “safe third countries” where it will be possible to send migrants who receive asylum at the place of arrival. “Relocation of migrants seeking asylum in the EU is unacceptable for us,” said Polish deputy interior minister Bartosz Grodecki.
The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, when inaugurating the session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on this issue, highlighted a few days ago that “we have a duty to fulfill and a responsibility. We are a generation of politicians who cannot forget these tragedies. We cannot accept that the Mediterranean is transformed into a graveyard”, she said.
The European Council, which was also supposed to take a decision on this issue, was unable to do so due to the opposition of Hungary and Poland. According to the Italian press, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, asked the right-wing Meloni, president of the Italian Council of Ministers, to mediate with Poland and Hungary, given that they are three right-wing governments and given that Italy He is in favor of the agreement on migrants. But Meloni did not reach any agreement.
“Hungary must defend itself not only against human traffickers and illegal migrants but also against Brussels,” the Hungarian president wrote in a Tweet. Victor Orbán. “We will continue to defend the borders of the EU and we will not accept the mandatory numbers of migrants” that the EU wants to impose on each of its member countries, he said.
Negotiations on the issue of migrants continue but so far without a final decision.