Lampedusa, the “Gateway to Europe”?

Interview with a passionate witness of life on the island.

In the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, positioned on the 35th parallel, there is a narrow strip of land that the Phoenicians first inhabited and that today is, sadly, well-known in Europe and beyond for its central place in the hopes and worries of thousands of people looking for a better, more fulfilling future.

As the title above hints, this territory is Lampedusa, a semi-arid island that is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento, Italy.

The island is famous for representing a key stage of the Mediterranean migratory flows toward Europe, mainly due to its strategic location not far from the African coasts (113 km from Tunisia) and for being at the center of the debate on how Italy and the European Union should manage immigration, a major challenge of the previous decade, while honoring the values of the EU, namely the respect for human dignity and human rights.

In this particular setting, the focus will be solely on the words and experiences of a young woman who visited Lampedusa several times to remember the tragic episodes of October 3rd, 2013, when 368 people died while trying to reach the island on a crumbling boat.

She took migrant rights to heart and was happy that the BAES Gazette offered her an occasion to spread awareness on the topic.

Her name is Marianna Romanelli, she studies in Pisa, Italy, and will answer some questions based on her life-changing experiences.

The photos were taken in Lampedusa by Bianca Galimberti, a “3 October Committee” volunteer like Marianna, who kindly agreed to post them in the BAES Gazette. The monument in the photo is called the “Gate of Europe” and was built to remember and honor the memory of the migrants who died and were lost at sea in the attempt to reach Lampedusa and Europe.

Hey Marianna, how did you find the opportunity to visit Lampedusa and become a witness to the situation on the island?

I could go to Lampedusa thanks to the Comitato 3 Ottobre (3 October Committee), a non-profit organization whose purpose is, by remembering the 368 people who died on the night of October 3rd, 2013, to keep alive the memory of the nameless victims of the Mediterranean ever since (from a total of about 27.000 deaths) and to conduct an identification campaign for them and their families.

Every year, the organization brings several European students to Lampedusa to experience training days on the topic of migration and to participate in the Italian National Day of Remembrance and Reception.

I participated first as a student in this project in 2021 and then for two years as a volunteer of the 3 October Committee.

Pointing out the European scope of this issue, there is currently a petition by YouMove Europe to make 3rd October the European Day of Memory and Welcome.

Oftentimes, when trying to come a bit closer to an understanding of complex phenomena that involve, directly or indirectly, so many lives, it is useful to focus on a few remarkable stories, as a means to facilitate an attentive approach. Could you tell us some migrants’ experiences that particularly impressed you?

In my time in Lampedusa, I have not been able to meet people who had just arrived, as they are immediately taken from the Favaloro pier to the hotspot, which is militarized and inaccessible.

However, I came into contact and created bonds with people connected to the shipwreck of October 3rd, who have the determination to return to the island for the commemoration and to constructively talk with European students and volunteers.

One of them is Solomon, an Eritrean who survived that tragic night. Of the about 500 people on that ship, the great majority of them were fleeing Eritrea. Solomon crossed Ethiopia, Sudan, and Libya before embarking.

He was rescued from the waters of Lampedusa, three hours after the boat capsized, by Vito Fiorino, the brave fisherman who first witnessed the tragedy and was able to save 47 lives.

Today, Solomon lives in Sweden, has two children, and still says that he was born a second time that day in Lampedusa.

Kebrat, Eritrean as well, was considered dead on the morning of October 3rd, but she was saved by the then Lampedusa doctor Pietro Bartolo, who during the cadaveric inspection realized that she was still alive and managed to reanimate her. Kebrat also lives in Sweden and is the mother of three children.

Witnesses of the shipwreck of October 11th, 2013, known as the "children's massacre", also come to the island. Of the 238 deaths, more than 60 were children.

In this case, Italy and Malta's failure to intervene promptly to rescue the shipwrecked people, already carried out with the Decision of 27.1.2021 of the UN Human Rights Committee, has also been confirmed at the jurisdictional level by the Court of Rome.

Most of the people on that ship were of Syrian nationality and had departed from Libia.

That day, Refaat and his wife Feryal lost two sons, Mohammad and Ahmed. Today, they live in Hamburg, Germany.

Many other stories deserve to be told, as they help us understand that behind the numbers there are people who have experienced and are experiencing pain but have had the courage and strength to build a life from scratch without losing hope in humanity.

In your opinion, what is it about the topic of migration that makes it so polarizing and frequently exploited by populist politicians?

I don’t have a fully developed answer to this question, but I think it is ignorance that is easily exploited by deceitful politicians to spread propaganda and false information on the topic.

I’m referring to ignorance not only as a lack of knowledge but also as "ignoring what is different from the self" because it is not considered relevant, paving the way for indifference.

In my opinion, these dangerous sentiments are a reflection of xenophobia and racism, that contribute to the closing of borders and fuel a double standard policy towards migratory flows.

The exploitation of information to instigate the intolerance of a considerable part of public opinion leads to a distorted narrative of the phenomenon, which continues to be erroneously defined as an emergency, and it is also through this alarmism that polarization is created.

Among the migrants you have had the opportunity to meet, which are the most popular states in which to settle to build their new life in Europe?

The people I met in Lampedusa who have a past of migration arrived in Europe 10 years ago, either on the 3rd or the 11th of October 2013.

They live in Sweden, Norway, Holland, Germany, and Switzerland; of the people I met during this project, no one remained in Italy. Most of them have started a family and are working.

In 2013, there were also many minors on the boats: Hagos, for example, is now 26 years old and lives by himself in Norway.

I think he still has many dreams to come true, at least that is what his eyes conveyed to me.

In Trento, which is my hometown, I met a Gambian boy who studied there and then moved to Finland, further showing the limited willingness of migrants to settle down in Italy, which is sustained by the data despite the narrative going in the opposite direction.

For example, in Sweden, the population is about ⅙ of that of Italy (10 million), and there are 186,000 refugees, or 50% more than in the Southern European country.

In Germany, there are 478,000 refugees, almost four times those present in Italy.

And what about the origins of the migrants (or former ones) that you got to know?

The people I came into contact with the most, who arrived ten years ago, are Eritrean nationals. Today, people continue to escape from Eritrea, mainly due to the living conditions under an authoritarian regime that introduced compulsory military service up to the age of 60 for men and 50 for women, meaning that people escaping the country cannot go back, or they will be treated as deserters.

As my Eritrean friends painfully told me, the dream of a fulfilling future is currently a privilege for few in the country.

I also met a lot of Syrian nationals who were forced to flee their war-torn country.

On general grounds and based on my experience, I can say that countries from Sub-Saharan Africa are the most represented among migrants disembarking in Lampedusa.

Lampedusa has a population of about 6,000 people, the precise number varying depending on the season. What were your impressions of the mood there and the inhabitants’ position on the migratory flows?

What struck me the most about the Lampedusa people is their general openness.

As maritime and borderland people, they strongly value the law of the sea: shipwrecked people or those in trouble in the sea are to be saved regardless, then comes the rest.

This approach characterizes the island that, despite the difficulties, prevalently maintains a welcoming rather than reserved attitude towards migrants.

The "Gate of Europe" was represented as always open, even though, in reality, that’s often not the case.

Thanks a lot for your valuable testimony, Marianna!

And thank you for your attention, dear BAES Gazette reader!

References

Lampedusa: una scheggia d’Africa in territorio italiano. Guida Sicilia. https://www.guidasicilia.it/itinerario/lampedusa-una-scheggia-d-africa-in-territorio-italiano/1001755

UNCHR. (2021, October 2). Italian National Day of Remembrance and Reception https://www.unhcr.org/it/notizie-storie/comunicati-stampa/italian-national-day-of-remembrance-and-reception-iom-unhcr-unicef-saving-lives-needs-to-remain-a-priority-on-the-political-agenda-of-the-eu/

3 October Committee website. https://www.comitatotreottobre.it/home?lang=en

Varrella, S. (2021, September 17). Deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea 2014-2020. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1082077/deaths-of-migrants-in-the-mediterranean-sea/

MOAS. (2020, October 2). 3rd October: National Day in Memory of the Victims of Immigration in Italy. MOAS. https://www.moas.eu/3rd-october-national-day-in-memory-of-the-victims-of-immigration-in-italy/

Sign here: Make October 3rd the European Day of Memory and Welcome! https://you.wemove.eu/campaigns/make-october-3rd-the-european-day-of-memory-and-welcome

Hotspots. (2023, May 30). Asylum Information Database | European Council on Refugees and Exiles. https://asylumineurope.org/reports/country/italy/asylum-procedure/access-procedure-and-registration/hotspots/

Vito Fiorino. Gariwo. https://it.gariwo.net/giusti/migrazioni/vito-fiorino-17960.html

ASGI. (2022, December 16). Sentenza sulla strage di bambini dell’ 11 ottobre 2013: accertata l’omissione di soccorso. Asgi. https://www.asgi.it/notizie/sentenza-sulla-strage-di-bambini-dell-11-ottobre-2013-accertata-lomissione-di-soccorso/

UNHCR. “Invasion” of Refugees in Italy, here are the numbers (A. Lanni, Ed.) https://www.unhcr.org/it/risorse/carta-di-roma/fact-checking/linvasione-dei-rifugiati-italia-numeri/