More carnage and pain in the Mediterranean
Europe of walls, of rejections grows and bureaucracies
More than 200 people-migrants who, because of where they came from-Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran and Iraq-were supposedly entitled to refugee status left Turkey on a 20-metre boat they crashed on the rocks of the Calabrian coast. Let us look at them as victims of the third world war ‘in bits and pieces’ of which Pope Francis speaks, ongoing between our countries that want to remain in their comfort zone and countries that are afflicted by wars, environmental disasters, conflicts, discrimination and denial of human rights.
Guernica, Picasso, 1937
It was not by chance that we were reminded of Picasso’s famous work inspired by the bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937 that razed that Basque town to the ground during the Spanish Civil War, with German and Italian planes supporting the nationalist troops of General Francisco Franco against the legitimate republican government of Spain.
Photo: www.republica.com
Yet they could have been saved. This umpteenth massacre of foreign migrants could have been avoided. “This is not a tragedy, it is the consequence of precise choices by the Italian government and Europe. If there were the means to rescue no one would die at sea”. So says Veronica Alfonsi, president of Open Arms Italy. The same concept is reiterated by Emergency: “The drama of Crotone is the result of precise political choices that prevent legal and safe access routes to Europe.” For its part, the Community of Sant’Egidio reiterates the urgency of continuing to save lives at sea, encouraging decrees, facilitating flows together with new regular entry routes, and “asking Europe to come out of its torpor, increasing cooperation and immediately activating a ‘special plan’ of aid and development for the migrants’ countries of origin” (Source repubblica.it).
Photo: www.corriere.it
Incerfa, Alerfa, Mrsc, Imrcc, Ncc. Hidden in these bureaucratic acronyms is the tangle of competences and regulations that has dragged more than 70 human beings, including many women and children, to the bottom of the Mediterranean. This is the network created by Italy and Europe to watch over the sea and defend itself against foreigners.
For Cardinal Zuppi “This umpteenth tragedy, in its dramatic nature, reminds us that the issue of migrants and refugees must be addressed with responsibility and humanity. We cannot repeat words that we have wasted in tragic events similar to this one, which have made the Mediterranean a great cemetery in twenty years”. (Source: www.avvenire.it).
Photo: www.avvenire.it/
ACCORDING TO THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT,
THE MASSACRE OF MIGRANTS IN CALABRIA IS THEIR FAULT!
Photo:www.repubblica.it
“As a ‘desperate person’ I would not leave ‘because I have also been educated to the responsibility of not always asking myself what I should expect from the place and the country where I live, but also what I can give to the country where I live for its redemption’. This is a passage from the speech made by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi in the aftermath of the massacre in the sea at Crotone. ‘However, with respect to tragedies like this one,’ he continued, ‘I do not believe that one can argue that the right and duty to leave comes first, and to leave in this way‘‘. (Source:https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it).
