Life on the frontline – Lampedusa more than a month after the 3 October shipwreck

Nicola Grigion, Meltingpot – One and a half months after the dramatic night of October 3, we return to Lampedusa to tell the story about the reality of life on this last scrap of land at the southernmost extremity of Europe now that the media spotlight has faded and life has gone back to how […]

Again 61 refugees found off Lampedusa

handelsblatt – The Coast Guard has again rescued refugees off Lampedusa. According to the responsible naval staff, the boat drifted south of the Mediterranean island with 61 people from Africa. An aircraft was also in use during rescue. On 3 October, 336 people drowned off Lampedusa. However, even after these incidents, refugees set out for […]

The testimonies of other refugees robbed by the Italian military

In the wake of the tragic shipwrecks of the October 3 and 11, the inauguration of the much publicised humanitarian rescue operation Mare Nostrum has been marred by the report made by around thirty Syrians of theft whilst aboard an Italian military vessel. The refugees, who had been intercepted at sea and transferred to the […]

Hundreds of boat people saved

More than three weeks after the two momentous refugee dramas off Lampedusa with more than 400 dead, the flow of refugees to Europe still continues. The Italian Coast Guard and Navy rescued hundreds of boat people in the Mediterranean again. On Monday evening and in the early morning of Tuesday, nearly 400 migrants were brought […]

The Lampedusa Tragedy: Why Sons Could Not Mourn Their Mothers

IDN-InDepth News – In the early morning of October 3 a tourist was enjoying the beautiful quiet beach of the Italian Mediterranean Island when three swimmers appeared. Three African young men frantically asked for help. They had left their mothers behind in a ship on sea that was on fire. The ship had made the […]

The arrivals continue at Lampedusa. Survivors’ testimonies of the shipwreck of 11 October, “the Libyans shot at us”

Lampedusa is still receiving new arrivals of migrants, mainly from Syria and the Horn of Africa but also from some West African countries, particularly Ghana. Nights ago migrants arrived at the Favaloro pier, transported by Coast Guard patrol boats. The 14 migrants from Somalia and Eritrea were found in the hold of a boat that […]

The Lampedusa disaster: the bodies arrive in Sicily. Family members wait to learn of the final destination

It ended late yesterday afternoon, the transfer of the first coffins of over 300 victims of the devastating shipwreck of 3 October, transferred from Lampedusa to Porto Empedocle on an Italian Navy ship. Here we publish a number of photos showing the loading of coffins onto trucks, before a crowd of about 300 people, among […]

Demonstration on Lampedusa: No Fingerprints by Force!

About 200 Eritrean stayed over night in front of the little church of Lampedusa, to protest against the Dublin Regulation. They arrived mainly during the last week, with 1000 other refugees on the border of Europe, on Lampedusa, the “Gate of Europe”. They don’t want to give their fingerprints because they don’t want to be […]

Askavusa: Lampedusa

Yesterday at around 6pm, a group of migrants was taken by the forces of order to within the Imbriacola Centre. The migrants had been in front of the Church Square, where migrants have been gathering for many months now. Some of the migrants are saying that attitudes within the Centre have changed in the last […]

Lampedusa: 200 immigrants protest

agrigento Oggi: Around 200 immigrants are protesting on Lampedusa in front of the island’s Chiesa Madre. They are asking to be transferred from the Centre of Contrada Imbriacola, where many of them have been staying for over a month. The Carabinieri earlier intervened in the protest, but the current situation is one of calmness. The […]