New Landing Procedures or Simply Chaos? The Example of a “Delayed Landing” at Messina

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“In aleis strenua – in pugna invicta”: “Resolute in venture, invincible in battle.” This is the motto of the Italian navy’s imposing vessel the Virginio Fasan (F591), the unusually long stop-over of which at the port of Messina drew the curiosity of passers-by. It raised doubts and some confusion among the local activists, readily expressed […]

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Don’t Worry Dad, I’ll Die Happy Because You’re Alive At Least

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I cannot but feel pain when confronted by the death of an innocent, and the thought that someone you love might lose their life in such an unjust way sends a long, cold shiver down your spine. The news that a father had to leave his small daughter dead at sea so as to try […]

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The Voices of Those Who Are Thrown Back by the Walls and a Lethal Indifference

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In these muggy August days we have been reading tales of violence meted out on migrants in various ways: from the politician who comes up with a decree to prevent acts of solidarity extended to migrants asking for food, to teenagers who have died from the crushing effects of a society which remains indifferent to […]

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The Dead: The Sea Can’t Take Them Any More

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The sea now leaves many of the dead on the beaches of Libya, the very same from which so many depart in search of a new life, a life which has then been denied them, men and women of all ages. In the last week some have been recovered by humanitarian vessels such as Aquarius […]

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Boys On The Outside

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It’s not only the title of a celebrated film by Marco Risi, but the situation lived out today by a vast number of young men and women who arrive on our coasts or who have remained for a long time in the Extraordinary Reception Centres (CAS*). Last week we visited four such centres and met […]

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Western Sicily: A Week of Hell

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Over the week just gone, our attention has turned not only to the landings at Palermo, Porto Empedocle, Trapani and back to Porto Empedocle again, but also to the number of requests for help from the provinces of western Sicily, a place interesting not only for its high climatic temperatures but also the neglect, abandonment […]

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The fiction of despair: “Mummy, don’t worry, I am alive and finally free”

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I come upon Alpha and Omega (not their real names) at the bus station of Agrigento, two poorly dressed boys, with very dirty slippers and trousers, torn t-shirts and jackets, with in their hands a bag presumably filled with food. They immediately draw my attention and I observe them for a while. Both of the […]

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Immigration. The call for reception centres in the province of Trapani and the investigations in the centres.

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From Tp24Among inquiries and parliamentary interrogations, the reception system for migrants is ready to change its profile in the province of Trapani. The deal is a radical change which is going to structurally overthrow the approach to the immigration issue. “We are no longer in a state of emergency – prefect Leopoldo Falco says – […]

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A Barricade in Limbo: The Occupiers of La Locanda

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I arrived with the rest of the whites. A couple of police cars had pulled up on the road; a crowd had formed around the makeshift road block, stopping the vehicles from entering the driveway leading up to the main building. The migrant reception centre of La Locanda stands about an hour or two’s walk […]

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Let’s reject everyone or even better, let’s not!

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“If we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes, it would have been difficult to believe what Italy is doing. We are producing “illegal immigrants”, and entirely consciously. A human being, one who has just arrived after a journey across the desert, Libya and the sea, has been rejected with a piece of paper whose […]

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