Survivors and victims'
relatives shared grief and embraces at the Lampedusa's port
Friday as they honoured the anniversary of a migrant-boat wreck
off the southern Italian island's coast, which took the lives of
366 African refugees fleeing to Europe on October 3, 2013.
Survivors painted the breakwater blocks of the Lampedusa
pier, helped by local high school students in the first of a
series of initiatives organized by the October 3 Committee, a
group formed to help the survivors and victims' relatives, to
honour not only the first anniversary of the disaster but also
all migrants who have lost their lives in perilous, desperate
journeys across the Mediterranean seeking European shores.
"God is love," "RIP Henrick," and "You are always in my
heart," were woven into some of the memorial compositions.
Many of the survivors, who returned to Lampedusa for the
event, broke into tears upon seeing the pier.
There were also moments of tension and European Parliament
Speaker Martin Schulz was heckled as he spoke at the ceremony.
"This is a joke," shouted one protestor. "You lot are
guilty, you are the killers".
Lampedusa is closer to Libya than to Sicily and bears the
brunt of migrant arrivals from North Africa.
One survivor, Luam, said coming back to Lampedusa was
incredibly painful, but a duty to his fellow travellers
swallowed by the sea.
Fisherman Domenico Colapinto bore searing memories. He said
he pulled dozens out of the water, but others slipped from his
hands, as they were covered in diesel fuel. He remembers
helplessly watching as they drowned in front of his eyes.
Doctor Pietro Bartolo remembered how he managed to save
Kebrat's life.
"She was surrounded by corpses. If I had not notices her
feeble heartbeat, she would have ended up in a plastic bag like
the others".
"You never get used to death, those who say that lie," said
Lampedusa a resident named Bartolo. "Each time, the pain is
immense, there is nothing to be done and nothing more to say. I
have cried dozens of times in front of those devastated bodies".
The October 3 shipwreck was one of two that occurred that
month, taking 400 lives and prompting the administration of
former Italian premier Enrico Letta to set up the sea search and
rescue programme Mare Nostrum to prevent further deaths at sea.
The disasters marked a major shift in public sentiment and
political policy toward greater compassion for migrants, and
pushed Italy to lobby the European Union for solidarity in
dealing with migrants and reform in its approach to monitoring
frontiers.
Speaking from Tunis on the shipwreck anniversary, Italian
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Friday warned that Italy's
Mare Nostrum operation must be shut down and be replaced with
the European Frontex Plus by November.
Alfano reiterated that responsibility for saving migrants
heading for Europe must be assumed by European authorities.
"(We need to see) European action to show that Europe takes
charge of its own borders," Alfano said.
"We will reach the objective of bringing Europe to patrol
the Mediterranean border," he added.
"We will do it by November and my idea is that Frontex Plus
should start as soon as possible, already at the beginning of
November (and) right afterwards, Mare Nostrum should be closed,"
said Alfano.
Mare Nostrum has been effective, saving more than 90,000
lives and capturing 500 smugglers, but it was not designed as a
permanent program, he said.
Nor should Italy continue to shoulder the burden of sea
rescues of migrants heading for all parts of Europe and only
passing through the Italian peninsula, he said.
"The (Mediterranean) is a European border," the minister
said, adding that Mare Nostrum could not prevent some 500 people
from dying and, according to survivors, 1,400 others from
disappearing.
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