Why The Death Continues

Little more than a hundred euros and a few weeks' wait. That's the price any Italian citizen has to pay and the procedure to follow if they want a passport. Who knows how many people who request and make use of their own document are aware that what to them is a banal and routine operation, is beyond the reach of thousands of others, indeed is impossible. Who knows if European citizens think even for a moment that to have the same freedom of movement there are people who, even today, are forced to pay with their very lives, to waste away in prison for months and to sell their bodies.

Refugee children live alone on Sicily’s streets after having risked their lives in the Mediterranean

By Meltingpot.org

“Ahmed! Ahmed! Ahmed!“ – a breathless voice can be heard at the opposite side of the square and, like a domino effect, awakens everyone who rests in the area. They get up and nervously try to find out who is the lucky one, reverently repeating the name. The one who called out holds a cell phone in his hand, Ahmed (a made-up name) jumps up from a bench and runs towards the person to receive a gift that is very precious in the Italian city of Catania: a telephone call from a different European country.

An Egyptian minor shows photographs of friends and relatives who have found refuge in Sudan, Ethiopia, Sweden, and Germany (Photograph taken by Gabriela Sanchez)