Decisions and Priorities Imposed Without Risk Evaluation

On Monday 27 November the Aquarius landed at Catania with 421 people on board, the majority Eritrean. There were also five men from Egypt, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Pakistan and South Sudan. The percentage of women on board was very high – 40% – of whom 7 were pregnant. There were 98 minors, of whom 60 were unaccompanied. Three people had to be taken to hospital during the landing operation, including a woman in the ninth month of pregnancy whose waters broke.

Confusion Reigns Supreme While Migrants Die

The war on migrants is claiming ever more victims. There is no pause: the victims are increasingly younger, victims of policies arising from Europe’s choice to be ever more closed in on itself. A Europe with a constant syndrome of believing itself to be under siege, rending people’s lives a living hell, as is the case for the 606 people who arrived last Friday in Palermo on border the SOS Mediterranee, a landing baptised by all of the newspapers as the “ship of children.”

The SOS Mediterranee at the Port of Palermo