We're Not Boat Drivers

Vita.it – They worked for days and nights to build Santa's Grotto. One cut the wood, one painted the sleigh or the tree, one gathered the leaves for the details, one the moss and the stones to make the grotto itself. Between a visit to the lawyer and a phone call to their parents in Senegal or Ghana who, till a short while ago, when they were in prison, thought they were dead. Between one word of hope and another. And before signing at the police station, as they have to every afternoon before returning to prison.

Migrants' routes: Online Map Assembled with Stories, amongst Torture and Abuse

Redattoresociale.it - It is called Esodi and it was conducted by Doctors for Human Rights (MEDU), which have put together the stories of more than 2600 people that have travelled across the desert, lived through the atrocities of Libyan prisons and crossed the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. Barbieri: ‘Not only numbers. We want to raise awareness about what these people go through.’

Torture, rape and slavery in Libya: why migrants must be able to leave this hell

oxfam.org - Rape, torture and slave labour are among the horrendous daily realities for people stuck in Libya who are desperately trying to escape war, persecution and poverty in African countries, according to a new report by Oxfam and Italian partners MEDU and Borderline Sicilia.

Oxfam, Borderline Sicilia, Doctors For Human Rights: “Abuse, Torture and Illegal Detention in the Libyan Hell”

A new report reveals the daily brutality suffered by migrants in Libya at the hands of local militia, human traffickers and criminal gangs. It represents an urgent call to revoke the deal between Italy and Libya and for a change in direction of the EU's policies on controlling the flow of migrants.

Landing in Sicily. Photo: Alessandro Rota, Oxfam

Contradictions and Violations of Human Rights in the Pozzallo Hotspot

Source: meltingpot.org

This is the first report from the Overthefortress campaign in South Italy, from the Province of Ragusa.

It includes an interview with Giuseppe Cannella from Doctors for Human Rights (MEDU*) as well as Lucia Borghi from Borderline Sicilia.

“Don't Call Them Economic Migrants”. MEDU Explains the Exodus to Europe

From Redattoresociale.it

An interactive map shows refugees' voyages, from desert to boat. Ninety per cert of them are victims of violence, abuse and psychological trauma. “The dichotomy of economic migrant and refugee isn't up to explaining a complex reality like this.”

Those Who Die, Those Who Arrive and Those Who Remain: The Overcrowded Hotspots at Pozzallo

“What Europe just doesn't understand is that for migrants arriving in Libya it's less risky to try and escape across the sea that to try and go back to their home countries”, says A., a young Senegalese man who arrived in Italy two years ago. Like many of his countrymen, he's following the rescue operations on the TV, shot through with a sense of momentary relief between the powerlessness and rage. “Anyone who hasn't been in Libya cannot imagine what it means to live there. Every European has a mobile, in the same way every Libyan, however old, walks around with a gun in his hand. But no one in Italy wants to hear about this.”

Hearing of Doctors For Human Rights at the parliamentary commission of inquiry concerning reception centres for migrants

Medu – The first months of 2015 have been characterized by the rekindling of the discussion on the immigration issue and the sustainability of the current reception system. Episodes of corruption, like those solved by Mafia Capitale, and the high number of migrants arriving via sea impose the constant monitoring of residing conditions as well as of the efficiency of the facilities that are currently prepared to welcome migrants. For this reason, today Doctors For Human Rights (MEDU) carried out a hearing at the parliamentary commission of inquiry concerning the reception system as well as the identification and the detention of migrants, considering the constant presence of the organization within the CARA* of Mineo, which is the facility that hosts the largest number of migrants in Europe.