Hard to Accommodate: Palermo

In the past few days we have read about the announcementsby the mayor of Gorino and the protests held by its citizens, and many of us have condemned such acts. Without doubt, racism and ignorance have created some monsters for the front pages, but in the end it has been too easy to “pick off the easy targets”, and no one in the media has examined the errors committed by the Prefecture and other institutional agents, who were unaware of how to set up a reception project: there was no plan prepared for any interaction between the new arrivals and the indigenous community, but instead they were inserted into a situation of emergency, causing simply the latest social conflict which has served to demonstrate quite clearly the true face of migration policies and to continue to reap its harvest of victims.

Everyone Sit Down Please

It's not just a line for children, but also the position lived out by migrants while on board the rescue ships, while waiting their identification at the port, while in the police station for their finger prints to be taken. Sat on the ground so that we can watch over them from above. We who decide their fate.

When the TV cameras are turned off

On August 24, the Italian ship Vega carried 548 people who had been rescued at sea to Palermo. The majority of those aboard were women and children. Amongst them were many unaccompanied minors; 130 on arrival. Yet after the identification procedure had been carried out, that number somehow had gone down to 45.

In search of a safe place

The last few days have shown a continuous appearance of proposals and contra proposals by Italian politicians and European institutions for the management of border controls and sea rescue. To the eulogies for the operation Mare Nostrum, holt recently by the chief prosecutor of Catania, Giovanni Salvi, concur the proposals presented by Alfano to the European Union, based on the agreements with Tunisia and Egypt for coastal patrols and the creation of at least three refugee camps in African countries considered to be safe.

Lampedusa: „I prayed for the whole journey“, says the doctor aboard of the speedboat

La Repubblica, by Raffaella Cosentino - During the crossing, of which the return has lasted more than 17 hours, the rescue workers also feared for their lives and even the most experienced have not felt comfortable. "We no longer had enough blankets; the wind had blown them away. Some crawled into to the engine room to warm up and we had to interrupt the journey." This is the dramatic testimony of Gabriella Lattuca who is part of the Italian rescue team which is under the command of the Maltese Navy.

The Border Returns to Lampedusa

riforma.it – Martha Bernardini: “Terrorists among migrants on the boats? They choose safer ways to get to Europe.”
Lampedusa remains an important place to understand migratory movements in the Mediterranean Sea. Since November 2014, we have witnessed a political development in Italy and Europe concerning migration by sea: from Mare Nostrum through Mos Maiorum to the operation Triton, which is coordinated by Frontex. A development that, as already anticipated by observers, is negative. Marta Bernardini from the observatory Mediterranean Hope spoke with us about the changing situation on Lampedusa Island that is now again playing a role in the emergency situation of arrivals. What has changed in recent months?

Washed ashore in Marettimo - Women and children cling to cliffs

La Repubblica – Yesterday evening, at 10.00 p.m., the coast guard was faced with a difficult rescue operation after they received a distress call via satellite phone from a sinking vessel. On board were 55 people; all managed to reach the shore.
This terrible event happened yesterday evening in Marettimo, one of the islands of the Trapani archipelago. The migrants’ boat had sunk under still unclear circumstances. The 55 people on board managed to reach the rocky, very inaccessible shore but all they could do to escape drowning was cling to rocks along the shoreline. Among the shipwrecked were also women and children.

Surviving castaways: On the totally overloaded boat 180 people died

On the website of Repubblica.it you can find a video of the first rescuing actions. Officials stated on Saturday that there were 30 dead migrants. But the rescued people reveal other horrible stories: They are talking about many more dead people, not just by drowning, but by stepped or beaten victims.

The testimonies of other refugees robbed by the Italian military

In the wake of the tragic shipwrecks of the October 3 and 11, the inauguration of the much publicised humanitarian rescue operation Mare Nostrum has been marred by the report made by around thirty Syrians of theft whilst aboard an Italian military vessel.

SOS from boat, migrants rescued in the Sicilian Channel

LAMPEDUSA. Journeys towards to Sicilian shores are not slowing down. 75 illegal immigrants have been saved from a boat that was in danger of sinking and taken to Lampedusa. Four of those aboard were women, one of whom was pregnant. They were taken aboard two coastguard patrol boats after having launched a request for assistance from a satellite telephone yesterday afternoon. 

35 migrants arrive by boat in Sicily

SYRACUSE. The men from the Port Authorities stopped 8 illegal immigrants immediately. They declared that there were 106 migrants aboard in total, including 50 women. The search for the other migrants is underway. This morning a boat of migrants arrived in Sicily. 

Lampedusa, drifting dinghy with 107 people aboard rescued during the night

(Adnkronos) A dinghy with 107 migrants aboard, including 28 woman, 3 minors and 76 men, was rescued last night by the coastguard just off Lampedusa. Another rescue operation was being carried out simultaneously by a merchant ship and a Maltese military patrol boat. 77 migrants were rescued.

New migrant tragedies in front of the Lybian coast. The patrol boats given to Gaddafi have turned their motors off.

We've said it time and time again, but no one ever listens. The Immigration Emergency has to end (at least on paper) by the 31st December 2012. Reception facilities, which have cost a fortune from the very moment the State of Emergency was declared by Berlusconi in February 2011, will be closed and as for the boats that continue to arrive- we must speak about them as little as possible, the old bilateral agreements still stand.