We learned nothing from the Lampedusa massacre in 2013

The massacre of 3 October 2013 seemed to mark a turning point in the EU's migration policies.Since then, however, there have been over 30 thousand victims.

“I was born a fisherman and then I changed my profession after having had a very bad experience:I was a castaway too, it was traumatizing for me.I chose to enter politics after the Lampedusa massacre in 2013:368 deaths before our eyes, a stone's throw from the port and seeing all those dead children, that tragedy, made me decide.When Europe realizes that the migration phenomenon is an opportunity, a wealth, then, at that point, I am sure that Europe will give the right answers."

Thus he spoke Pietro Bartolo, fisherman, surgeon from Lampedusa and then MEP, just before last summer.There is a before and an after on October 3, 2013, of the Lampedusa massacre 11 years ago, in the history of migratory flows towards Italy and also in the history of many people on whom that tragedy struck, turning their lives upside down.In the stories of the castaways, of the relatives of the victims, but also of the rescuers.Even in that of Pietro Bartolo who took part in the desperate rescue effort that day and who transformed that experience into a new challenge:go to Brussels, as an MEP, to try to demolish the Fortress that Europe has decided to erect for its own protection. Bartolo didn't have time to make it:not re-elected in the European elections last June, he returned to Lampedusa, to do his old job, caring for those in need, including the still many migrants arriving on the island.

The Lampedusa massacre did not stop the deaths in the Mediterranean

However, without being able to do anything more for those who don't arrive:today the United Nations, throughInternational Organization for Migration, theUNHCR which deals with refugees and theUnicef of minors certify that since 2014 to date have been registered over 30 thousand victims of journeys of hope, of which almost 24 thousand were along the central Mediterranean route, which is confirmed as one of the most dangerous globally.In 2024 alone, over 1,229 people have already lost their lives along this route, and among them there are many minors, including infants and children and teenagers traveling alone:according to the project data Missing migrants of the Iom, in the decade between 2014 and 2023 overall they would be at least 1,214 minors dead or missing in the Mediterranean.However, these are partial data since the actual age of the dead or missing is not always reported.

In short, despite the words and the institution, precisely on the occasion of October 3rd, of a day of remembrance and welcome, and although the Lampedusa massacre changed the lives of many, what has not changed is that the Mediterranean still remains extremely dangerous for migrants and the nine worst tragedies in terms of number of dead and missing recorded in the world concerned the Central Mediterranean.In particular, the route that leads to Italy.In seven cases the country of departure was Libya, in two Egypt:the most tragic accident of all occurred on April 18, 2015, a hundred kilometers north of Libya, with at least 1,022 dead or missing (only 28 survived).On June 14 last year, off Pylos, in the Peloponnese, in a terrible shipwreck at least 646 migrants lost their lives or were missing (104 survivors).On 26 May 2016, in another accident, there were at least 550 dead or missing (among them there was an absolute record for women and girls - 75 - and a record for minors:46.And then obviously the Cutro massacre of 2023, and the most recent one of last June 17, again in the Italian waters of the Ionian Sea, near Calabria, with 66 dead or missing, including 27 minors.

Shortly before the end of the last legislature, the European Union adopted the new one Pact on Migration and Asylum, which focuses on what happens from the landing onwards.What is still missing, however, is creating one European search and rescue mission, like the one that Italy alone had set up with Mare Nostrum precisely on the emotional impulse of the Lampedusa massacre, but which lasted the space of a year.Today, it also explains it Community of Sant'Egidio, among the organizations most involved in welcoming and organizing humanitarian corridors.“In the face of this enormous tragedy, much more can and must be done:continue rescue at sea and facilitate the regular entry of migrants for work reasons, which Italy, in the midst of a demographic crisis, desperately needs, as well as encouraging family reunification.We also need to encourage humanitarian corridors."Thus, so far, 7,700 asylum seekers have entered, freed from the dangers of the sea and the clutches of human traffickers.But so far, to quote Bartolo's words, Europe still doesn't seem to have realised.