11 years since the Lampedusa tragedy

By Massimiliano Menichetti

Europe and the wider world, still scarred by wars, poverty, and violence, continue to debate and divide over migration, often forgetting that this issue isn’t about abstract numbers—it’s about real people, real faces, real stories, often filled with pain and tragedy. Borders, marked by walls, are too often insurmountable for those fleeing the horrors of conflict or seeking a better life. Thousands die in deserts trying to cross, languish in detention centers, or are swallowed by the sea, just as they were 11 years ago.

On October 3rd, 2013, the hopes of 543 people turned into a nightmare. The overcrowded fishing boat they were on capsized and sank about half a mile from Lampedusa. These migrants—mainly Ethiopians and Eritreans—had left two days earlier from Misrata, Libya, aboard a 20-metre vessel. It became one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest maritime disasters in the 21st century: 368 confirmed dead, 155 survivors, and 20 missing.

That same year in July, on his first papal visit to Lampedusa, Pope Francis expressed deep sorrow for another tragedy at sea that had occurred nearby. He spoke of the "globalisation of indifference" that makes us all "responsible." He warned that "we are no longer paying attention to the world we live in; we don’t care for it, nor for the people God created for us to care for."

Over the years, through three encyclicals, hundreds of public appeals, visits, and journeys, Pope Francis has reached out to humanity's conscience, urging people to overcome selfishness, indifference, and exploitation. His vision is for a world that is welcoming, compassionate, fraternal, and peaceful. Yet, the Mediterranean, once the cradle of civilisation, has become a distant, silent graveyard. The situation in other oceans is no different.

In a world where social media dominates and artificial intelligence promises both wonders and catastrophes, it seems all too easy to turn away, ignore, and forget. But some things are hard to forget—like the image from 2015 that moved and shocked millions: Aylan, the lifeless Syrian child, face down in the sand, washed up on a beach in Bodrum, Turkey.

Pope Francis continues to encourage political and diplomatic efforts to heal what he calls “an open wound in our humanity.” He also praises those who work tirelessly to rescue, welcome, and assist migrants. "The solution is not to turn people away," he said in Marseille in 2023 at the closing session of the “Mediterranean Encounters,” "but to provide, as much as possible, more opportunities for legal and safe migration."

For Pope Francis, the key is meeting others, taking risks, showing love, walking together, and finding shared solutions. This requires each of us to change our perspective—to shift from “I” to “we,” to remember and to see clearly, so we can recognize in others the compassionate face of Jesus.