Anniversary of shipwreck reveals horrors migrants still face

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

At 4 a.m. Monday morning, the exact moment that a year ago, on 26 February 2023, the migrant-carrying 'Summer love' boat sank just 100 meters from the Italian shore, claiming the lives of nearly 100 men, women and children, there was a prayer-filled ceremony on the beach in Cutro, in the southern Italian region of Calabria, to remember them.

Investigations continue to examine how it had been possible that four hours passed before any rescue efforts appeared at the scene of the devastating shipwreck. Yet the episode still feels as though it were only yesterday.

Politicians, Church representatives, survivors, and relatives of the dead and the missing, and many people from the town, participated in the ceremony. Stuffed animals were at the site to remember the children who died.

The sorrow at Cutro is palpable. But it is not only about Cutro, but the scores of tragedies afflicting migrants heading toward Italy.

Pope's closeness and presence

Pope Francis has often described the Mediterranean Sea as a 'cemetery' where countless migrants, who have fled their homes in the pursuit of better lives, have met their demise.

In addition to his words, however, the Holy Father has personally offered his message of closeness to migrants through a series of poignant visits, starting with his journey to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in July 2013, the first journey of his pontificate. Later, in 2016 and again in 2021, he visited the infamous migrant camp in Lesbos, Greece; and, more recently, in September 2023 he travelled to the southern French port city of Marseille.

In Marseille, at the closing session of the week-long Mediterranean Meetings, Pope Francis acknowledged the "difficulties involved in welcoming, protecting, promoting, and integrating" unexpected persons, but insisted, “the principal criterion cannot be the preservation of one’s own well-being, but rather the safeguarding of human dignity.”

Pope's appeals for a tri-continental process to protect migrants

The Pope reiterated that, in the face of the scourge of the exploitation of human beings, “the solution is not to reject but to ensure, according to the possibilities of each, an ample number of legal and regular entrances” of migrants, in cooperation with their countries of origin.

Regardless of the Pope's appeals for "a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean" and "that must be governed with wise foresight,” the phenomenon and deaths continue, as Italy, along with several European neighbours, pushes back against the boats arriving at their shores.

Controversial agreement with Albania

According to Italy's Ministry for the Interior, in 2023, more than 157,000 people reached Italy by boat.

While the number of migrant boats arriving in Italian territory continues to soar, there is no guarantee of welcome.

Rather, Italy's government, always advocating for fewer migrant entries, has passed a controversial measure in the Senate that would ship migrants to Albania.

On 6 November, Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and Albania's Prime Minister, Edi Rama, agreed to send migrants arriving in Italy by boat to Italian-run centers on Albanian soil. The migrants who would be sent to Albania would be those rescued by Italian military assets, not by NGOs, and would not include women and children, the agreement's language states.

After that agreement, the Italian Senate passed the controversial measure with a vote of 93 to 61.

Under European Union law, it is unlawful to immediately deport any migrant or refugee until their application for asylum is processed; however, Albania is not under the obligation to follow this EU legislation.

The center, which observers say seems to mimic a model proposed by the United Kingdom to potentially send asylum seekers to Rwanda, will be built with Italian funds and staffed with Italian civil servants, to process up to 3,000 asylum applicants a month, CNN reported. Once there, Amnesty International’s chief migration researcher, Matteo De Bellis, explained in a statement, migrants who have disembarked would be "detained and unable to leave" the centers for 18 months.

Death, mistreatment in detention centres

In addition to the deaths at sea and the deportations, the price paid by those registered and detained is always increasing.

On 5 February, the problematic conditions at detention centers in Italy were revealed, as 15 people were arrested for unrest at a center near Rome after a 21-year-old young man from Guinea took his own life.

With more migrants arriving from Libya than Tunisia since the start of the year, Italy continues to take a hard stance.

Interceptions, death, disappearance

In addition to these migrants, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that since the start of the year, some 1,000 more were intercepted at sea and taken back to Libyan territory. Data on interceptions carried out by Tunisian authorities, on the other hand, is not yet available.

The IOM also revealed that, as of late January, nearly 100 people had died or disappeared in the central and eastern Mediterranean.

Another major issue concerns the fact that rescue boats are often blocked or unable to approach where needed, in such a way that migrants are often left stranded. 

Regardless of the dismal situation and outlook, many organizations continue their unceasing commitment to help those suffering, working 24/7, in all conditions, to offer a glimpse of light in the darkness, when all seems to be bleak.

The Holy Father's repeated four-word appeal to "welcome," "protect," "promote," and "integrate" migrants, likewise, has been adopted by several human rights organizations, many of which have no religious affiliation, as a mechanism to react to the phenomenon and try to offer those a future to those who flee.