"I can't stay here, it's a militarized zone." It's the second time I've heard this phrase today. First, from a soldier with his rifle in hand as the gates of the refugee camp closed in front of me, and now from a plainclothes policeman who comes running from afar at the port of Lampedusa while a Guardia di Finanza boat maneuvers to dock with dozens of migrants on board just a few meters away.
I move about 50 meters away until I climb onto the roof of a warehouse where the police allow the media to position themselves. In the blink of an eye, the place fills with cameras, police, doctors, ambulances, and Red Cross minibusses.
It's the first time I've witnessed the harshness of a live landing, but it's a morning like any other on the island. I turn my head, and while some are wheeled into the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) cabin with what little strength they have left, in the background, tourists enjoy the last rays of summer.
El contraste en Lampedusa es total. Turistas en una de las playas más espectaculares de Italia, y los migrantes dque sobrevivieron al viaje desde África escapando de algún infierno y listos para enfrentar la odisea europea en algún campo de refugiados. pic.twitter.com/OqTIBFtfsY
— Salvu (@DonSalvu) September 19, 2023
Lampedusa is only 113 km away from the African continent. It's much closer to Tunisia than to Sicily. For decades, the southernmost point of Italy has been receiving thousands of migrants in precarious boats and has witnessed numerous deaths on its shores. September 2023 once again dressed the island in mourning: two babies died during the landing of 10,000 migrants in just 48 hours.
Despite the unreal beauty of its beaches with waters that are not crystal clear but turquoise, and its fine white sand, Lampedusa appears in the world media because of the deaths of the desperate.
In 2013, Pope Francis chose this little piece of land lost in the Mediterranean for his first trip as the supreme pontiff. Ten years later, it was the turn of visits from the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who pledged to end "illegal landings" and to let Italy and Europe decide who enters the old continent.
Protests in Lampedusa: Locals' solidarity vs. Government's criminalization
The collapse was total. For an island with around 6,000 inhabitants to receive 10,000 people in just two days is not feasible. It doesn't matter if they are asylum seekers, tourists, or diplomats. It's simply unworkable.
To put it into perspective, the hotspot – a militarized infrastructure where migrants are placed upon arrival – has a capacity for only 400 people. Those who land illegally are temporarily transferred to this point and within less than 48 hours, relocated to refugee camps in other cities in Italy, where they remain until they regularize their migratory status, which can take years.
During those two days, faced with such overflow, the disembarked wandered all over the island. "We are not against receiving migrants; people cannot be left to die at sea, but this island is not prepared to receive 10,000 people in two days," explains the owner of a local business.
"We are an island that thrives on tourism; we don't want to be stigmatized," echoes another.
And unlike the national government, everyone in Lampedusa repeats: "Migrants are not criminals; at most, they ask for food. All they want is to leave this island as soon as possible. Our problems are different."
Lampedusa is an island that only has direct flights to Rome for two months a year. It does not have a hospital. Its inhabitants must be treated at a polyclinic where a specialist occasionally arrives from Catania or Palermo. Severe cases must be transferred to Sicily by helicopter, and those with serious illnesses requiring permanent treatment live their own hell.
However, Meloni seems not to have taken note of the local demand, and the day after her visit, she announced from Rome the creation of new reception centers for migrants "away from large cities to prevent an increase in crime."
Felice, from the Maldusa NGO, has no doubt in affirming that Meloni and Von der Leyen's lightning-fast visit of less than three hours before embarking on the United Nations General Assembly in New York was "political opportunism" to reinforce the criminalization of migrants and ruthlessly close the continent's borders.
One must wonder if it has also been a resource to reinforce the theory of national defense against an external enemy in times of war.
Africa's Role and "Acts of War"
The Italian Prime Minister has as many detractors as admirers, but there is something that everyone must recognize: her intelligence. At the helm of the government, she stopped praising Benito Mussolini and his most radical ideas of the far right to delegate all those flags to her ministers.
The Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is one of those who proudly accepted the proposed game. Following the collapse in Lampedusa, the Lega leader described the landings as "acts of war" that are "the symbol of a Europe that does not exist, that is complicit and that lets each country face the problems."
It is interesting to review where most of the migrants come from: Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Morocco, Mali, among many other countries in the Middle East and Africa.
While natural phenomena in recent days such as the earthquake in Morocco and the floods in Libya accelerated the exodus of thousands, the reasons behind these migratory flows are always political.
These are desperate people fleeing wars, internal conflicts, persecutions, and instability. They are convinced that risking their lives in a precarious boat at sea is safer than staying in their respective nations.
Could it be thought that the free passage given by Tunisian authorities for dozens of boats to set sail in a few hours is a deliberate act to harm Europe amidst the rapprochement between Africa and Russia? It could be, but it remains a hypothesis.
What is interesting is to remember what Meloni said before coming to power, where she criticized Emmanuel Macron for French colonialism and extractivism, an idea that she somehow put back on the table in her speech at the UN.
"Africa is not a poor continent. On the contrary, it is a continent rich in strategic resources. It owns half of the world's mines, including abundant rare earths, and 60% of cultivable land, often unused. Africa is not a poor continent, but it has often been, and is, an exploited continent. Too often, foreign nations' interventions in the continent have not been respectful of local realities. The approach has often been predatory, but even paternalistic," she declared.
The Gateway to Europe or a Springboard to Hell?
Lampedusa is so small that you can reach everywhere on foot. In a 10-minute walk from the center, you reach the airport, which usually does not have more than three flights a day.
Two minutes from the airport stands the Gateway to Europe, a monument inaugurated in 2008 under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The work is dedicated "to the migrants who perished while attempting the sea journey from North Africa to Europe."
At the request of the designer Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori, in 2020, it was restored and a mirror was added so that everyone in Lampedusa could see their reflection and those who disagreed with the reception of migrants could "reflect and look inward."
Through the enormous structure, you can see the seemingly infinite sea, which, beyond the fog and the horizon, hides the neighboring African coasts. Crossing the gate and turning, the frame encompasses much of the island, the beginning of the dreamed Europe.
That same gate has witnessed hundreds of deaths. This time, a newborn baby and another five months old. In 2013, 366 dead in just one shipwreck. In October 2014, over 300 missing persons, in April 2015: over 600 people. And so the endless list of mortal victims continues, often not even making it to the media in a continent that has become accustomed to piling up corpses at the entrance gate and pointing fingers at those who survive the ordeal.
A Syrian among the dozens of migrants who have just landed that morning looks at the cameras of all the media and repeats "shukran Italia" while holding his head. He does not know what the leaders of Italy and Europe said just 24 hours ago, nor how much his chances have increased that the authorities will decide to send him back to the hell he miraculously managed to escape.
