The following newsflash from Lampedusa comes from NEV, the press agency of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy.
“Some have lost a sister, some a young child, some a husband. They are not tragedies, but deaths foretold.” With these words, Marta Bernardini, coordinator of Mediterranean Hope, the migrant and refugee program of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, comments on the shipwreck that occurred Wednesday in the waters near Lampedusa, where at least twenty people are confirmed dead and dozens missing.
The boat, which left Libya two days earlier, capsized not far from the island. The survivors’ accounts speak of broken families: a mother and father who lost a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, a young woman who lost her younger sister, others who saw their husbands, wives and children disappear into the sea.
The Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy is a constant presence all year round in Lampedusa where it has its Mediterranean Hope Observatory. In the last few hours, the Favaloro dock, the landing and first aid point, has been a place of pain and confusion. “The people who arrive are the lucky ones,” Bernardini continues, “of the others we will never know anything. The blame for these deaths certainly cannot be laid at the door of those who decide to leave; rather, it is the political responsibility of European governments, who try to hide what continues to happen or to shift the problem elsewhere. The result is what we see: people continue to die in the Mediterranean.”
Francesca Saccomandi, a Mediterranean Hope staff member present at the dock, confirms the gravity of the situation: “The people we met yesterday were in a state of shock and in a precarious state of health. Some people were taken to the local clinic because they had drunk a lot of salt water in an attempt to save themselves. At the moment,” Saccomandi continued, “more than twenty bodies are in the Lampedusa cemetery. These are deaths foretold, the consequence of the rejection policies that Europe and Italy have been carrying out for too long. Without legal routes for all, these are tragic stories that will continue to repeat themselves.”
For 11 years, Mediterranean Hope has been working on Lampedusa with an observatory on migration in the Mediterranean, collecting data and testimonies on the landings and offering support to those shipwrecked. In addition to its work on the island, Mediterranean Hope develops and implements projects for the protection of the dignity of refugees and migrants: Humanitarian Corridors and other legal routes providing safe access to Italy and other European countries, support along the Balkan route, initiatives countering the exploitation of farm laborers, and refugee reception initiatives.
For centuries, Waldensians and Italian Protestants have stood up for people on the margins of society. In recent years, in such ministries as Being Church Together and Mediterranean Hope, Waldensians and Italian Protestants have dedicated themselves especially to the plight of migrants and refugees. In countless ways they have fed and clothed these vulnerable people and visited others in immigration jails.
This article was translated by Fiona Kendall, a staff member of Mediterranean Hope, which is the refugee and migrant program of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, to which the Waldensian Church belongs. Fiona’s work is supported by the Church of Scotland and the Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ in the United States.
