An Italian fisherman has been honoured by the UN for his part in saving would-be illegal immigrants who were drowning in the sea off Malta last year. You can read the full story here. Too often , it seems , the crews of fishing boats do not go to the aid of these desperate people for fear of being incriminated themselves or of having their return to sea delayed by Italian bureaucratic procedures so that they lose several precious days' work. Signor Nardulli is obviously a brave and honourable man.
Sadly, on the very day that he was receiving his award, eleven unnamed clandestini who had drowned off Agrigento were buried near there. As the Melting Pot organisation puts it, "Several Sicilian towns are now showing pity towards the bodies of those for whom no one had any pity during their journey towards the Mediterranean or their tragic sea crossing."
6 comments:
How tragic. How can any human being stand by and watch these desperate people drowing, though I sympathise with their plight. But surely saving lives come first, as this award quite rightly demonstrates. Let's hope it sets a good example to others.
I agree - what a harsh way to treat others; his views are so simple and he is so decent ; it is such a problem - I saw it in Tarifa whilst living in Spain and it is such a tragedy that people are so desperate to escape the dreadful living conditions, only to die in even worse straits.
This illegal immigrants thing is tragic as Ellee says ... horrible situation... and what a horrible world where just because of your passport you are a first, second or third class citizen ... I count my lucky stars sometimes that I was born British, English speaking (so I didn't have to learn it! I spent years studying French and German so I appreciate the effort it takes to speak another language with any fluency!!) and an EU citizen. These days, I'd say, an EU passport is just about the best one you can get (better than American even) ... if you want to live somewhere prosperous and peaceful and safe ... I don't think we count our blessings often enough ...
Well done as you say Welshcakes. What a sad situation that these people still try to come in such unsafe vessels. I suppose there are unscrupulous people taking advantage of them.
It seems we are all open to illegal immigrants. It's settled down here at the moment...or appears to have.
Hi, Ellee. Yes, it's too awful to contemplate. Janejill, yes, Spain gets more news coverage of the problem than Italy does. The authorities get overwhelmed here and very upset when there is a tragedy. Gledwood, I totally agree. We cannot imagine what it must be like to be so desperate that you would risk everything in order to reach Europe. And the poor families of these men - never to know what happened to them. Hi, jmb, yes, there are unscrupulous people traffickers who push these people into the sea whether they can swim or not once they espy the Sicilian, Maltese or Canaries shores. Why do you think the problem has settled down there, Lee?
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