PASCHAL TIDES

On this Easter Sunday, while most of us celebrated with friends and family, while a Queen, resplendent in turquoise, attended church, while a sportsman triumphantly drenched his teammates in champagne, while two statues met and kissed in Modica, a drama which operatives involved have described as "unprecedented" in its scale has been taking place in the Mediterranean and once again, people have died in it and are probably continuing to die as I write.

Calmer seas, the escalating war situation in Syria and the continual lack of hope in other countries of provenance have seen migrant boats leaving for Europe without cease and on Friday more than 2,000 migrants were reported to have been travelling in the Sicilian Channel. The Italian Coast Guard says that, in 19 operations involving 16 migrant dinghies and three small wooden boats, 2,074 migrants were saved. One teenager was found dead in one of the dinghies. The SOS Méditeranée ship Aquarius was last night bringing 500 of the rescued migrants, including three children under the age of five, to Pozzallo.

Early reports today said that at least 20 migrants had drowned off Libya in the preceding 24 hours but this was later corrected to seven. However, there are conflicting reports, probably because of the number of rescue operations necessary and the difficulties encountered in them, so the situation is still unclear. MOAS [Migrant Offshore Aid Station] had saved 1,500 people on nine boats since Saturday morning and, taking them on board their ship Phoenix, had to give priority to women, children and the sick.  Once capacity was reached at 453, they issued life jackets and supplies to the migrants still waiting for rescue on board their inadequate boats.  

In all 4,500 people were saved on Saturday and a MSF ship has taken 649 migrants, saved off Libya on Friday, to Calabria. Many of these migrants had signs of torture on their bodies and some had gunshot wounds. An eight-year-old boy is also  reported dead.

In this video of 7th April, Dr Pietro Bartolo of Lampedusa mentions what he calls the "illness of the dinghies", as witnessed by medics since the people traffickers have started using dinghies: this illness, which can lead to death, is caused by a mixture of petrol and water soaking migrants' clothes and causing burns.  It affects mostly the women, he says, as it is the women who tend to be crowded together sitting on the floor - a different sort of drenching, then, to the one inflicted by our friend the sportsman above.

Dr Bartolo also had strong words for Europe's leaders, saying that he does not understand why a great and civilised continent cannot deal with the migration crisis with intelligence and rationality but he puts it down to indifference rather than inability to act.

The other person who has uttered strong words about the migration tragedy is Pope Francis, who said the following at Friday's Easter Vigil in Rome:

"We can see the faces of those women* in any number of other faces: the faces of mothers and grandmothers, of children and young people who bear the grievous burden of injustice and brutality. In their faces, we can see reflected all those who, walking the streets of our cities, feel the pain of dire poverty, the sorrow born of exploitation and human trafficking. We can also see the faces of those who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family.

Shame for all the scenes of devastation, destruction and drownings that have become ordinary in our lives."

* The two women Pope Francis refers to are Mary and Mary Magdalene as they visited the tomb of Jesus.

Update - 17.4.17 at 20.29:

UNHCR has said that the number of migrants saved in the Mediterranean by naval or NGO operatives from Friday to Sunday was a staggering 8,300.  It has now been confirmed that seven migrants were found dead. A pregnant woman was evacuated from a migrant boat last night and brought to hospital in Modica, where she is said to be in a very serious condition.
Source: La Repubblica

AUTUMN TIDES, 2016 - 4

Over the past few days, whilst the tide of rhetoric across the Atlantic grew ever stronger and I, like most of you, was glued to my TV screen, autumn tides brought to Pozzallo two children who, having seen their mother die on a migrant boat, had watched over her body until the dinghy on which they were travelling from Libya split in two.

The 300 migrants on board were rescued by the Italian Navy and then transferred to a Save the Children ship.  The woman, who was probably from Mali, had been crushed to death while trying to protect her children from the same fate by shielding them with her body in the overcrowded prow of the boat. When the other migrants near the woman discovered that she was dead, a people trafficker tried to make them throw her body overboard but they refused. They told the two children, a girl aged nine and a boy aged six, that their mother was sleeping but they understood that she was dead.

These sad children are now in the care of nuns in Ragusa and what looks like a mobile phone number written on the girl's trousers may be the only hope of finding other family members. It is thought that they have an uncle somewhere in Europe.

The alleged people trafficker has been identified and arrested.

This is but one tragedy among so many, of course, but it is none the less shocking for that.

With regard to the historic events of the past 24 hours I have only the following to say:

On this day a great nation founded on migration chose a leader who wants to build a wall. Yet we are all migrants. Let us hope that humanity will prevail, both there and in the rest of the world.

All human progress has been made because someone, somewhere, had a dream.  Who are we to tell those who dream of a better life that they are wrong to do so?

SUMMER TIDES, 2016 - 4

If, like me, you follow the Italian Marina Militare , various migration organisations and most of the Italian newspapers on twitter, you sometimes won't believe the figures that you see before your eyes, for they are very grim indeed:

To give you an idea of what is happening, let us take the period from last Friday to Sunday, when 5,500 migrants were saved in the Mediterranean. Rescuers also watched, horrified, on Sunday as five males threw themselves. or were pushed, into the sea, and died from drowning despite the rescuers' best efforts to revive them.   

On Monday 1,800 people were saved in 16 rescue operations coordinated by the Italian Coast Guard, helped by the Italian Navy, German Navy, a MSF ship and a Rettet ship. Yesterday 385 migrants were brought to Catania, along with four bodies.  Among migrants brought to Pozzallo was a Libyan man who had been shot in the thigh. No further details of his story or condition are available.

On the A18 motorway a 12-year-old Eritrean migrant was found walking after absconding from a youth facility in Acireale. When he was stopped by police he said that he was only trying to reach the other boys who had disembarked with him at Pozzallo. Can you imagine his desperation and loneliness? At the end of 2015 there were estimated to have been 6,135 unaccompanied minors like him, all of them untraceable now. 

Meanwhile 12 people have been arrested in Sicily today on suspicion of people trafficking and the Mayor of Pozzallo is so disgusted by the lack of promised help for his city from central government that he says he will no longer allow Prime Minister Renzi or Interior Minister Angelino Alfano to enter the town hall there.

Figures released yesterday by the IOM show that there have been 4,027 migrant deaths in 2016, of which 3,120 were in the Mediterranean.  [These are, of course, only the ones that we know about.] From 29th July to 1st August 17,923 migrants were rescued at sea. From 1st January to 1st August this year migrant arrivals in Italy totalled 96,000.

Each one is human, each one has a story and each one has a dream. What ocean can absorb so many tears and what hearts can hold so much sadness?

INTERVIEW WITH A YOUNG JEWELLER

If you come to this part of Sicily and want something really special to take home with you, you may like to visit I Monili Aprile in Modica and by the sea in Pozzallo.  Both are run by my friends the Aprile family and elder son Salvatore has recently created the website I Monili Aprile. Today I talked to Salvo about the shops, his life and jewellery in general:

Salvo, when did you decide that you wanted to be a jeweller?

I decided to be a jeweller when my parents and I had the idea of opening a second jewellery shop in a seaside town called Pozzallo but I had always felt like a "little jeweller" because I grew up in my parents' jewellery shop.

The Aprile family:
Salvatore, Gaspare, Concetta and Gabriele

Did you help in the shop as a child?

Sometimes. I was very happy to help and I enjoyed discovering the world of jewellery.

Tell me about your studies.

I remember when I chose to study business at Pisa University and after that at Catania University, it was very important for my family and for me because it enabled me to grow personally and culturally.

When did you graduate?

I graduated in November 2011.

And later you studied gemology?

I studied gemology in November 2015 at the Istituto Gemmologico Italiano [IGI] in Milan because it was time to get to know the world of diamonds and now I'm going to learn about all kinds of gemstones.

What’s your favourite stone?

My favorite stone is the diamond because it has a long history, like the history of the world. The diamond is generally formed inside the earth and its birth dates back to the origin of the earth.

Describe a typical day for a gemology student.

The Modica store

First you meet your lecturers and you can talk about different subjects such as natural science, geophysics and the history of gemstones. It’s very important to study different topics from those that you studied before. You can look at gems with a microscope to identify their types and their properties.

Inside the Pozzallo store

When did your family open the shop in Pozzallo?

My family decided to open the shop in Pozzallo in July 2013 because it is a small, young town and it is a tourist attraction, especially in the summer.

Do you have any help in the Pozzallo shop?

Yes, I have some help in the Pozzallo shop. In our team we are fortunate because my brother Gabriele is a qualified watchmaker. He works in Modica but he likes coming to work in Pozzallo in the summer.

In your shop, can people buy any souvenirs of Sicily?

Yes.  I’ve met a lot of tourists who like ceramic jewellery and Italian jewellery in general.  

One final question, Salvo:  Do you think Britain should give back the Koh-i-Noor Diamond?

Yes, I think you should!

I Monili Aprile:

Via Resistenza Partigiana 25,

Modica [RG]

Tel:  +39 0932 763308  

C.so Vittorio Veneto 69,

Pozzallo [RG]

  Tel:  +39 0932 957512

GIFT - A MIGRATION STORY

As many in my home country continued, on Monday, to exult over the birth of Princess Charlotte, 1,257 miles away, in Pozzallo, attention was focused on a very different kind of birth that had taken place: On Sunday night, during a migrant rescue operation in the Mediterranean, Italian naval personnel found that a woman on one of the migrant boats was in labour.  Transferred to the naval ship Bettica, the mother was safely delivered of a baby girl by a medical team which included volunteers and helped, of course, by the military.

The sailors gave the little girl the name Francesca Marina - Francesca for Pope Francis and St Francis of Assisi [who is also the patron saint of Italy] and Marina for the Marina Militare [Italian Navy]. Following their arrival at Pozzallo, Francesca and her Nigerian mother were brought to the Maggiore Hospital in Modica, where both are said to be doing well.  The doctor who delivered her said in a radio interview that Francesca is a calm, smiling baby and that the whole experience had been very emotional for all concerned.  Today it has been revealed that her mother wants to call the baby "Gift" but will also keep her daughter's two Italian names.

I am not the first person to point out the contrasts between the two births today and several Italian newspapers have published pictures of the princess and Gift side by side but I do want to say this:  I do not often make a plea, but I would like to ask anyone who is considering, for the best of reasons, sending a present to the little princess, to think of Gift Francesca Marina, and others like her, first.

It is estimated that over 7,000 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean in Italian-led operations over the weekend and on Monday and at least 50 migrants have died.

YET AGAIN - MIGRATION UPDATE

On the day when the Italian Coast Guard has completed the rescue and bringing to safety of 941 migrants in the Mediterranean, we are once again witnessing politicians arguing about who should carry out patrol and rescue missions in these waters and the scale of any such operations. The Italian Mare Nostrum operation having been wound up in October, the Triton operation [coordinated by the European External Borders Agency Frontex, which may have different priorities] has been working on a much smaller scale and its ships have not patrolled near the Libyan coast, as the Italian ships did. Italy, to its credit, continues to send in rescuers close to the Libyan shore after alerting Libya to migrant boats in danger in its waters.

Thus it has been over the past two days, during which Italian Coast Guard vessels, three  merchant ships and one Triton naval unit rescued migrants in seven different operations. The migrants were travelling in five dinghies and two other boats. Sadly, one of the larger dinghies, which was carrying around 130 people, capsized 50 miles north of Libya and ten bodies were recovered.

The rescued migrants are said to be of Syrian, Palestinian, Tunisian and Sub-Saharan nationality. Among them were 30 children and 50 women, one of whom is pregnant and needed urgent medical evacuation by the Coast Guard on Lampedusa.  The migrants have been brought to Porto Empedocle, Augusta and Pozzallo today. Pozzallo has again received the saddest delivery - that of bodies - a sight which always causes great sorrow in the town.

The Court at Siracusa has opened an investigation into the deaths and it is being treated as a murder enquiry. That said, just what is it going to take to get the EU as a whole to act on the Mediterranean migration issue? How much longer are other countries,including my own, going to stand by and watch desperate people die?  Italy has said it will not abandon migrants in danger at sea but the rest of the EU continues to abandon Italy.

Gauri van Gulik of Amnesty International said today,

"Merchant vessels and national Coast Guard have again responded valiantly to the immense and growing challenge of saving the lives of vulnerable migrants but that falls far short of sufficient in the face of this growing humanitarian crisis. Without a European search and rescue operation, the European Union's approach looks increasingly haphazard and negligent."

Update at 15.15 on 5.3.15
The death toll from the capsized boat now appears to be around 50. Two people have been arrested on suspicion of people-trafficking.

AUTUMN TIDES - 2

Italy's Operazione Mare Nostrum may have been wound up and replaced by the Frontex [European External Borders Agency] operation Triton, but the incidence of boats carrying migrants on perilous journeys from Africa towards Europe shows no signs of abating. Calm seas recently have favoured departures and a new route taking some of the migrants to Puglia seems to be in use.

On Sunday an Italian naval ship brought 864 migrants to safety in Pozzallo in the second largest landing of migrants in a Ragusan port this year. Most were Syrian or Palestinian and there were 69 accompanied and seven unaccompanied minors among them. Of the 104 who were women, two were pregnant and had to be taken to hospital in Modica. The migrants told Italian officials a familiar story of a dangerous crossing in overcrowded and inadequate boats and all had been rescued by various Italian naval vessels.

Half have now been transferred to Palermo, another 150 to Florence and arrangements are being made for the transfer of most of the rest to other reception centres in Italy as the Pozzallo centre is now overcrowded.

The past week has seen ugly scenes in Rome, where residents of the Tor Sapienza suburb protested angrily and, in some cases, violently, about one of the migrant reception centres there, blaming migrants for the area's misfortunes. Tor Sapienza is a poor district where many people are unemployed and tensions came to a head at the weekend, when children in the centre concerned had to be evacuated from it.  Pope Francis has asked all interested institutions to deal with the situation as a "social emergency" and has also called for dialogue between the local community and immigrants.  

I am not in Tor Sapienza so cannot comment further on the area's troubles but I do know that an identifiable immigrant community anywhere is likely to become a scapegoat in times of economic hardship. Anti-immigration feeling, it seems to me, is being whipped up all over Europe as I write. Willing or unwilling host countries could do worse than heed Pope Francis's call for dialogue.

BOAT OF HOPE

After writing about so many tragedies and so much sorrow regarding migrants in the Mediterranean, it is nice to be able to bring you a positive story on this theme: When I read about the Barca di Cioccolato ["Chocolate Boat"] project, I contacted Pierpaolo Ruta of the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, Modica, who in turn, put me in touch with the project's creator, the artist Jonida Xherri.

Jonida is from Albania and is currently living in Modica and Florence. Jonida, too, had dreamed of coming to Italy so felt that she could identify with the migrants and, having received a Modican welcome herself as an immigrant seven years ago, she wanted migrants at the Pozzallo Reception Centre to have a similar experience. Thus, in January this year she launched the first Barca di Cioccolato project and, at the end of August, the second. 

Jonida wanted to demonstrate not only the economic links that we have with Africa, but also the important cultural ones and the ways in which our traditions are connected. The project was carried out in three phases:

1.  The historical phase: It was the Spanish colonisers who brought the Aztec method of making chocolate to Sicily but the cocoa bean of course had to come from Africa.  At first, it arrived by sea, just as migrants in search of a better life do today, even risking that life to do so.  For this reason, it was decided to make the second "chocolate boat" out of 'mpanatigghi [the word has variant spellings] the traditional Modican pastries containing chocolate and minced beef which, in times gone by, were carried on long journeys, because they would keep. In all, 600 'mpanatigghi were made by the migrants with the help of the staff at Bonajuto. The public were able to see the finished boat from 29th August - 1st September and when it was dismantled the 'mpanatigghi were distributed to the migrants in the reception centre.

2.  Ceramic tiles:  The migrants painted their own designs or wishes on to the tiles, often using African colours or chocolate themes.  Then the tiles were fired and displayed in the reception centre.

3.  Video: the viewing of a video about the first Barca di Cioccolato project, with the aim of showing people that even the poorest countries have a rich cultural heritage and can contribute to the world economically.

After making the boat, the migrants were offered lunch at the Osteria dei Sapori Perduti and ice cream at the Caffè Adamo, both in Modica. They visited the Salvatore Quasimodo exhibition at Modica's Palazzo della Cultura and the town's Garibaldi Theatre.

Jonida writes.

"The young migrants want to use art to express their dreams.  These dreams have led them to undertake a very difficult journey and to risk their lives.  They want to say that they are here and that they need the help of the whole of Europe to have a normal working life."

Slideshow - Barca di Cioccolato 2

Barca di Cioccolato - Video Maker

Jonida did not receive any public funding for the project and wishes to thank the following private sponsors:

Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, Franco Ruta e Pierpaolo Ruta

Osteria Dei Sapori Perduti

Caffè Adamo

Alessandro Di Rosa

Girolamo Pavingross Srl Carpentieri

Paper Copy Design

Giovanni Modica Scala (fotografo)

Thank you, Jonida, for the information and photos.
All photos are the work of Giovanni Modica Scala.
Giovanni Modica Scala on flickr

HELP AT LAST?

On Tuesday I reported that Mare Nostrum operatives had rescued 73 people and recovered 18 bodies from a migrant boat which had got into trouble off Lampedusa on Saturday night. The poor souls who lost their lives were thought to have died from asphyxia but, even more horrifically, it now emerges that some of them had cranial and spinal fractures which would indicate that they had been hit with metal bars and survivors are saying that this happened as they were embarking in Libya. Investigations continue as I write.

There has, however, been one heartening story from Pozzallo where, among 439 migrants arriving on Wednesday, were a young girl and her beautiful, white cat. The two were separated upon landing despite the girl's protests, for the cat had to be taken to a veterinary centre to be medically checked and vaccinated and it has to be said that, following the ordeal of the journey, puss was not happy either. His owner is hoping to get to Germany where she has relatives and everyone is hoping that her feline friend will be able to accompany her. I somehow think that Italian officials will do their best to ensure that this happens.

A total of 800 migrants were brought to Sicilian ports during Wednesday and 546 more were saved by Mare Nostrum operatives in the Sicilian Channel during the night. Seven people traffickers were arrested and helpfully presented evidence against themselves in the form of selfies taken during the journey.  [This is not the first time this has happened.]  Sadly, the 24 bodies recovered from the wreck of a fishing boat south of Lampedusa on Tuesday were brought to the Port of Augusta.  

Wednesday was also the day when Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano met European Home Affairs Commisssioner Cecilia Malmström and it has been agreed that a new Frontex operation will, from November, complement what Italy is doing. Commissioner Malmström's  press release on the meeting can be read here.  As she says, the success of such a joint operation will depend upon the willingness of all member states to contribute and Italy, as the current holder of the EU presidency, is expected to be instrumental in finding funding solutions. Let us hope that this is the help that Italy has been requesting for so long.

WORDS AND DEEDS?

Once again it has taken a tragedy for the migrant situation with which Italy is dealing every day to make the international press: on Saturday night the Italian Navy saved 73 people and recovered 18 bodies from a boat which had partially sunk 120 miles south of Lampedusa. The 18 dead were found on the bottom of the boat and they are presumed to have died from dehydration or the inhalation of petrol fumes. Ten migrants who had either fallen or jumped into the sea were saved by inflatable life rafts thrown to them by the crew of the naval ship but it is thought that up to another ten migrants were lost at sea. On Sunday evening the survivors and the bodies were taken to Pozzallo where Mayor Luigi Ammatuna spoke of an unending tragedy, a genocide with consequences that Italy, and Pozzallo in particular, cannot shoulder alone. The bodies have now been transferred to the Protezione Civile morgue in Ragusa while Mayor Ammatuna makes arrangements for their burial in the cemeteries of neighbouring towns. The Mayor has asked both the Prefect of Ragusa and the Italian Interior Ministry for help.

Meanwhile another Italian naval ship has arrived in Reggio Calabria carrying 1,373 migrants who had been saved in recent days. Fifty people aboard had scabies and the ship was also tragically carrying the body of an Eritrean man who had, according to survivors, been hit with a metal bar by a people trafficker as the migrant boat left Libya. 

Yet another overcrowded migrant boat sank half a mile off Libya on Friday night and it is estimated that 250 passengers have died. Bodies were still being washed up onto Libyan beaches today [Tuesday].

Tuesday as a whole has brought no better news, with another fishing boat carrying migrants having capsized south of Lampedusa. The Italian Navy and Coast Guard have rescued 364 people and six bodies were initially recovered, a figure which has now risen to 24.

It is reported that a total of 4,000 migrants were rescued or recovered by Mare Nostrum operatives last weekend alone. Perhaps the Vatican City newpaper L'Osservatore Romano put it best, saying that a "silent war" is taking place in the Mediterranean.

Today representatives from the Italian Interior Ministry, Frontex [the European External Borders Agency] and the European Commission met to discuss the situation and an urgent meeting between Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano and European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström has been scheduled for Wednesday. Cecilia Malmström has said that this is to define priorities and decide how Italy and other Mediterranean countries can be helped in this situation. Can we really hope that words will be accompanied by deeds this time?

SUMMER TIDES - 5

The saddest news I have to report tonight is that, when the migrant boat involved in last week's tragedy was finally brought to Pozzallo, 45, not 27 or 30, bodies were found, jammed into the hold.  Four men have beern arrested by Sicilian police on suspicion of people trafficking.  Last Wednesday the front page of La Sicilia carried the headline "Mare Mortum".

On Sunday night around 100 migrants, including women and children, arrived on Ispica beach. It was the usual story: an inadequate boat carrying them had managed to elude patrols, brought them within sight of the beach, forced them into the water and then made a fast getaway.  Let us hope that no one drowned.

It is estimated that 2,600 migrants were saved by the Italian Navy and other Mare Nostrum operatives over the weekend. Premier Renzi has again said that the operation must continue but with EU support:

"It is not possible, in 2014, to let a ship full of children sink because we don't know whose jurisdiction it is in.  We save them."

The week has seen several protests in Sicily by both residents and migrants: The inhabitants of Siculiana [Agrigento] protested against the sheer numbers of migrants arriving in their small town but things seem to have calmed down for the moment now that the Mayor has had a meeting with Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, who listened to her concerns. Mr Alfano promised that the number of arrivals in the town would be carefully regulated and gave assurances regarding public health. He also said that the EU at last appears to be realising that Italy, and especially Sicily, cannot take sole responsibility for the migrants after they have been rescued.

Yesterday in Caltagirone, where 110 unaccompanied migrant minors have been living in overcrowded and quite insanitary conditions, the situation exploded. The young migrants destroyed furniture and broke glass in their centre, then set up street blocks nearby. Who can blame them? They say they cannot maintain personal hygiene in these conditions, that they do not have enough drinking water [temperatures in Sicily are reaching 40 C now ] and that their meals are served cold. They also say they do not have enough clothing and are not given any spending money - to which, as asylum seekers, they are entitled - or phone cards. They only want to be listened to but at the moment have no access to anyone who might understand their problems.

As I write, Sicily waits: a Libyan politician said last week that at least 3 million migrants are preparing to leave Libya in an attempt to reach Italian shores during the summer.

SUMMER TIDES - 4: A TRAGEDY

This is being reported by the world's media this morning but I'll try to give you the view from here:

In one of several migrant rescue operations carried out by the Italian Navy last night, 27 - 30 migrants were found dead in the hold of a fishing boat carrying up to 600 people, including two pregnant women. It is thought that the migrants died of asphyxiation. By the time the naval ship Grecale arrived on the scene, there was nothing the personnel could do for these poor souls and, because of the position in the boat that the bodies were in, only two were transferred to the larger ship. The boat, carrying the living and the dead, is being towed to Pozzallo as I write. 

La Repubblica is reporting that 919 migrants have arrived in Pozzallo overnight and many more in other Sicilian ports. Over this weekend alone, 5,000 migrants were rescued at sea in the Mare Nostrum operation and it is estimated that 60,000 have arrived in Sicily since the beginning of this year. The possibility of 100,000 arrivals by the end of the year has not been ruled out.

The Mayor of Pozzallo, Luigi Ammatuna, a man who has always expressed sympathy for and solidarity with the migrants, has said that the situation has become unmanageable, as the town's Cpa [centre for migrant arrivals] is full and the administration is having to rely on other institutions to accommodate them. Even the cemetery is full and there are now only two mortuary cold chambers available. The Prefect of Ragusa has promised that a plan will be put into operation to relieve the pressure on Pozzallo.

Lega Nord Federal secretary Matteo Salvini has said this morning that Premier Renzi and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano have "blood on their hands" because the Mare Nostrum operation is encouraging migrants to leave Africa.

Italy's calls for international help in the migration crisis continue to fall on largely deaf ears. Frontex [the European Border Agency] is to be strengthened but there has been no new EU agreement on asylum, as requested by Italy. The Italian government believes that the Dublin Regulation, under which the country of arrival is responsible for any asylum application by a migrant, puts too much pressure on border areas. Italy has also suggested that migrants be processed whilst still in Africa.

As politicians score points, let us remember the migrants who lost their lives last night whilst in search only of the rights and comforts that most of us enjoy without question.

Update at 15.09: A video just published by La Repubblica shows that the 600 migrants were jammed into a space of 30 metres on the fishing boat.

SOME GOOD NEWS FOR POZZALLO

Pozzallo, so often in the news these days as an arrival point for migrants or in connection with migrant tragedies, had something to celebrate yesterday when its beach again won the right to display the prestigious blue flag. In what must have been an enormous blow to the town, Pozzallo had lost its bandiera blu last year, so it was good to read that it has got it back.

The bandiera blu is awarded annually by the Foundation for Environmental Education [FEE] to over 3,850 beaches and marinas in 48 countries. Water quality, safety, environmental management and education, information and services are among the criteria.

In Sicily seven locations are listed this year and they are:

Vulcano and Lipari [Aeolian Islands]

il lido di Signorino [Marsala]

Ispica

Marina di Ragusa

Pozzallo

Menfi [Agrigento]

In Italy as a whole Liguria was awarded the most blue flags in 2014, Tuscany is second and le Marche is third.  

Some newspapers in Sicily are commenting that seven flags are not many for a place with so many beaches and that the island really ought to have done better. Well done, Pozzallo, all the same!

Pozzallo

SPRING TIDES - 7

Yet another tragedy is unfolding in the Mediterranean as I write this evening and it comes only a day after 40 migrants were drowned off the Libyan coast. The facts about today's sad events are not yet clear but this is what we know so far:

At about 1pm Italian time today, the Italian Coast Guard picked up an SOS call from a migrant boat in trouble.  The boat was 100 miles south of Lampedusa and actually nearer the Libyan coast than that of Italy. Italian Coast Guard boats, merchant and naval ships and a Guardia di Finanza vessel were scrambled to the scene and saved 200 migrants. Seventeen bodies have also been recovered but it is feared that there may be many more, as it is possible that there were up to 400 people on the boat.

Once again Italian politicians have spoken to EU officials in the strongest terms and this time, it seems, they are listening: Cecilia Malmström has said she is shocked and has called upon all member states to consider how they can help. Prime Minister Renzi is to visit Sicily on Wednesday and he, too, is expected to reiterate calls for urgent EU help.

Libya's Interior Minister has told the EU that his country will help migrants to leave it illegally if the organisation does not help Libya to patrol its borders and today a Libyan naval spokesman said that the nation does not have the means to help in this latest rescue operation. Meanwhile Giovanni Pinto, Italy's Director of Immigration, has asserted that more and more inadequate boats are leaving Libya carrying migrants because the people traffickers know that Italian vessels will go as near as they legally can to the Libyan coast to save their passengers.

Italian newspapers are today carrying a video shot by a Syrian migrant on his sea crossing. He had sailed with 232 others and spent 11 days at sea without food or water. Now in Pozzallo, the man handed the video over to the Italian authorities who used it to help them identify and arrest two alleged people traffickers.

Poor Italy - whatever she does in this situation she seems to be doing it alone and whatever she does she is criticised.

Tonight's online edition of La Repubblica has a list of migrant tragedies in the Sicilian Channel from 1996 - 2013.

SPRING TIDES

Spring has come to the Mediterranean and better conditions at sea bring with them more boatloads of desperate souls seeking a better life.

On Monday night alone, 13 boats carrying, between them, around 1,532 migrants were rescued in the Sicilian Channel by the Italian Navy and Coast Guard. Rescue ships were still trying to reach other migrant boats that had run into trouble as these figures were being reported.

South of Lampedusa naval ships saved 596 migrants, including 141 women and 116 minors. The majority of these, like the migrants rescued from other overloaded and inadequate boats, are believed to be from Syria, Palestine and Eritrea. The migrants were transferred to another ship on which they were given medical care and where representatives of the NGO Fondazione Rava NPH were on hand to help. Police were also on board to try to identify the migrants. Today some of them were brought to Pozzallo.

Latest estimates are that, in the last 48 hours, the Italian Navy, Coast Guard and three Italian Merchant Navy ships assigned to Operazione Mare Nostrum have saved 2,128 migrants.  UNHCR has said that the operations were an example for other countries to follow.

The Italian Navy has been involved in 76 rescue operations since the launch of Operazione Mare Nostrum in the autumn and 10,134 migrants, including 713 women and 1,019 children, have been rescued at sea.

Tonight, as so often since I came to Sicily, my thoughts are with all migrants and those who seek to save and help them.

MIGRATION UPDATE - A PROTEST

The sea at Pozzallo

As individuals Italians, it must be said, are kind to migrants landing on these shores. When those same migrants meet officialdom, however, the story can be rather different and they often find themselves living in desperate conditions with no news of what their fate may be.

Such a situation was what migrants in nearby Pozzallo protested about today and they managed to block traffic along one of the town's beautiful promenades for around an hour at lunchtime, reports the Corriere di Ragusa. They were supported by volunteers from several charitable organisations and committees that are trying to help them.

The migrants, who are being held at the Reception Centre in Pozzallo Port, say that they are sleeping on the floor on old and malodourous mattresses, that there are not enough bathrooms and that they are not living but existing in prison conditions. Worse, some of them have been in the centre for two months and have received no news of what is going to happen to them and no reports of the progress of their applications for documents which would enable them to leave Italy. They say that if they do not receive these documents soon, they will protest again.

Even though 50 migrants have now been transferered from Pozzallo to other centres in Italy, it still leaves the Pozzallo centre, built for 150 people, overcrowded with 270.

  

Certainly, as I've said many times before, Italy needs help from the EU as a whole but meanwhile human beings whose only "crime" has been to seek a better life need to be treated with humanity.

SEA OF SADNESS

The sea at Pozzallo

The Mediterranean - a playground for some, but increasingly, in these times, a sea of sadness for so many. As the Sicilian summer brings clear, moonlit nights with open-air dining, dances, concerts and parties, so it also brings more of what I have come to call, in my eight years here, the "boatloads of sorrow" - that is, inadequate, overcrowded boats of would-be migrants willing to risk everything in order to flee the unimaginable and to seek a better life.

In the early hours of Tuesday one such boat ran into trouble in the Sicilian Channel and was saved because, at 4.30 am., one of the passengers managed to contact the leader of Turin's Egyptian community by satellite phone. Help was summoned and at 6.30 am Italian Coastguard boats managed to reach the migrant vessel.  On board were 119 migrants, including five women and 56 minors. All are thought to be Egyptian. The craft was sinking due to the length of the journey and the sheer numbers on board, some of whom had to be brought to Modica for hospital treatment.

A 26-year-old Egyptian man, whom police found after questioning the migrants, has been arrested on suspicion of people-trafficking.

A new law which aims at protecting the human rights of migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, is before the Sicilian Regional Assembly at the moment.  Among its provisions are measures to ensure migrants' rights to health cover, education, help with housing and cultural integration. Barriers which prevent migrants from working in the voluntary sector would be lifted and there would be a job creation scheme. Anti-discrimination measures are also envisaged. 

If Sicily can pull this off, it would be a shining example to other regions affected by the migration crisis.

SEA OF HEARTBREAK

What do you think of when you hear the word "Mediterranean"?  A bright blue expanse of seemingly endless water meeting a sky so blue that you cannot tell where the one ends and the other begins?  Holidays filled with lazy days passed on golden sands, the warmth of the waves massaging your body and people enjoying themselves all around you?  Or perhaps you think of the cookery of the region, replete with ingredients that were once thought exotic in Britain - olive oil, olives, peppers, aubergines, artichokes, okra... When I was a child, British people didn't holiday abroad as a matter of course and the Mediterranean seemed glamorous, mysterious and impossibly far away.  Young ladies from the USA or Britain who did arrive upon its shores had their heads turned by "that old moon above the Mediterranean sea", as Louis Prima sang.  Even now, I think I could have my head turned were some elderly prince to rise, Venus-like, from the waves.

"Mare Nostrum" to the Romans, the major trade route for peoples whose cultural heritage sings to us down the centuries - the Mesopotamians, Persians, Egyptians, Phoenicians and Greeks to name but a few - this was where the West began to meet the East, the crossroads of cultures and for many the centre of the world.

In our own era, though, as I've written many times before, this sea has come to signify tragedy and the end of hope for thousands of unfortunate souls who have found themselves trapped in horrific situations only because of their geographical position on the globe. Usually, however, their stories, though widely reported in Italy and Spain as the countries to which these "boatloads of sorrow" were headed, do not make world headlines.  Today, however, is an exception:

On Monday night, Tunisian fishermen in the Mediterranean spotted a young man clinging to a jerry can and the remains of an inflatable dinghy.  The fishermen immediately alerted the Tunisian Coastguard, who managed to rescue the 25-year-old man, who is now being treated for dehydration and exposure in hospital in Zarzis.

According to this survivor, the boat had left Libya 15 days before with 55 passengers hoping to reach Europe. Half of the passengers were Eritrean. After one day, the boat had almost reached the Italian coast but was blown back by strong winds. The passengers had not been allowed to take any drinking water on board so, in stifling heat, they began to suffer from dehydration and some, in desperation, drank sea water. Then the boat began to deflate.  The young man saw his fellow-passengers die one by one, among them three of his relatives.  

Image: Wikipedia

Laura Boldrini of UNHCR told La Repubblica that it is impossible that the boat had not been seen by the crews of other vessels in its 15 days on a sea full of military shipping. She said that sometimes crews are reluctant to help boats carrying migrants as the crews can often come under suspicion themselves or, at the very least, be held up while enquiries are made. T. Alexander Aleinikoff, the UN's Deputy Commissioner for Refugees, has made the following statement:

"I call upon all vessels at sea to be on heightened alert for migrants and refugees needing rescue in the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean is one of the busiest seaways in the world and it is imperative that the time honoured tradition of rescue at sea be upheld."

Ms Boldrini also explained that the Eritreans had fled their own country because of war and compulsory military service with no end date so they had not been able to return.

Another migrant boat, carrying 38 men, 11 women and one minor from Somalia was reported to be still at sea earlier today after its passengers refused the help of the Maltese coastguard.  This boat is believed to be the one later intercepted by the Italian coastguard. Its passengers, who are requesting refugee status, have been taken to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, where they are being processed and helped.

ANSA has just reported that the Algerian coastguard has intercepted two stolen dinghies carrying 30 people, including three minors, and heading for Southern Europe.  

THREE BLUE FLAGS FOR RAGUSA

The Blue Flag Programme, which is run by the non-profit Foundation for Environmental Education [FEE] and, in Italy, the Consorzio nazionale per batterie esauste and Enel Sole, has announced its 2011 awards and I am happy to be able to report that six Sicilian beaches are among the 233 Italian locations which will be able to fly the famous flag this year. These are:

Lipari [Messina]
Fiumefreddo di Sicilia - Marina di Cottone [Catania]
Ispica [Ragusa]
Pozzallo [Ragusa]
Marina di Ragusa [Ragusa]
Menfi [Agrigento]

The two new entrants are Lipari and Ispica.  The Province of Ragusa, as you see, has done very well.

Blue flags are awarded to beaches in 41 countries in Europe, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and the Caribbean and beauty, water quality, services, safety, child and disabled access and environmental awareness are all taken into account when nominations are being considered.

In Italy as a whole Liguria tops the table with 17 flagged beaches,  Tuscany and Marche are in joint second place with 16 each and Abruzzo is third with 14.  

Pozzallo

A BIRTHDAY LUNCH IN POZZALLO

Valentine's Night is a night to stay in for many single people, as who, when they are on their own,  wants to tread a restaurant floor covered in rose petals, listen to romantic music or watch couples gazing into each other's eyes all evening? It would be like twisting a knife further into your own wound and it never ceases to amaze me that couples don't get this.

However, it's my birthday and it's been a lovely day in Sicily so I was delighted when my friend Carol invited me to lunch at a restaurant in Pozzallo, a town whose main street backs directly onto the beach.  First, here are a few photos of Pozzallo as it looked this afternoon:

XV century Cabrera Tower

Now I want to introduce you to Carol.  She writes about Sicily and other places where she has lived or which she has visited and you can find some of her articles here.

OK, let's get to the food and these are the dishes we ordered:

Cavatieddi pasta with ricotta and peas for me

and lolli pasta with fava beans for Carol:

Then I had what Italians call a "mixed roast" but is really a mixed grill 

with a mixed salad

while Carol enjoyed chicken cutlet and chips:

There was my favourite gel al limone for dessert and you could just tell that this had been made with the freshest Sicilian lemons:

Simple food, perfectly cooked - the best!

And finally, here is your birthday girl blogger:

I had a great time.  Thanks, Carol. xx