TRAGEDY IN CATANIA

The migrant boats continue to come but nothing could have prepared Catania for the tragedy which happened just 20 metres off the popular Plaia di Catania beach at dawn on Saturday. This time, the story made the world's headlines.

An old, wooden fishing boat had run aground and was carrying 120 migrants, including around 50 minors, one of whom was a seven-month-old baby. All were from Egypt or Syria. Panicking, some of the migrants jumped into the sea to try to swim to safety and six young men, aged 17 - 27, were drowned. The seventeen-year-old would have been eighteen on 25th August.  Italian coastguards managed to pull the others out of the water and brought the remaining passengers on the boat to safety.  

Two Egyptian youths, aged 16 and 17, have been arrested for aiding illegal immigration but three of the scafisti [people traffickers] had also thrown themselves into the sea and managed to escape.

It is thought that the boat had somehow sailed in the wrong direction as it is unusual for migrant boats to approach popular tourist beaches, even at night. Investigating police and coastguards think that the boat must have been towed for most of the way by a "mother ship" and the condition of the survivors backs this theory up: although tired and hungry, none of them, including the baby, showed signs of having endured a long sea voyage. The baby was admitted to hospital for a check-up but was later discharged and all the survivors are said to be in good health now. 

Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said on Sunday that there is no magic solution to situations like this as what we are witnessing is a desperate exodus of people fleeing poverty, war or both.

The Mayor of Catania has declared a day of mourning in the town tomorrow, when the funerals of the drowned men whose families have not requested their bodies will be held.

STRANDED AT SEA

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

Last Sunday a Liberian-registered oil tanker, the MT Salamis, rescued 102 Sudanese and Eritrean migrants from a boat off the Libyan coast and sailed towards Malta. The Maltese authorities, however, refused to let the migrants land and say that the captain ignored their orders to take them back into Libyan waters. The Maltese authorities contacted their Italian and Greek counterparts regarding the situation but are believed to have ignored pleas and, later, admonitions from the EU.

Thus it was that the migrants were stranded in the Mediterranean Sea from Sunday night until early on Wednesday morning, while intense negotiations regarding their fate were being held. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said that Malta had a humanitarian duty to allow the migrants to disembark as the priority was to save their lives. She also said that sending them back to Libya was contrary to international law. At last, Italian Premier Enrico Letta gave permission for the tanker to dock at Siracusa, where the Italian Red Cross was standing by. Mr Letta is said to understand that, because of the sheer number of migrant boats that have arrived at Maltese ports this summer, the island's reception facilities are at breaking point.

Among the migrants were four pregnant women and a five-month-old baby now known as "Sam", who has become the group's mascot. All are said to be doing well.

Commissioner Malmström has thanked Italy on behalf of the EU and tweeted that it would be great if all 28 EU countries would help in such situations. Francesco Rocca, the president of the Italian Red Cross, has said that there needs to be a European strategy so that such an impasse does not happen again. The International Organisation for Migration and UNHCR have also thanked Italy.

On a sadder note, 103 Somali migrants, including 29 women, one of whom is pregnant, were rescued by a fishing boat and the Italian Navy from a dinghy in the Sicilian Channel on Wednesday night. Two other migrants had died during the journey and their bodies had been thrown into the sea. One of these was a seven-year-old child and his shocked and distraught mother is among the survivors, who have been taken to Lampedusa. My thoughts are with this sad lady this weekend.

SEA OF SADNESS - 2

Image: Norman Einstein
Wikimedia Commons

Summer moons and calmer seas continue to bring with them the "boatloads of sorrow" and it is estimated that some 1,000 migrants reached the Sicilian and Calabrian coasts during Saturday - Sunday night.

Among these were the 95 survivors of a tragedy which took place 85 miles south of Malta in international waters. Some of these migrants were on a dinghy but others were clinging to a tuna fishing cage being dragged by a Tunisian fishing boat. Of these, at least seven were drowned when the boat crew cut the rope.  Some of the migrants tried to jump onto the fishing boat but were pushed back into the sea by crew members.  The passengers on the dinghy, by now adrift, and the migrants who were still clinging to the cage were spotted by a Maltese naval plane and, advised of their position, the Italian Coast Guard effected the rescue of the 95.

At first the survivors' accounts were treated with caution while investigations were carried out but they have now been verified. It is still not clear why or for how long some of the migrants had been clinging to the cage but it is possible that they threw themselves towards it in desperation because of the cramped conditions on the dinghy. 

Yesterday Laurens Jolles, the UNHCR delegate for Southern Europe, thanked the Italian Coast Guard for  its numerous actions, which have saved hundreds of lives. Monsignor Giancarlo Perego of Fondazione Migrantes called for "humanitarian channels for people to escape situations in the Middle East and Africa". He would like to see patrols accompanying the migrants in a spirit of welcome and a new European policy which would look upon asylum seekers and refugees more sympathetically. Meanwhile Italy's Integration Minister Cécile Kyenge has said that immigrants should be regarded as an important economic resource for  the country and has pointed out that if their lavoro nero  [illegal work] were regularised, the Italian Treasury would receive an extra five million euros in revenue.

As some of my commenters have pointed out on my other posts on this subject, there are no easy answers: The "Welcome Centre" on the island of Lampedusa - a structure built for 300 people -  is reported to be housing 855 at the moment and there are no immediate plans to transfer them.  Jobs are scarce in Italy and, when times are hard, it is always easy to blame an identifiable community. Yet, despite the problems, I do believe that we are beginning to see a change in attitudes towards migrants in Italy.  

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.  

MIGRATION UPDATE - 5

Flags flew at half-mast in Sicily today for the migrants drowned when their boat capsized off Lampedusa in the early hours of Wednesday morning.  In my last migration update, I reported that a tragedy had been waiting to happen and did, but now, as so many of us feared, a much larger one has occurred.  It is impossible to be sure exactly how many poor, desperate souls lost their lives, just as it is impossible to be certain how many were travelling aboard the inadequate boat, which sailed from Libya:  it may have been carrying 300 passengers, it may have been 350 and some reports put the figure at 400.  They were from Bangladesh, Chad, the Ivory Coast, Somalia, Nigeria and Sudan and some of them had fled from their own countries to take refuge in Libya.  Then, when violence erupted there, they became refugees again.  UNHCR estimates that 213 people were drowned, the Armed Forces of Malta say 150 and the Italian media are reporting 250 deaths.  

What we do know is that the boat got into trouble in appalling weather conditions in Maltese waters 32 miles off Lampedusa and that a distress call was received by the Maltese Coast Guard at around 1.15 am.  As the Maltese apparently do not have the fast boats at the disposal of the Italian Coast Guard, they contacted the Italians, who sent two rescue boats to the scene immediately.  The Italian military battled for several hours to save the migrants, but it seems that some panicked and, rushing en masse to one side of their boat, caused it to capsize.  Some managed to swim towards the Italian boats but others could not do so or were dragged back by their frightened companions.  There were 40 women and five children on board the migrant boat but only two of the women were among the 48 people saved by the Italian Coast Guard, a Maltese helicopter and an Italian fishing boat.

All the survivors are said to be in a stable condition tonight.  The dead will be buried in Agrigento and Nichi Vendola, the Governor of Puglia who is tipped as a future Prime Minister, has asked President Napolitano to declare a day of national mourning for them.

Tonight La Sicilia reports that only 72 migrants now remain on Lampedusa, the others having been evacuated to other parts of Italy or repatriated under an agreement reached by Mr Berlusconi and the Tunisian government when the Premier visited Tunis on Monday.  The Tunisians are said to have agreed to some, but not "collective", repatriations in a deal under which the Italians will help to smash people-smuggling rings operating out of Tunisia.  Prior to his departure for Tunis, Mr Berlusconi had said that a "human tsunami" was waiting to sail for Italy on the Tunisian coast.

The governors of other Italian regions, needless to say, are not happy about having to house the migrants and  have, with some justification, pointed out that management structures to help them do so are not in place.  Renata Polverini, the Governor of Lazio, refused permission for tents set aside for visitors to Rome for the May Beatification of Pope John Paul 11 to be used for the migrants, although she is reportedly working with humanitarian agencies to find a solution. Sergio Chiamparino, the Mayor of Turin, blocked plans for a tendopoli or "tent city" in his area because he had received no guarantees of help from Rome.  Mr  Chiamparino says he would welcome genuine refugees but not illegal immigrants, though he admits that he does not know how the authorities could decide who is a refugee and who is not.

There have been hunger strikes in some of the accommodation centres for migrants and escapes from several, notably the one in Manduria [Puglia].  There have also been clashes between migrants and police as the first migrants to be repatriated have been put onto coaches.

In another effort to resolve the problem, Italy has this week granted temporary permessi di soggiorno ["permission to stay"] documents to some of the migrants as this will enable them to travel to other Schengen states.  This move has caused particular anger in France, a country which many of the migrants wish to reach, and relationships between the two governments over the past two days have been decidedly frosty.  However, Corriere della Sera is reporting that an agreement has been reached tonight under which France and Italy will jointly patrol the Tunisian coast with a view to stopping any further departures of migrant boats.

Mr Berlusconi, whose plans to buy a villa on Lampedusa are on hold for the moment as the one he wanted is on common land and too near the airport, is to visit the island again tomorrow and is said to be looking for another home there.

MIGRATION UPDATE - 3

As the eyes of the world shift from Japan to Libya, the inhabitants of the beleaguered island of Lampedusa have a new worry:  the possibility of a Libyan airstrike there in retaliation for the Italian government's decision to allow NATO planes to take off from Sicily in the Coalition action against the Gaddafi régime.   Colonel Gaddafi tried to bomb Lampedusa back in 1986 after the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi but the Scud missiles, aimed at a US Coast Guard navigation station on the island, landed in the sea.

If you did not realise how close Sicily is to the North African coast, take a look at the map.  Lampedusa lies just 183.1 miles from Tripoli and its position is the reason why 11,000 North African migrants have landed there since January.

The people of Lampedusa have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of migrants arriving on their shore: The Cie [Identification and Expulsion Centre] on the island, built for 750 people, is currently housing almost 4,000 desperate souls.  New arrivals on Friday - Saturday night had to sleep on the quayside  and, with the Cie running short of basic supplies, the islanders, already worried about a decrease in tourist bookings, now dread a health emergency.  The Red Cross has declared the situation on the island "unacceptable".

On Friday many Lampedusani demonstrated in their two harbours, blocking the quays and today they successfully stopped the docking of an Italian ship carrying equipment for the tendopoli [tent city] proposed by the Italian government.  The Mayor of Lampedusa, Dino de Rubeis, says that the island's citizens will not allow the tendopoli to be built and he has instead asked the government to send a naval ship to accommodate some of the migrants.  He has also requested that the passengers of any other migrant boats sailing for the island be transferred directly to Cie in other parts of Italy.

Sicily has its own history of emigration and its people usually understand those who are seeking a better life but the people of Lampedusa are at the end of their tether.  There are reports of notices in bars stating that migrants are unwelcome and this, if true, goes against a long Sicilian  tradition of fellow-feeling for the immigrant.    

Some demonstators on Lampedusa, their sense of humour clearly not having deserted them, have been holding banners giving the exact longitude and latitude of their island and beseeching Colonel Gaddafi to aim at it accurately:

"Colonel, don't miss this time. That way our suffering will be over."

A HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY AND TWO TRAGEDIES

Image:  Wikimedia Commons

The Italian government has declared a state of emergency on the island of Lampedusa as the situation in North Africa impacts on Sicily and thence on other parts of Italy:  boatload after boatload of people fleeing Tunisia in panic has been arriving on the island since the fall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali  and 4,000 clandestini arrived between Wednesday morning and Friday night, with Corriere della Sera reporting that a further 977 arrived  between midnight and 9 am on Sunday.

The Cie or Centre for Identification and Expulsion on the island, which had been closed for some time, reopened this afternoon after pressure from UNHCR, among other bodies, though the Cda, the "Welcome Centre" which also carries out health checks, has remained operative.  Officials say that health checks are proceeding efficiently on the island but that identification of all the arrivals is proving difficult.  After being checked, most of the new arrivals are being flown to centres in other parts of Italy where their cases will be assessed and this, of course, is going to be a laborious task.

It is clear that neither Lampedusa nor Italy as a whole should be expected to deal with the situation alone but Italy's call for urgent help from the EU has met with nothing but bureaucratic excuses, with the European Commission putting off discussion of the crisis until a scheduled meeting on 24th February.

While the EU drags its feet, people are dying on the high seas:  an overloaded boat carrying would-be illegal immigrants to Europe split in two in the Gulf of Gabès yesterday, killing one person and injuring another three.  Another passenger is still missing.  It is thought that this boat was taking its cargo of desperate souls to join a larger vessel bound for Lampedusa.

Meanwhile, a young Moroccan street trader set fire to himself in Palermo on Friday after being approached by police for a routine check on his documentation.  Discovering that the young man was trading illegally, although he was in possession of a "permission to stay" document, the police officers set about confiscating his goods.  At that point the man poured petrol over himself and set himself alight before the officers could stop him.  He is now in a critical condition in hospital.  I am willing to bet that the police officers approached him in a non-threatening way and did not confiscate his goods violently but who knows what fears the very approach of police may have reawakened in him? 

My heart goes out to the young trader, whose reaction was, of course, one of desperation and I am thinking tonight not only of those who are risking their lives in a probably futile attempt to enter Europe but of all who try to help them and who have to make decisions regarding their future.  

STRAFED BOAT - MYSTERY CONTINUES

The mystery of what really happened when the crew of a Libyan patrol boat fired on a Sicilian fishing boat in the Gulf of Sirte on Sunday continues as an enquiry gets under way:  The captain of the fishing boat, Gaspare Marrone, insists that his vessel was pursued by the Libyan boat as it fled the scene and that the Libyan crew continued to fire to kill.   

Italian officials, probably in an attempt to play down the incident, are saying that the fishing boat was not pursued and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has accused the Italian crew of fishing illegally in Libyan waters.  Captain Marrone insists that they were in international waters and were not fishing at the time.  

The Libyans signalled to the boat to stop, then fired first into the air, then into the sea and finally at the hull of the boat.  Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has suggested that the Libyans mistook the boat for a vessel carrying illegal immigrants but Captain Marrone clearly thinks this claim is ridiculous: he says he identified the boat as Italian to the Libyan captain and that it would have been impossible to have mistaken his 36-metre vessel for anything other than a fishing boat.

The fishing boat is now in port where it will undergo ballistic examinations.

To me the strangest aspect of this episode is that there were Italian military observers or technical advisers on board the Libyan boat:  what did they do or feel when the crew started firing on their fellow countrymen?

SICILIAN FISHING BOAT STRAFED IN GULF OF SIRTE

This is my report on the incident for today's Italy Magazine:

A Sicilian fishing boat was shot at for fifteen minutes by a Libyan patrol boat in the Mediterranean on Sunday night.

La Sicilia Online reports that the Libyan vessel appears to have been one of six presented to the Libyan government by Italy as part of a joint agreement on combatting illegal immigration from Libya into Italy.

There was at least one Italian border official on board as an observer, possibly with other members of Italy's Finance Police. Under the agreement between the two countries, Italian military sometimes board the Libyan patrol boats as observers or technical advisers.

The fishing boat, the Ariete, was thirty miles off the Libyan coast in the Gulf of Sirte, waters which Tripoli, contrary to International Maritime Law, regards as exclusively Libyan territory, when the Libyan patrol boat signalled to it to stop. The Sicilian crew were not fishing at the time. Captain Gaspare Marrone, aware that Libyan patrol vessels sometimes seize Sicilian boats in the area, decided to speed ahead.

Captain Marrone said that his crew of ten threw themselves onto the deck and only when they saw the coast of Lampedusa at dawn did they feel safe. Riddled with bullets, the Ariete reached Lampedusa later yesterday morning.

Italy has begun an investigation into the incident.

Update:  Libya has issued an apology this evening.

PEOPLE TRAFFICKERS CHANGE TACTICS

Some of the despicable people traffickers who charge would-be illegal immigrants thousands of pounds for a journey to Italy have changed their tactics during the summer:  in attempts to trick the Coast Guard, they have been using yachts and other, luxurious-looking vessels to carry what I call their "boatloads of sorrow" rather than the small, inadequate craft of previous journeys.

On Thursday night a yacht carrying 51 men, 36 women and 35 children, of whom 10 were under the age of 2, stopped 50 metres from the shore between Riace and Camini in Reggio Calabria.  The "captain"  swam ashore, extended a rope and proceeded to transfer his passengers from the yacht on to Italian soil in a dinghy which he had hidden there. 

The passengers, who were Iraqi and Afghan Kurds,  had  paid €  3,000 - € 5,000 each for the voyage and have been transferred to a detention centre in Riace.

A SADDER TALE OF THE SEA

The sea, which brings pleasure to millions of Italians and non-Italians alike during summer, remains a harbinger of tragedy to would-be illegal immigrants trying to reach Europe via Italy's shores.

On Sunday a dinghy was found drifting about 3.5 miles off Pantelleria, after its motor had failed. Of its cargo of nine desperate souls, four had thrown themselves overboard in the hope of swimming to shore. Two, including a male minor, managed this feat. Another swam for twelve hours until he was rescued by a pleasure craft. This man was taken to hospital and was declared to be out of danger by Monday. A fourth man has not been found, despite extensive searches by the Italian Coast Guard, Police and a naval helicopter. It is possible that he reached the shore and has mingled with tourists. Under Italy's tough new immigration laws, if this is so he is likely to be quickly located and deported. A fishing vessel helped the five men remaining on board the dinghy. They were taken to officials in Pantelleria and were later declared fit.

I can't help thinking that somewhere in North Africa there is a mother who may never know what happened to her son. If I see a shooting star tonight, I will make a wish for both of them.

MORE SADNESS AT SEA

Nine desperate souls were found inside a refrigerated lorry on a catamaran ferry approaching the Port of Pozzallo on Thursday. The men were found by undercover police alerted to their presence by noises coming from inside the lorry. The men, who are thought to have come from India, received their statutory medical checks on board the catamaran and therefore never set foot on Italian soil. Once declared fit, they were sent back to Malta, from where they will presumably be repatriated. [Source: Il Giornale di Sicilia. Not available online.]

There have been many tensions between Malta and Italy regarding who should take responsibility for illegal would-be immigrants rescued from the Sicilian Channel. There have recently been talks between Sicilian and Maltese authorities to try to resolve the situation. Taking a doctor to the ship, instead of detaining the men on Italian soil for a medical check represents a new effort by Italy to keep one step ahead of those who organise such " voyages of hope" [which all too often turn into voyages of despair and tragedy].

How long will it be before this particular group tries again?

Update: La Sicilia Online is reporting that a dinghy carrying 44 Somali clandestini, two of whom are women, docked at Marsascala, Malta during last night. This group departed from Libya four days ago and they claim to have thrown the body of one man, who died of dehydration, into the sea. The Maltese Navy is searching for the body. The survivors have been taken to the Safi Detention Centre in Malta.

"THE SEA HAS NO GENEROSITY"

"The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power. " - Joseph Conrad.

While so many of us, including me, were enjoying Easter among friends in warm, dry houses with plenty of food, hopelessness and tragedy were once more making their way towards Sicily, in the form of a twenty-metre boat carrying 321 desperate people [including six children], most of whom were from Somalia.

In possibly the roughest sea we have had this year, the inadequate boat ran aground off Porto Ulisse [Ispica] on Saturday. The Pozzallo Coast Guard and Sea Division of the Financial Police were called to the scene and, working in very difficult conditions, not only saved a child from drowning but managed to bring the boat and its human cargo to shore.

Most of the would-be illegal immigrants were in a pitiful state, suffering from dehydration and hypothermia after a five-day voyage. Some were immediately transferred to hospital, whilst others were taken to Pozzallo for identification purposes. Another group was taken to the Detention Centre at Cassibile. All received the medical treatment that they needed.

Among those taken to various hospitals were at least three of the children and I did hear, though cannot confirm this, that no one has claimed them. If this is true, one can only conjecture at the fear that afflicts their parents, if the latter were, indeed, on the boat, or what dreadful circumstance had led them to entust their children to others on such a dangerous journey if they were not. It is known that some of the group tried to run away once they were brought to safety and I remember from my own teaching of asylum seekers in the UK that some are terrified as soon as they see any sort of uniform. They must have lived through unimaginable horrors.

It is not yet known whether other members of the original group drowned before the boat reached Sicilian waters.

I feel for all in this terrible situation: for the clandestini themselves who would rather die on what they consider a voyage towards hope than stay where they are; for the Italian police and Coast Guard who risk their own lives when they go out to help the stranded boats; for the medical staff and social workers who have to work with and try to identify souls too frightened and traumatised to give the information that is needed; and for the communities that suddenly and involuntarily become "hosts" and feel themselves, rightly or wrongly, to be overwhelmed.

Yet again I realise I am lucky to sleep in my bed tonight.

UNITED BY GRIEF

Today has been the fourth day of a general strike on the beautiful but troubled island of Lampedusa. For newer readers, Lampedusa is often the destination of would-be illegal immigrants from North Africa. Some manage to get as far as its shores unaided whilst many others are rescued from their inadequate boats or from the sea itself and are taken there. The island has a "welcome" centre built for 800 but currently said to be providing accommodation for 1,800 people. The residents of Lampedusa are fed up, as the situation affects their tourist trade and of course changes their lives in other ways not of their choosing.

Now the Italian Government wants to build a second centre on the island and claims that this centre will be used to identify and deport the clandestini more quickly. The inhabitants of Lampedusa believe this will only make matters worse and, at the end of their tether, they began a general strike on Sunday and are also staging protests, led by their Mayor. 600 detainees temporarily escaped from the original centre on Sunday and joined the protest, as they are unhappy about their treatment, especially given the overcrowding. Thus the interests of these two groups strangely coincided and the residents applauded the clandestini.

Over 36,000 clandestini have landed in Italy by sea in the past year, some 31,000 of these on Lampedusa. Wherever one's sympathies may lie, it is clear that such a small island cannot be expected to cope. The Italian Interior Minister has today reached agreement with the Tunisian government, which will take back its nationals who are at the moment on Lampedusa. However, it is going to take more than this to impress the Mayor.

Italy is by no means a heartless country and Sunday's protest ended with a ceremony to commemorate the clandestini who had drowned on their dangerous voyage and fishermen from the island who had also lost their lives at sea. The priest's words touched my own heart and expressed the feelings of many: "Siamo accomunati dallo stesso dolore che è universale e non ha colore" = "We are joined together by the same grief which is universal and has no colour."

A NICE TALE FOR SUNDAY

A 35-year-old man from the Ivory Coast, who arrived in Sicily 7 years ago as a clandestino [illegal immigrant] has today become a deacon . The ceremony took place in the beautiful Cathedral of Monreale [Palermo], the diocese which first gave the young man hospitality.

On the day of his arrival, Elisee Ake Brou met and talked to a nun on the train taking him to Palermo and he never forgot this conversation. At first, he worked as a car-park attendant, until one day a couple offered him a lot of money to take part in certain sexual activities . He refused and went to work in a centre for the poor. Soon after, he realised that he had a vocation.

In my opinion, someone who has suffered poverty, hardship and humiliation like this will be able to understand the plight of others and will make a fine priest, so let us be happy for him as he takes this first step towards becoming one.

A HAPPY ENDING?

A young woman whose exact age has not been given – but she is definitely a minor – has narrowly escaped a life of slavery of the worst kind.

She arrived on Lampedusa in August, along with a Nigerian couple purporting to be her parents, according to Il Giornale di Sicilia [not available online] today. They had apparently “trained” her in the “arts” of prostitution.

The girl, however, was courageous enough to tell the police the truth and now the couple, who allegedly received $30, 000 for bringing the girl to Europe, have been arrested.

What kind of society, I keep asking myself, can give rise to such brutality? And what had happened to the girl before she began her enforced journey? Did her real parents sell her and if so, what were the circumstances? Or was she stolen from them? May God help them in either case, because they will probably never hear from her again.

We can only hope that she will now receive the care that she needs and deserves and that she will continue to avoid the fate previously in store for her.

WE ALL STINK

Believe me, I have thought long and hard about posting this, and upon in what manner to post it, too. Should I quote directly the words of Lampedusa's Mayor, on September 12th? I am damned if I do, and would be damned for cowardice, if I do not. Here are the alleged words, then: "Negro flesh stinks, even after it is washed". The Mayor says that the words have been taken out of context and that he was referring to the awful conditions at sea for those trying desperately to reach Italy in the heat of summer.

Let me say here that I understand, to a point, the frustration of those whose home is Lampedusa: their island is now better known as a Cpa ["First Welcome Centre"] for clandestini [would-be illegal immigrants] than as the beautiful island it is. And public services on the island are in a desperate state, as money has to be diverted from these to aiding the sad boatloads of sorrow that arrive almost hourly during this period of clear moons [but often unexpectedly rough seas].

Now the Regional Councillor for Culture has resigned, saying that he, too, "stinks": he agrees that the island finds itself in a terrible situation, but adds that one cannot attack the dignity of those who come to Italy for help in such a way.

I will not judge, here, the remarks of the Mayor, but I will say that if such a thing had been said in the UK, there would have been not only a local, but a nationwide outcry. Those who attack political correctness there would do well to remember why the concept ever saw light.

SEA OF SORROW

There was another tragedy in the Sicilian Channel yesterday morning: at 7 am, an 11-metre boat crammed full of clandestini [would-be illegal immigrants] was spotted by the Maltese authorities off Portopalo. The Italian police and coastguard went to its rescue but already, during a 10-day nightmare voyage, 13 of the 72 passengers had died of dehydration and their bodies had been thrown overboard.

Some of the survivors were in a pitiful state, having suffered bleeding caused by knocking against the frames holding the keel. 2 pregnant women, a 2-year-old child and a man were admitted to hospital.

I am often asked, on this blog, which countries these poor souls come from: in this case I can tell you that they were from Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Sudan. Their sad voyage began in Libya and they had paid $1000 each for the "privilege" of travelling in this maritime coffin. One of the Nigerian men has said that he was forced to work for the criminal organisation that planned the trip; this may seem far-fetched but I have taught asylum seekers in Britain and know from their stories that such things happen. Many remain traumatised for a long time or have become brutalised by these experiences.

At least I can tell you that, in this case, 3 of the odious people smugglers have been arrested.

Once again, my heart goes out to those without hope and I am thinking about the way in which, through no fault of your own, your life can be destined to be potentially successful or tragic, simply because of where you are geographically in a certain period of history.

My source for this story is the Giornale di Sicilia, which is unavailable online.

MARE DI FRONTIERA

Thus has the Mediterranean been named by an Italian UN spokesperson, the reason being that the tragic, often pathetically unseaworthy, boatloads of sorrow keep arriving: 356 clandestini [would-be illegal immigrants] reached Lampedusa in the early hours of Monday and the "Welcome" centre there is again at crisis point: 2000 poor souls were reported to be there on Sunday night, although the place only really has room for 750.

"Enough!" cries the Mayor, who, understandably, believes that the island cannot go on hosting all who are rescued at sea. A volunteer force consisting of residents and tourists is now patrolling the perimeters of the centre, as the army cannot manage the whole area.

As soon as some clandestini are removed from Lampedusa to other such centres in Italy, more arrive to take their place, it seems.

No one, particularly in Catholic Italy, is arguing that the saving of human life is not a duty; just that, this done, the aftercare should be shared.

It is a very difficult issue that tears this blogger, for one, apart. Meanwhile, 71 people, among them 8 women, 4 of whom were pregnant, are reported missing after a boat got into trouble off Malta this evening.

God help them and may all of us who sleep in our beds be grateful for that tonight.