Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1037099
ANALYSIS 10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 OCTOBER 2018 JAMES DEBONO JUST before sunrise on 3 Octo- ber 2013, Carmine Menna, a lo- cal optician, his wife Rosaria, and six friends, who were out sailing on their 15-metre yacht were the first to assist during a tragedy at sea, rescuing 47 desperate peo- ple from the water, pulling them aboard their yacht which was meant to cater for 10 persons. But they could do nothing to save the 360 who drowned, in- cluding a mother, whose new- born baby was still attached to her by its umbilical cord when she was discovered. Pietro Bartolo, an Italian doctor who performed autopsies on the bodies of the victims of the trag- edy recalls that when performing autopsies on the children's small bodies he was struck by how well dressed they were recalling "their little shoes and their hair in braids". "Their parents had dressed them with care so they could en- ter a new world and start a new life, a life that would finally be free of worry. They never saw that world. And it breaks my heart to think that I will never even hear their stories. That day marked my life. Often those lit- tle faces are nightmares," Bartolo said in an article recently penned on The Guardian. The globalisation of indifference Three months before the trag- edy Pope Francis had visited Lampedusa to denounce "the globalisation of indifference." The scale of the disaster in terms of loss of lives stunned the Italian government and made headlines worldwide. It seemed the Euro- pean Union was really interested in doing something. Politicians from all over Europe descended on Lampedusa to participate in the mass state funeral for the 366 people. "The symbolism of travelling to the remote island of Lampe- dusa and the magnitude of the reaction by the media and key decision makers raised a glim- mer of hope that policies would change", recalls migration expert and senior lecturer in Malmo university, Daniela Debono. As a result of this tragedy – as well as of a second sinking of a boat carrying 268 Syrian refugees just a week later – the Italian government launched Operation Mare Nostrum, a search and res- cue operation, which saved over 160,000 lives. George Vella who was Malta's foreign minister at that time re- calls being deeply shaken by the two tragedies. He recalls how Malta was actively involved in the rescue of Syrian and Palestin- ian refugees, some of whom had lost their families in the tragedy. After the second shipwreck, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who just a few months before had threatened a pushback to make "Europe smell the cof- fee", denounced that "as things stand we are building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea." From than onwards the word pushbacks disappeared from his vocabulary. "The most heart-breaking part of this tragedy was trying to match couples only to discover that many had lost their spouses. I remember a neurosurgeon who lost his wife and children who is probably still living in Malta." Vella also recalls that the second tragedy involving Syrian refugees represented the beginning of the Syrian exodus to Europe which later shifted to the Balkans. "This influx included highly- educated and skilled workers who represented an opportunity for countries facing demograph- ic imbalances like Germany. But this same influx also contributed to the rise of xenophobia in east- ern and central Europe." Vella recalls that the tragedies had an impact on the relation- ship between Malta and Italy in their handling of the migration problem, with Italy putting aside differences over the interpre- tation of treaties determining whether Malta or Lampedusa is the closest port of call. Suc- cessive Italian centre-left gov- ernments led by Enrico Letta, Matteo Renzi and Paolo Genti- loni assumed responsibility over migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean. "This decision on the part of the Italians gave Malta valuable breathing space... don't forget that till 2013 Malta was receiving thousands of arrivals on an an- nual basis." Unfortunately, as Vella notes, this approach has been discon- tinued by the current Italian gov- ernment which includes Matteo Salvini who, according to Vella, "is going beyond what is accept- able." After Mare Nostrum Mare Nostrum was successful in terms of saving lives but po- litically costly for the centre-left government which was practi- cally left alone by its European partners. The rescue mission was sadly ended a year later, in November 2014, and replaced with a signifi- cantly more limited Frontex op- eration called Operation Triton. The vacuum was filled by NGO- run rescue missions whose op- erations are currently stalled by Malta and Italy. In the first 10 months of 2018, according to IOM statistics, 1,259 people have already lost their lives along the central Mediterranean route. 2,853 died along the same route in 2017. Yet despite the death toll European governments under pressure from a more assertive right-wing are even more reluctant to as- sume responsibility. "Five years down the line, all we see is a consolidation of the very same European policies which produced the 3rd October trag- edy, and many others before and after." These policies include the re- striction of visas for legal travel, border control through military means and the criminalisation of citizen and NGO-solidarity. Pull factor or solidarity in action? Ironically while it was private citizens who rescued the few survivors of the Lampedusa tragedy, five years later Euro- pean countries are clamping Europe's stain of shame: How indifference overtaken memories of Lampedusa tragedy Five years ago a boat carrying over 500 migrants – almost all of them escaping from Eritrea's totalitarian regime – caught fire 800 metres off the coast of Lampedusa. 366 men, women and children drowned in the Mediterranean. What has Europe learned from this tragedy? Ironically while it was private citizens who rescued the few survivors of the Lampedusa tragedy, five years later European countries are clamping down on rescue operations by NGOs