Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1496177
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 APRIL 2023 8 INTERVIEW Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt We can't let humanity drown This year marks the tenth anni- versary of the 2013 Lampedu- sa tragedy, in which over 500 people perished trying to reach Europe by boat. At the victims' funeral, then-EU Commission president Jose Barroso declared that: "The kind of tragedy we have witnessed here [...] should never happen again." Yet there have been numerous other tragedies since then: including the latest one off the coast of Calabria, just last week. So how much of what was promised, back in 2013, would you say has actually been delivered, over the past decade? Nothing. Of all that was said, and promised that day... nothing at all has actually been done. Because, you see, every time a tragedy like this happens – and there have been so many, over the years – everybody reacts by 'thumping their chest'. They all get 'emotional'; or pretend to get emotional, anyway... and this is something we saw even in the latest tragedy of Cutro: in which over 100 people died – most of them children - and the sea is still returning more corpses to us, every day. Once again, everyone was very 'upset' by what happened: in particular, the government of Italy. In reality, however: just one week later, nobody is even talking about it anymore. On the contrary, they are all trying, in whatever way they can, to de- fend themselves for the mistakes that they have made. Because this tragedy could have been avoided. Mistakes were made; there were errors and omissions; as well as negligence, and super- ficiality. And it is not the fault – as the [Italian] government would have us all believe – of the Port Au- thorities, or the Coast Guard. I believe that there was a general underestimation of the situa- tion, across the board; and the government did not intervene, in the way it should have inter- vened. This is why the tragedy occurred... But as I said earlier, we have had countless other tragedies over the years. You mentioned the one of October 3, 2013, for instance. I was there. I was the one who - as the only doctor available, at the time - had to conduct all the first post-mor- tem inspections. And it's something I hate do- ing, by the way. Even though I'm a doctor: I'm still afraid, to this day, whenever I have to inspect a dead body. And I was terrified, every time I had to open up yet another body-bag, to see what was inside this time... [Pause] This is why I have dif- ficulties talking about those peo- ple as 'just numbers', you know. On that day, October 3, I had to conduct post-mortem inspec- tions on 368 dead bodies... In fact, the experience inspired you to write a book, entitled 'Tears of Salt: A Doctor's Story of the Refugee Crisis'. Even the title suggests a deeply 'per- sonal' rapport with the victims: something which most other people – including European governments – will never have experienced themselves. Do you think this is why European politics seems so 'inhumane', on this issue? Because govern- ments view those people as - like you said yourself – 'just numbers'? That is, in fact, what I was com- ing to. Yes, people talk about those victims as 'just numbers'; but it's difficult for me – who have looked those people, living and dead, in the eye – to do the same. Do you know, for instance, what made the biggest impres- sion on me [in 2013]? Children. There were so many children, among the victims that day. And they were all 'dressed up in their Sunday best', too: all with clean, colourful clothes, and polished little shoes; the girls, all with their hair all done up in bows, and pigtails... Because the shipwreck hap- pened only 300 metres from the coast. They had almost 'arrived'. And their mothers had evident- ly prepared them all, to make a good impression upon their 'arrival in Europe'. As if to say: "These are our children: look at them, they're all clean, and well- dressed... just like your own chil- dren..." And instead: they're all dead. And they all died here, around us: in 'our' sea... Another thing I shall never for- get, for as long as I live, was when I opened up one of those body- bags, thinking to myself: "Please, let there not be another child inside". And yet, there was an- other child inside. A small boy of around three: who was wearing a red pair of shorts, and a white T-shirt. When I stripped him naked, he almost looked like he was just asleep; and could be woken up with just a gentle nudge. There was no sign of 'rigor mortis', yet – which, as you know, sets in around two hours after death – which meant that this child must have either died just a short while earlier, or else... Was there a chance the child may have still been alive? It's what I was hoping, yes. Be- cause, after all, it had happened just the day before. [In that ear- lier case, Bartolo had successful- ly resuscitated a young woman, previously presumed dead: who is now living in Sweden]. But in any case, I did what I could, as a doctor, to determine wheth- As the EU debates a new 'asylum and immigration pact', PIETRO BARTOLO – Italian MEP, doctor, and a frontline campaigner for the rights of asylum- seekers – calls on Europe to rediscover its 'humanity' Pietro Bartolo