For a long time, I was proud of my country. I work as a doctor on the small island of Lampedusa in the middle of the Mediterranean, a place that is something of a symbolic gateway between Africa and Europe. In recent decades, Italy showed how it could honor humanity, giving the word “welcome” a new meaning, without ever building walls or putting up barbed wire along its borders. These acts of openness were recognized by other countries, by the EU, and by the gratitude of the thousands of people whose lives we saved over the years.
However, I stopped feeling proud to be Italian from the moment our government, denying all that had previously been done, decided to establish an agreement with Libyan groups in Tripoli — which meant, directly or indirectly, with people smugglers.
I still remember how in 2016 my country had vigorously joined the outrage triggered by Europe’s decision to bankroll Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with $6 billion euros (US$7 billion) so he would ignore or stop the migration flows from Syria.
Italy’s position was then sacrosanct. It has since been somehow inexplicably disavowed in deeds.
There is only one dramatic difference between what Europe did with Turkey then and what Italy is doing with Libya today. Refugee camps set up in Turkey are more or less efficient; in Libya, people are detained in horror camps where they are raped, tortured and killed. Instead of the wall that Italy did not build on its own territory, we have erected two walls elsewhere. The one in Libya has allowed us to cut the number of arrivals on our shores by 70 percent; the other, within ourselves, allows us to pretend we do not see what is being done to the 70 percent.
Well, I can tell you what is being done to these people. From my workplace, the Lampedusa clinic, their fate is clear to see. They are tortured daily, atrociously, for years on end. Those brought to us, by helicopter or motorboat, are close to death, with burns, serious injuries from blows, electric currents applied to the head or genitals, gunshot wounds and razor-blade cuts. They are almost always dehydrated, in a state of hypothermia, and so underfed they are on the brink of collapse. They bring to mind the suffering of a concentration camp — yes, a concentration camp. Not exactly the refugee centers with sports pitches and recreation facilities some people want us to believe.
An operation of “mass distraction” is under way. And it is entirely underpinned by skilful, rhetorical artifice. Pay attention to this: instead of people — a term that is never used — we hear about migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The difference is enormous. Because that is how we omit to see we are playing with the lives of human beings, of women, men and children, people like ourselves, with our same feelings, our same plans, our same dreams. Only they were born in the wrong place.
I feel disgust and shame when I hear the lies that come out of the mouths of those in government — the same people who each day talk about their own families and children. Maybe they consider the families and children of others as aliens, monsters or inferior beings who can be “rejected” and left at the mercy of people without a shred of humanity, who reduce them to slaves and do not hesitate to assassinate.
In Italy a permanent and very dangerous form of electoral campaigning is under way, and the social and cultural damage it risks is incalculable.
It is like a war. The poor against the poor. The excluded against the excluded. The last against the last. I call this “media terrorism”: distorting reality to scare people and win their votes, without any thought given to the social bomb it might set off.
Let us be clear: This rhetoric has nothing to do with reality. The most challenging year for arrivals on our shores was 2016, when little more than 180,000 people disembarked. I refuse to believe that 180,000 people are an invasion, let alone an epochal invasion: 180,000 migrants in a country of 60 million — come on, let’s not be ridiculous.
I cannot forget what happened on Oct. 3, 2013, not far from the port of Lampedusa. That day, 368 people — just a few hundred meters from salvation — lost their lives. Many were children. When I performed autopsies on these small bodies, I was struck by how well-dressed they were — their little shoes, their hair in braids. Their parents had dressed them with care so they could enter a new world and start a new life, a life that would finally be free of worry. They never saw that world. It breaks my heart to think that I will never even hear their stories. That day marked my life. Often those little faces are nightmares.
Around that time I spoke to many politicians on many commissions who came to the island to talk with its inhabitants and those who had done their best to save lives and recover bodies. Yet once the politicians left the island, they erased it from memory.
Of course, we cannot lay all the blame on Italy, Greece or tiny Malta.
The migration phenomenon (please do not call it a problem) concerns all of Europe. Everyone has a duty and the responsibility to help, welcome and assist these people — without exception. The coasts of Italy, Malta and Spain are the coasts of Europe. The EU was founded to create a united continent, based on values of civility, coexistence and, above all, respect for human life.
What is unfolding now in Libya and in the Mediterranean is a slaughter of innocents. Human rights are denied by the same European countries who exploited, robbed and enslaved these peoples and colonized their lands.
Italy is an aging country, on an aging continent. Italians now have fewer children, and our society has inexorably started to decline. So I suggest we “take advantage” — again — of these people, but in an opposite direction. Let them bring us their culture, their traditions, their children, their legacy. Let us mix with them, with mutual respect and common sense. They will make us grow, become stronger, better. I want to make a plea to Europeans everywhere, from east to west — and in particular those who today categorically refuse to welcome others and want borders closed off: Do not be deceived by the lies of politicians.
Reason with your own head — and especially with your heart — because we are all citizens of the world, and we all have the right to live a dignified life.
The motto of Lampedusa is written across a great mural found on the island’s Favaloro Pier: “Protect people and not borders.”
Pietro Bartolo, an Italian doctor, is the coauthor, with Lidia Tilotta, of Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing
A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers led by the party’s legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) are to visit Beijing for four days this week, but some have questioned the timing and purpose of the visit, which demonstrates the KMT caucus’ increasing arrogance. Fu on Wednesday last week confirmed that following an invitation by Beijing, he would lead a group of lawmakers to China from Thursday to Sunday to discuss tourism and agricultural exports, but he refused to say whether they would meet with Chinese officials. That the visit is taking place during the legislative session and in the aftermath