„Der Friedhof von Lampedusa“
The corpses that are arriving every day on the beaches Lampedusa have become an ordinary news item, as regular as a high tide. Italy is the landing zone for the boats of hope. Everyone knows where these migrants come from and why they are obliged to leave their homelands, but nobody does anything. Italy has been left alone to tackle the desperation of Africa, while Europe looks on, as though the tragedy didn’t have anything to do with the continent, as though it weren’t partially responsible with the plunder of African resources by the multinationals, with the sale of arms and the support of dictatorial governments, with non-intervention, with “lassez faire” in the face of an enormous tragedy like that of Darfur or with the neocolonial wars in Libya and elsewhere. Someone who flees from the inferno, ever more frequently, is ending up in Lampedusa’s cemetery that by now has no free spaces left.
„I’m the new mayor of the islands of Lampedusa and Linosa. I was elected in May and on 3 November 21 cadavers were consigned to me. These are people who have drowned while they were attempting to reach Lampedusa and for me this is something that is unbearable. For Lampedusa it’s an enormous burden of sadness.