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SLAMMING SHUT THE DOOR TO EUROPE
Paola Totaro
The Canberra Times
20/09/2008 12:00:01 AM
Australia
IT HAS been dubbed the doorway to Europe, a dusty raft of ancient
cliffs and prickly pear floating in the vast cobalt expanse that is
the southern Mediterranean.
For centuries, seamen have plied the waters between the Middle East,
Africa and Europe, using the islet of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost
territory, as a port and safe haven against raging winter seas.
Featureless, barren, and as hot as the deserts of its nearest
neighbours Libya and Tunisia, Lampedusa's inhospitable landscape is
tempered by turquoise waters of unrivalled beauty. In summer, when
sea breezes cool the ferocious north African sun, the island becomes
a magnet for intrepid Italian holidaymakers and its minuscule rocky
coves and sandy inlets disappear beneath a forest of beach umbrellas.
But as the benign seas attract a riot of dinghies and yachts,
a grotesque scene plays itself out day after relentless day as the
Italian coastguards pluck boatloads of terrified and exhausted African
refugees from surrounding waters and ferry them to safety. When
conditions are calm, sightings and call-outs can come several times
a day.
And yet the coastguard launches returning to port laden with their
stricken human cargo elicit barely a nod of acknowledgment from the
islanders or their summer visitors.
During the week that the Herald spent on call with the Italian
coastguards and the wharfside team from Doctors Without Borders (MSF),
1470 men, women and children landed on Lampedusa. Nearly 20,000 have
landed just this year, while an estimated 600 perished en route. We
saw pregnant women, tiny babies; a 16-year-old girl arrived alone
with her seven-month-old baby. The majority managed to walk or limp
down the gangplanks but others had to be carried off on stretchers or
supported by medical teams. One pregnant woman suffered a hemorrhage
at sea. Only the tiniest of children, generally the most resilient,
managed a smile of relief.
The sight is one of abject misery and yet for many, arrival in Italy,
the doorway to Europe, still represents hope, a step away from the
hopelessness of poverty in Africa to an imagined milk and honey of
Western Europe.
The crisis of the poor brought another unexpected visitor to
Lampedusa that week: Howard Buffett, son of Warren Buffet, the world's
richest man. The eldest of three children of the legendary investor,
businessman and billionaire philanthropist, Howard Buffett is a veteran
of scores of refugee camps throughout the world thanks to his work
with the UN. He had come to witness - and to photograph first-hand -
the African arrivals.
During a chat with the Herald he too was visibly touched by their
plight: "Everywhere you go when you talk about immigration people
see it as their own problem ... you ask the Italians and it's their
problem, you ask the Russians, the Armenians, the Romanians and
they say it's their problem, ask in Asia, they it's theirs. Everyone
talks about it like it is their own, this is a global problem and it
is serious.
"There are 200 million people the world over who live outside their
home country."
For the coastguards, medical volunteers and humanitarian organisations,
Lampedusa is the front line of Italy's - and Europe's - burgeoning
refugee crisis. Shaped by proud traditions of compassion and aid,
they are now preparing to work within a new legal framework and
culture. In two weeks, the EU - led by France - will enact a package
of tough new laws and powers for the police and military that will
also lengthen the maximum terms of detention for illegal immigrants.
In Italy, the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi and the
anti-immigration Northern League have already launched an anti-crime
crackdown, upping the number of deportations and fuelling xenophobia
and fear of crime.
Despite this, maritime arrivals have continued to rise steadily over
last year.
Those working at the coalface argue that much of the boat traffic
stems from Libya. Muammar Gaddafi, they say, has not been forced
to act on an agreement, signed with Italy, to deploy joint maritime
patrols aimed at halting the exodus of refugees aided by the criminal
syndicates who work Libya's coast.
For many arrivals, say MSF, the reality of the future is tough. A
recent MSF report into conditions as seasonal workers on farms
and orchards in southern Italy reveals further horror: "They are
exploited, offered little or no medical help and most are too
terrified to understand that under Italian law they are entitled
to medical assistance even if they are clandestini. Agriculture is
hugely important to Italy's economy ... that is the hypocrisy of
the situation."
Paola Totaro
The Canberra Times
20/09/2008 12:00:01 AM
Australia
IT HAS been dubbed the doorway to Europe, a dusty raft of ancient
cliffs and prickly pear floating in the vast cobalt expanse that is
the southern Mediterranean.
For centuries, seamen have plied the waters between the Middle East,
Africa and Europe, using the islet of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost
territory, as a port and safe haven against raging winter seas.
Featureless, barren, and as hot as the deserts of its nearest
neighbours Libya and Tunisia, Lampedusa's inhospitable landscape is
tempered by turquoise waters of unrivalled beauty. In summer, when
sea breezes cool the ferocious north African sun, the island becomes
a magnet for intrepid Italian holidaymakers and its minuscule rocky
coves and sandy inlets disappear beneath a forest of beach umbrellas.
But as the benign seas attract a riot of dinghies and yachts,
a grotesque scene plays itself out day after relentless day as the
Italian coastguards pluck boatloads of terrified and exhausted African
refugees from surrounding waters and ferry them to safety. When
conditions are calm, sightings and call-outs can come several times
a day.
And yet the coastguard launches returning to port laden with their
stricken human cargo elicit barely a nod of acknowledgment from the
islanders or their summer visitors.
During the week that the Herald spent on call with the Italian
coastguards and the wharfside team from Doctors Without Borders (MSF),
1470 men, women and children landed on Lampedusa. Nearly 20,000 have
landed just this year, while an estimated 600 perished en route. We
saw pregnant women, tiny babies; a 16-year-old girl arrived alone
with her seven-month-old baby. The majority managed to walk or limp
down the gangplanks but others had to be carried off on stretchers or
supported by medical teams. One pregnant woman suffered a hemorrhage
at sea. Only the tiniest of children, generally the most resilient,
managed a smile of relief.
The sight is one of abject misery and yet for many, arrival in Italy,
the doorway to Europe, still represents hope, a step away from the
hopelessness of poverty in Africa to an imagined milk and honey of
Western Europe.
The crisis of the poor brought another unexpected visitor to
Lampedusa that week: Howard Buffett, son of Warren Buffet, the world's
richest man. The eldest of three children of the legendary investor,
businessman and billionaire philanthropist, Howard Buffett is a veteran
of scores of refugee camps throughout the world thanks to his work
with the UN. He had come to witness - and to photograph first-hand -
the African arrivals.
During a chat with the Herald he too was visibly touched by their
plight: "Everywhere you go when you talk about immigration people
see it as their own problem ... you ask the Italians and it's their
problem, you ask the Russians, the Armenians, the Romanians and
they say it's their problem, ask in Asia, they it's theirs. Everyone
talks about it like it is their own, this is a global problem and it
is serious.
"There are 200 million people the world over who live outside their
home country."
For the coastguards, medical volunteers and humanitarian organisations,
Lampedusa is the front line of Italy's - and Europe's - burgeoning
refugee crisis. Shaped by proud traditions of compassion and aid,
they are now preparing to work within a new legal framework and
culture. In two weeks, the EU - led by France - will enact a package
of tough new laws and powers for the police and military that will
also lengthen the maximum terms of detention for illegal immigrants.
In Italy, the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi and the
anti-immigration Northern League have already launched an anti-crime
crackdown, upping the number of deportations and fuelling xenophobia
and fear of crime.
Despite this, maritime arrivals have continued to rise steadily over
last year.
Those working at the coalface argue that much of the boat traffic
stems from Libya. Muammar Gaddafi, they say, has not been forced
to act on an agreement, signed with Italy, to deploy joint maritime
patrols aimed at halting the exodus of refugees aided by the criminal
syndicates who work Libya's coast.
For many arrivals, say MSF, the reality of the future is tough. A
recent MSF report into conditions as seasonal workers on farms
and orchards in southern Italy reveals further horror: "They are
exploited, offered little or no medical help and most are too
terrified to understand that under Italian law they are entitled
to medical assistance even if they are clandestini. Agriculture is
hugely important to Italy's economy ... that is the hypocrisy of
the situation."