Mediterranean Hope Newsletter – January 2018
IT’S JANUARY AGAIN IN TUNISIA Clara Capelli – Q Code Magazine
NEW CLASHES ERUPT IN TUNISIA AS A RESULT OF THE UNPOPULAR 2018 BUDGET LAW
It’s January again in Tunisia. A month that, as many observers have reminded us, has often been historically characterised by violent social protests. Like those taking place today in response to the new 2018 Budget Law by Youssef Chahed’s technical government. On Monday, 8 January 2018, a protestor died in unclear circumstances and the autopsy results have not been disclosed. Read more…
Harraga. Music that burns the border Silvia Turati – MH operator in Lampedusa and Lebanon
“Harrag, ça reste toujours dans ma mentalité… dans mon esprit, dans ma tête, bon courage inshallah les frères…”
“Harrag, this will always remain in my way of thinking…in my spirit, in my head, good luck brothers, God willing…”
This is how the Tunisian song begins, a sort of anthem for the harraga: the young men who burn the border. Harraga is a word in Moroccan and Algerian dialect, which has its origin in the Arab word haraqa, meaning burn. This is how the young North Africans who cross the sea without documents define themselves: they burn the borders. Read more…
Libya, “100 Migrants Killed in Shipwreck.” IOM warned: “Almost 200 victims Along the Route to Italy Il Fatto Quotidiano
Over the past three days, more than 160 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to reach Italy from Libya. On Tuesday at dawn a shipwreck east of Tripoli caused 100 victims, according to a reliable estimate. These people came on top of over 60 killed on the day of the Epiphany. The information came from the Libyan Coast Guard who this morning rescued a dinghy crashed off Homs, a hundred miles east of the capital. Read more…
Solidarity: Two Young Syrian Patients Arrived in Ragusa Through Humanitarian Corridors NEV Agency
Rome (NEV), January 12, 2018 – In Ragusa (Sicily), the virtuous synergy between churches, civil society, health workers and volunteers has allowed two seriously ill Syrian brothers to be immediately treated. The two children who arrived through the humanitarian corridor from Lebanon on October 27 2017 at Roma-Fiumicino together with their parents, were hosted at the Casa delle Culture in Scicli (RG), a project of Mediterranean Hope – Immigrants and Refugees Programme promoted by the FCEI. The FCEI together with the Community of Sant’Egidio and the Waldensian Board has been promoting the #humanitariacorridors which have already brought to safety a thousand very vulnerable refugees. Read more…
Southern Europe Summit. Paolo Naso from FCEI: “About Immigration Generic and Ambiguous Words” NEV Agency
Rome (NEV), January 11, 2018 – On January 10, the 4th Summit of Southern European Union Countries attended by the leaders of Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain took place in Rome. The summit ended with a standard programmatic declaration entitled Bringing the EU forward in 2018 in which few lines have been spent on the EU migration policies by reference to the agreements with Turkey as well as the fight against irregular immigration and human trafficking. Read more…