Mediterranean Hope – Newsletter October 2015

Lampedusa and experimentation of the Hotspot

by Marta Bernardini and Francesco Piobbichi. The only real hotspot operating in Europe today is the one in Lampedusa, an island that once again is being used as a “laboratory” to experiment the policies of the European frontier. Continue to read.

Not just a memorial

by Marta Bernardini and Francesco Piobbichi. – Giusy has coloured the pavement in front of the church of the Sanctuary of Lampedusa. After hours of patient work the picture that was prepared also by other citizens, revealed a boat that opens a barbed wired sea with two hands to protect it. Continue to read.

Being fingerprinted in Lampedusa

by Matteo de Fazio. A perspective from Lampedusa just few weeks after the reception centre turned into a hotspot. Continue to read.

Refoulement in Italy: The concerns about the Hotspot’s Approach

by Ilaria Sesana. Ahmed arrived at the hotspot in Lampedusa on Tuesday October 6th. The next day, he has been already on the ship to Porto Empedocle, near Agrigento, where he landed in the afternoon. At 10 PM, he already had a border rejection request issued by the local police station according to which he should leave Italy within seven days. Continue to read.

Migrants need humanitarian channels, not militarization of the Mediterranean

by Sara Prestianni. The death toll at the European borders becomes more tragic each day, sounding more and more like a war bulletin. Within a few hours, the bodies of eight men and woman have been fished off the Libyan coast by an Italian navy ship, another five migrants were found off the island of Kastellorizo. Continue to read.