Theresa Maggio

They risked their lives to get to this point.

From La Repubblica Palermo today:
"As the rain fell tensions rose," wrote Repubblica reporter Claudia Brunetto.
Disembarkation operations yesterday for hundreds of newly rescued boat people were only half done by 6 p.m.. The remaining hundreds were left on the ship's deck in the cold rain to await processing: a sandwich to eat, clothes  Read More 

From The Guardian:

"More than 2,200 people have been rescued in the Mediterranean as they tried to reach Europe and 10 bodies recovered, Italy’s coast guard has said in a statement.

They were picked up from 13 rubber dinghies, two small boats and one large vessel in 16 separate rescue operations on Saturday.
Rising death toll in  Read More 

Four newborns, including one baby just months old, were among the 668 immigrants on 5 Zodiac rubber rafts saved this morning between 4 and 9 a.m. Italian time by the ship Bourbon Argos leased by Doctors Without Borders.
"It took us at least ten hours to save all of them. By luck the calm sea facilitated the process," said Michele Telaro, project chief at Doctors Without Borders aboard the Bourbon Argos. H added," We are worried about the coming winter, because we expect more difficult rescues and the people will be more at risk of shipwreck and medical problems because of adverse weather conditions."
The year 2016 has become the worst for deaths in the Mediterranean with 4,200 dead registered up to now, declared Tommaso Fabbri,Doctors Without Borders Italy mission chief. "Facing this new, shameful record, the European Union cannot continue to pretend nothing happened and make itself an accomplice to this this ever-increasing tragedy. We urgently need legal and safe ways for desparate people to find safety in Europe with risking, or losing, their lives." Read More 

This is what is happening.

From La Repubblica Palermo online: 12 cadavers have already been pulled from the sea in the Strait of Sicily after a rubber raft went down 25 nautical miles north of the Libyan coast because of force 4 high winds and waves. As of this writing 29 people were saved. Rescuers came on five ships coordinated by the Rome  Read More 

Italian Coast Guard film:



http://video.repubblica.it/edizione/palermo/tre-piccoli-migranti-venuti-alla-luce-sulla-nave-dattilo-le-immagini-dei-soccorsi/254320/254531

10,000 immigrants saved from the sea in the last two days, according to a story by Claudia Brunetto in La Repubblica today. 72 separate rescue operations in the Strait of Sicily. 28 bodies were also pulled from the sea, 22 of which had been aboard a vessel packed with abut a thousand people.

To honor the third anniversary of the drowning of 368 African immigrant at the dock of Lampedusa, Italian TV last night broadcast the Oscar nominated film Fuocoammare, Fire at Sea, filmed on Lampedusa. It does not have much distribution in the US. It was a beautiful sad poem. Like nothing I had ever seen before.
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