06-03-2023 | di COOPI

LINK 2007: Mattarella's gesture reconcilies with institutions

President Sergio Mattarella paid tribute in Crotone to the victims of the shipwreck a few dozen meters from the beach of Steccato di Cutro that cost the lives of the 68 people ascertained to date. Many were children, mothers, fathers, and young people fleeing from serious danger situations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, and Syria and seeking protection in the hope of better living conditions.

His presence at the San Giovanni di Dio hospital where those injured in the shipwreck are hospitalized, his meeting with the children who survived the tragedy by donating toys to them, his meditation before the 67 coffins lying in the sports hall, his listening to the relatives of the victims, his thanks to the health personnel, the mayors of Crotone and Cutro, and the communities that welcomed the shipwrecked people and are now demanding "justice and truth" are gestures that reconcile citizens with republican institutions. 

The judicial investigation will take its course to ascertain responsibility and respond to the need for "justice and truth" expressed by the citizens of Crotone also on behalf of so many Italians who were shocked by the avoidable shipwreck. Today we want to remember the image of love, emotion and dignity that Crotone was able to express with the many flowers brought daily to the palasport and those laid on each coffin, the puppets in front of the children's white ones. Dignity that must remain an example for all.   

"This tragedy must not leave us indifferent," President Mattarella had immediately said after the shipwreck, urging "a strong commitment of the international community to remove the underlying causes of the flow of migrants; wars, persecution, terrorism, poverty, territories made inhospitable by climate change," and the indispensability "that the EU finally take concrete responsibility for governing the migration phenomenon to take it away from human traffickers, engaging directly in migration policies, in supporting cooperation for the development of the countries from which young people are forced to leave for lack of prospects."

"We make Mattarella's words our own," says LINK 2007 President Roberto Ridolfi. "In our commitment as international solidarity and cooperation NGOs, which unites us with many other realities that act concretely and directly both in Italy and in countries of emigration and flight, we will work to ensure that they can be implemented. Although human mobility cannot be stopped, as centuries of history, including Italian history, show, the renewed announcement of development plans for the poorest countries, first and foremost for reasons of equity and justice, is certainly an encouraging sign. Hoping that it does not once again remain a set of words in the wind. Remembering that the seriousness, reliability and consistency of institutions remain fundamental to be able to nurture our democratic system."

The EU should undoubtedly do more and make commitments in migration policies. But governments defer to a European unity of purpose that is not there. This is not because the EU does not know how and does not want to act, but because member states and their sovereign governments do not get their act together. The European Union is not a federal state but an entity based on treaties and agreements between states that wish to safeguard their sovereignty and their sometimes conflicting interests. In order to be able to ask Europe to act, we need a renewed vision that leads to the start of a federal path with a gradual ceding of sovereignty spaces to the EU. Starting with migration policies.

LINK 2007 - Networking Cooperation

"LINK 2007 - COOPERATION IN NETWORK" is formed by the NGOs:
AMREF HEALTH AFRICA, CESVI, CIAI, CISP, COOPI, COSV, ELIS, FONDATIONE CORTI, ICU, INTERSOS, LE RESEAU, 
LVIA, DOCTORS WITH AFRICA CUAMM, SOLETERRE, WEWORLD, WORLD FRIENDS.
presidenza@link2007.org - www.link2007.org