Tag: Italy ⁄ Open Migration

European and Italian responsibilities in the Cutro massacre

March 14, 2023 - Oiza Q. Obasuyi

As the number of victims of the Cutro shipwreck continues to rise, Frontex and the Coast Guard increase the blame-shifting. The government still places the blame solely on the boat drivers, but investigations reveal a more complex and broader picture in which the responsibilities for the failure to rescue multiply. All this needs to be seen in an even larger context in which EU countries continue to adopt securitarian and restrictive policies on the right to freedom of movement. Oiza Q. Obasuyi discussed this issue with us.

Why the ruling on the shipwreck of children may prevent future massacres at sea

March 14, 2023 - Tommaso Fusco

Almost 10 years after the day of the shipwreck, the ruling that the defendants are statute-barred is issued. However, the ruling also confirms the responsibility of the Italian Coast Guard and Navy for the shipwreck of 268 people, of which 60 were children. Below we present our interview with Arturo Salerni, one of the lawyers for the victims who had joined the civil proceedings, to understand how to interpret the ruling and what we can expect in the future.

Regularisation of migrants. One step forward, but much more could be done

May 18, 2020 - Andrea Oleandri

The impression that many gathered from the proposed measures to regularise foreign workers is that it they are targeting more “us” and our needs (fruit and vegetables that risk staying unpicked in the crops, the elderly and the sick who will need assistance when the people they live with go back to work), than “them” and their right to dignity. It is one step forward, that is for sure, but with how many missed opportunities? Andrea Oleandri analyses them.

Migrants’ detention will not stop with the pandemic

May 27, 2020 - Giacomo Zandonini

Detention of irregular migrants is still the main instrument used to track down and repatriate unwelcome people, even when - like during a pandemic - this is not allowed. Giacomo Zandonini tells us how the Coronavirus emergency in Europe is leaving migrants’ detention unchanged.

Migrants in Libya, trapped between war and Covid-19

May 5, 2020 - Nancy Porsia

Since the beginning of April, thousands of men, women and children trapped in Libya have been put at sea heading towards Europe. Estimations say that around 800 migrants left the Libyan shores in the second week of April alone. While the government in Tripoli sent thirty doctors to Italy to contribute to the fight against Covid-19, Italy and Malta declared their ports “unsafe” due to the health emergency, closing their borders to migrants on the Central Mediterranean route. Meanwhile, official detention centres refuse migrants, while dungeons run by militias have their doors wide open. Reporter Nancy Porsia describes what it means to be trapped in a country at war during a pandemic.

Doomsayers of the 21st Century

April 22, 2020 - Romina Vinci

Preaching about social distancing is no easy task when you live in a small and cramped space. Expecting the correct behaviours to be followed under poor hygiene conditions can be quite challenging. The foreigners who try and convey this concept to their families back in their home countries know this pretty well. Romina Vinci gives us a glimpse of a class of adults in Lombardy, Italy, in the middle of the Coronavirus emergency.

Migration, asylum and border management: the new role of Frontex in the aftermath of the “refugee crisis”

April 3, 2019 - David Fernández Rojo

The so-called “refugee crisis” prompted the urge to ensure the functioning of the Schengen area and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), the need to operationally assist those Member States most affected by the sudden and extraordinary arrival of mixed migratory flows, and the convenience to effectively and uniformly implement the European Union (EU) measures adopted in regards to migration, asylum and border management matters. David Fernández Rojo - researcher at the University of Deusto - analyses in this article the significant reinforcements of the operational tasks entrusted to the EU decentralised agencies FRONTEX, EASO and EUROPOL in the aftermath of the "refugee crisis".