10 YEARS SINCE THE LAMPEDUSA SHIPWRECK, SANT’EGIDIO: STILL TOO MANY DEATHS AT SEA – CONTINUE RESCUES AND DEVELOP LEGAL WAYS SUCH AS HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS

Tomorrow, Tuesday 3 October, at 8 pm prayer vigil in Santa Maria in Trastevere

Ten years have passed since that terrible 3 October 2013, when 368 people, mostly Eritrean women and children, lost their lives in a shipwreck off Lampedusa. A tragedy that has continued over the years, with thousands dead and missing, which the Community of Sant’Egidio, together with many migrants and refugees, will remember with a prayer vigil in the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere tomorrow, Tuesday 3 October, at 8 pm.

On this Day of Remembrance and Welcoming, we reiterate the appeal to Europe to support Italy in rescue operations at sea, the only way to avoid other immigration tragedies, and we recall that there are alternatives to human traffickers. These are the humanitarian corridors, implemented by Sant’Egidio together with other associations in collaboration with the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, as well as in France and Belgium: so far they have allowed more than 6500 people to arrive in Europe safely, for those who arrive and for those who receive them. Following this model, which favours integration, there is an urgent need to develop other legal entry routes for work purposes, which would respond to the now chronic shortage of workers in various sectors, due to the demographic decline.