Italy: sbarchi, reality and propaganda

1 September 2022

di Alessandro Puglia

A dispetto dell'emergenza sbarchi strillata in campagna elettorale, il numero degli arrivi in Italia al 31 agosto è di 57.168 migranti, nello estesso periodo in tempi di pre-pandemia erano il doppio. In 2016 there were 115,068, in 2017 there were 99,135. Since the Italy-Libya memorandum, the scenario, regardless of the color of the government, has changed. Between dead and dispersed in the sea, men, women and children risked in the lager and fishermen killed with the weapons of the "friendly fire".
The issue of immigration has become an overriding theme in the political campaign of the two leaders of the center in view of the 25 September elections. If the leader of the Fratelli d'Italia, Giorgia Meloni, continues to invoke the "naval bloc", for the leader of the Lega, Matteo Salvini, it would be enough to reverse his security decrees that were already passed in 2019 and 2021 by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The migrant emergency that Salvini and Meloni have so often called for in this election campaign does not, however, match the numbers of migrants who have arrived in recent years. Secondo il cruscotto statistico giornaliero del ministero dell'Interno al 31 agosto 2022 sono 57.168 i migranti sbarcati in Italia, ma se andiamo a confrontare il numero di arrivi nello estesso período con gli anni pre-pandemia vediamo, ad esempio, che nel 2017 erano 99.135, nel 2016 115.068, quasi più del doppio del numero degli arrivi actuali.

In the worst pandemic, on August 31, 2020, the number of arrivals was low, but mainly for health reasons: 19,340, while in the years when the Minister of Internal Affairs was Matteo Salvini, the number of refugees had reached the lowest level since August 31, 2019: 5089; 20,077 in 2018. Lower numbers than today, but at what price?

In February 2017, under the Gentiloni government, Marco Minniti, now head of the Viminale, had signed the memorandum between Italy and Libya. His successor, Matteo Salvini, did so by continuing "to do what was already done well", as he himself used to say. And so, with military personnel, ships donated by Italy and a search and rescue area created ad hoc, the Libyan coastguard has taken on the role of protagonist in the central Mediterranean.

On August 31st of this year - according to the data provided by the World Organization for Migration's observation room in Libya - there were already 14,157 migrants interned and sent to what international law has often defined as "unsafe places", detention centers where migrants return after being "killed" at sea. It is here, in those that Pope Francis has defined as "liberated lager" that migrants are subjected to inhumane treatment and the most horrific torture, as the media and non-governmental organizations have amply documented. But the numbers of migrants exchanged at sea and transported to their places of departure are not always clear to the eyes of the authorities. Just last year, in 2021 (with the Conte government), the number of migrants sent to Libya was 32,425, more than as many as since the signing of the Italy-Libya memorandum.

Moreover, it is often the case that from any motorcycle of the Libyan Coast Guard or from any militia close to General Haftar, raids are carried out against the Sicilian fishermen, as happened last year at the Mazara del Vallo Aliseo or in July of this year at the two bombings of Aci Trezza, Salvatore Mercurio and Umberto I. However, according to what was said by the leader of the Fratelli d'Italia, a possible "naval bloc" would not be an act of war because it was "in agreement with the Libyan authorities".

This year, 1,200 dead and dispersed migrants were counted in the Mediterranean Sea, as reported by the High Commission of the United Nations. However, migrants killed at sea, those rescued in Libya or those spared by Italian fishermen are no longer mentioned in any election campaign.

Source: vita.it