House Speaker Laura Boldrini
urged the EU to step up to the plate for refugees as Italy
marked the third anniversary of a migrant boat disaster in which
some 366 mostly Somali and Eritrean asylum seekers drowned
within sight of the island of Lampedusa, which lies closer to
Libya than to Sicily, on October 3, 2013.
The disaster, and the deaths of 34 others a week later,
spurred Italy's huge Mare Nostrum migrant search-and-rescue
operation in 2014, which was later replaced by an Italy-led EU
mission.
"Memory... is not enough when the numbers continue equalling
those of a massacre," Boldrini said in a statement.
"Today for the first time we mark the Day of Memory as
legislated by parliament in honor of the 366 people who lost
their lives three years ago in Lampedusa," she said.
The Day of Memory for migrants "forces us to consider the
wars and conflicts that seem without a solution - from Syria to
Somalia, from Sudan to Iraq - as well as the commitments to
migrant relocation and resettlement, which have so far been
disregarded by most European States".
People trying to flee war and persecution are still dying
in the Mediterranean, and in greater numbers than before,
Boldrini pointed out.
"The victims so far this year total 3,500, an increase from
the previous year," she said.
"Italy continues in its extraordinary rescue effort, but
hosting (asylum seekers) must not only involve a scarce number
of European countries. We need all the States in the Union to
take on their share of the responsibility, just as they take
their share of incoming EU resources".
"Lampedusa's dead call on Europe not to forget its
responsibilities," she concluded.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has traveled to Lampedusa
for a ceremony marking the boat disaster alongside Lampedusa
Mayor Giusy Nicolini, an outspoken defender of asylum seekers
and refugee rights.
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