Mattarella says different approach needed on migration

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 25 - Policies to tackle human migration need to follow different paths, President Sergio Mattarella said on Friday.
    "The phenomenon of migration must be addressed for what it is: global movements that cannot be erased by walls or barriers", Mattarella told participants at the annual Meeting of Catholic evangelical organisation Comunione e Liberazione (CL) in Rimini.
    "A just peace cannot ignore the drama of refugees," added the Head of State.
    In tackling migration Mattarella called for "a concrete and constant commitment from the European Union" and "support for the countries of origin of migratory flows".
    "It must be understood that only regular pathways for admission, which must be sustainable but in a sufficiently large number, provide the means to end the cruel trafficking of human beings," said the president.
    "The prospect and hope of arrival, without cost and inhuman suffering, would induce people to wait for legal authorisation to come," he added.
    Mattarella also recalled that a society based on hatred and hostility can have no future.
    "What is the basis of human society, of the reality in which each of us is immersed?" asked the president.
    "Is it the character of confrontation? Is it the pursuit of one's own access to essential goods and consumer items? Is it hostility towards one's neighbour? Is it contraposition of differences? Or is it even the feeling of hatred that underlies human coexistence?" he continued.
    "If we were to answer yes to even one of these questions, the fate of humanity would most probably have been sealed," said Mattarella.
    The head of state also underlined the value of diversity, reminding his audience that the search for homogenisation in the 20th century merely led to the oppression of man over man.
    "It is not possible to imagine that friendship can unite only those who see themselves as being alike," said Mattarella.
    "If that were the case, we would be on the road to homogenisation, to a levelling-out," he continued.
    "The opposite of this is respect for diversity, for the specificity of every person. It is no coincidence that the demand for standardisation is what characterised the ideologies and cultures of the 20th century, leading to the oppression of man over man," said Mattarella. (ANSA).