Around 8:00 a.m., a delegation of about 50 people from the Expanding Borders Caravan marched to the Rotoli cemetery. In recent years, 120 migrant people have been buried in this cemetery. Most of them have been given land in different corners, except for the 57 men and women who died on 5 August 2015 in a ship sinking in the Mediterranean Sea. All of them have been buried on the same plot, a place chosen by the Caravan to pay tribute to all the migrants killed. Domenico Guarino, a Comboni missionary and communications coordinator of the Antiracist Forum in Palermo, explained that it was impossible for them to ensure the identity of all of them, so that in most of the tombs the names and surnames of the deceased people are not present; instead, only the date and a number of the shipwreck appear.

Guarino said that “for these deceased migrants, death has come in advance for everyone. Because of this, we know very well that they have been killed because they could have been saved. These murders reveal the failure of our system and reveal that we live in a system that does not work. We need to change because if we continue to do so, there will be more deaths.”

Tribute to the deceased migrant persons

The site chosen yesterday to pay tribute to the 57 migrant people who died in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean on 5 August 2015. The Expanding Borders Caravan read a text (read the full text below) and then danced a prequel, following the melodies of the whistle. Finally, all the attendees offered a flower to each of these deceased migrants, in silence. Domenico Guarini emphasized the power of silence: “This is not a place to scream, but to walk in silence. But that silence must be born from the scream. We don’t want to be hurt, we have to strengthen our struggles and we have to go out into the streets screaming.”

A place of worship

Domenico Guarini explained that the issue of the burial of these migrant men and women has nothing to do with religion, but with the need to preserve the corpses of these people: “This is a place of worship.”

There are no crosses or other symbols in the place of the buried ones. They wanted to maintain the religious identity of these people. In the same way, Guarini recalled that every year, on November 2, they pay tribute. In them, representatives of different religions come to the Rotoli cemetery so that everyone can be present at the synisk. “We want to maintain the dignity and beliefs of each person,” explains the Comboni missionary.

Text read in tribute by the Caravan Expanding Borders:

The violation of human rights in the European Union and its 28 Member States is becoming increasingly serious.

Here we have, for example, the starving young Eritrean Segen, who arrived in Sicily at the age of 24 dehydrated and malnourished after 19 months in a Libyan detention centre. Or Soumayle Sacko, a 29-year-old trade unionist from Mali, shot dead in Calabria. Or Mame Mbaye, a 35-year-old mantero and activist, born in Senegal, who had been without papers in Spain for 12 years, who died of a heart attack after being harassed by the police in the streets of Madrid. Or the Kurdish girl Mawda Shawri, killed by police in Belgium when she was only two years old. He died alone in a hospital. His family was detained in a migrant detention facility.

Or at least 12 people killed between August 2017 and April 2018 trying to cross the border between France and Italy by train or the dangerous intermountain road known as the “pass of death”

We would like to point out that European foreign policies are creating a state of emergency with regard to human rights enshrined by the international community. As a result of this dreadful and shameful reduction in standards for the protection of human rights, national and international standards for the protection of the most basic rights of migrants are systematically violated. The Mediterranean, turned into a mass grave, or the migrant trade taking place in Libya, are the most cruel examples of this reality. In addition, spending on border security and control is growing rapidly and steadily, creating “border business” for the benefit of a small number of companies that purchase most of the public tenders in this field.

Europe is by no means the main destination for refugees and migrants. Most seek refuge or opportunity in their own region. According to UNHCR data, the main countries hosting the largest number of refugees are not in Europe.

We want to highlight the role of migrant people, break with indifference and strengthen networks of solidarity among associations, territories, countries, communities and nations.

We ask the European leaders to reject policies that are in the interests of capital and of a few and to pursue policies that put life and the sustainability of both life and the planet at the centre.

We demand that they adapt safe and legal channels for people in the process of migration, that they be certified as scoffers and that they take the appropriate measures to prevent exploitation, abuse, violence, trafficking and trafficking.

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This news has been published by Hiruka.eus and we have brought it to LUZ thanks to the license CC-by-sa.