Anniversaries, 3 October 2013: since that day, over 30,300 have been dead or missing in the Mediterranean

ROMA – An anniversary that recalls the 2013 massacre, when a boat full of migrants, almost all from Eritrea, sank in front of the Isola dei Conigli, in Lampedusa. 368 lost their lives. Since then – as reported byDIRE Agency – the dead and missing in the Mediterranean averaged around 8 per day, i.e. over 30,300, many of them children, girls and adolescents.

The escape from a world as it is. And all this happens in an increasingly uncertain world, marked by wars, violence, extreme poverty, humanitarian and climate crises, with millions and millions of people fleeing to reach safer places and where they can imagine a possible future, in Europe or elsewhere. For these objectives we continue to risk our own lives and those of our children, in the absence of legal and safe ways. You are “gambling” with death along one of the most dangerous routes in the world.

Eleven years and nothing has changed. Eleven years after that terrible shipwreck on 3 October 2013 in front of Lampedusa, when 368 people died, few things have changed. Every day – now fewer and fewer media outlets – give news of overloaded boats that are lost at sea and capsize, drowning human beings: children, women, men, old people, as a note from Save the Childrenwho together with numerous other humanitarian organizations continue to ask that regular and safe channels be guaranteed for those who attempt the crossing to Europe from the African coasts.

The useless containment measures. Therefore, if on the one hand there is a lack of a coordinated search and rescue system, on the other the European Union continues its obtuse and cynical policy to contain migratory flows. A conduct that has the sole effect of making the journeys of migrants increasingly risky and deadly who, history teaches us, when circumstances lead them to flee from where they live, no one can stop them. They prefer to risk dying, rather than dying where they happened to be born and live.

The EU pact that undermines the right to asylum. In short, the security approach only makes things worse. But despite everything, last spring, the European Parliament and the Council finally approved the reform package of European Pact on Asylum and Migrationa set of rules that undermine the right to asylum of minors and families and put them at risk of detention, rejections and violence at the borders.

The numbers of landings up to yesterday. During 2024 – until yesterday, 30 September – 48,646 refugee and migrant people arrived in Italy by sea, of which 5,542 were unaccompanied foreign minors. In the Italian reception system as of 31 August 2024, there were 20,039 unaccompanied foreign minors, a decrease compared to 31 August 2023, when there were 22,599, but an increase compared to the same survey period in 2022 (17,668) .

Lampedusa, the main landing place. In 2024, Lampedusa remains the main place of arrival by sea in Italy of unaccompanied foreign minors. A Safe Space suitable for minors, young women and mothers managed by Save the Childrentogether with Unicef in collaboration with Unhcr and with D.i.Re. All activities are carried out in cooperation with the Italian Red Crossmanaging body of the Hotspot.