The president of Mediterranea Saving Humans, Laura Marmorale, announced the organization’s decision to bring 10 migrants to the port of Trapani, directly contravening orders from the Italian Interior Ministry which had designated Genoa as the assigned port of safety.
“We have chosen to reaffirm a basic principle, one that is unfortunately far from a given today: human dignity and life come before any other consideration,” stated Marmorale. The migrants had been rescued in the Sicilian Channel between Wednesday and Thursday.
Marmorale condemned the practice of forcing traumatized shipwreck survivors to remain at sea. “Leaving traumatized shipwreck survivors on board a ship for days, re-exposing them to a context that reminds them of the hell they just experienced, is unacceptable. It is like forcing a burned person to remain in the flames,” she added. “Care begins with understanding, with the ability to put oneself in the shoes of others. This is why we decided to dock in Trapani.”
The organization is fully aware of the potential legal repercussions for its actions. “We are aware of the consequences this decision may entail in a context where rescue operations are penalized and criminalized, while human traffickers and systematic violations of rights prosper with impunity.”
Describing the condition of those rescued, Marmorale said, “The rescued people had been brutally attacked, beaten, and thrown into the sea, treated like objects to be disposed of.”
“We cannot accept a worldview in which human beings are treated as merchandise,” emphasized Marmorale. “We said no to this inhuman logic because what is being inflicted today on those considered ‘disposable humanity’ could affect all of us tomorrow. We put a brake on it as best we could.”