{"id":406594,"date":"2024-11-21T12:45:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T11:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/11\/21\/naufragio-cutro-ricordo-migrazione-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-11-25T20:25:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T19:25:15","slug":"the-memory-of-the-cutro-shipwreck-still-brings-rescuers-to-tears-family-members-continue-to-demand-justice-and-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/11\/21\/the-memory-of-the-cutro-shipwreck-still-brings-rescuers-to-tears-family-members-continue-to-demand-justice-and-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"The memory of the Cutro shipwreck still brings rescuers to tears. Family members continue to demand “justice and truth”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – After nearly two years, rescuers still cry when they\u00a0tell the story of Cutro<\/strong>. During the meeting “Saviors and Saved: Never\u00a0forget Cutro<\/strong>,” organized yesterday (Nov. 20) at the European Parliament in Brussels\u00a0by MEP Lucia Annunziata<\/strong>,\u00a0the pain of those who experienced this tragedy\u00a0directly is heard loud and clear.<\/p>\n

To speak of tragedy is an understatement\u00a0when faced with another impasse in the migrant rescue system.<\/strong> The underlying problem is that member states have exclusive responsibility for search and rescue activities at sea.<\/strong>\u00a0So, beyond countless reminders of the legal obligation to rescue lives at sea, the EU’s room for maneuver remains severely limited.<\/p>\n

In the case of Cutro, we are talking about a disaster<\/strong> that, as one of the rescuers recalls, “could have been avoided<\/strong>.” It claimed<\/strong>\u00a094 lives\u00a0due to the failure to rescue a boat that crossed the Mediterranean from Turkey<\/strong>, with about 180 people from countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and Iraq. A Frontex aircraft on patrol had spotted a boat that allegedly may have been involved in migrant smuggling about 40 miles off the coast of Crotone.<\/p>\n

With a\u00a0European debate that sparks discussion, which desperately seeks a “third way” of\u00a0managing migration, flirting with\u00a0the policies of Meloni and her government, Cutro’s memorial event leads to a reflection on the lack\u00a0of consistent European policies.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
MEP Lucia Annunziata, the organizer of the event. Credit: Multimedia Centre of European Parliament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“The sequel to that story is that almost all of the survivors went\u00a0to live in Europe and are living in Europe,”\u00a0Annunziata said.\u00a0<\/strong>“I hope that this kind of projection from the center of\u00a0Europe, from the European Parliament, can touch the sensitivities of other European nations that have accepted refugees<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

“We are on the eve of a five-year period in which, unfortunately, Europe risks taking more steps back than forward,” said\u00a0Nicola Zingaretti<\/strong>, head of the PD delegation to the European Parliament, who attended the event.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The MEP reflects on the\u00a0causes of the Cutro shipwreck<\/strong>: “the result of a\u00a0policy of no-choice and the denial of the very need to govern significant migration flows<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

The most touching memories come from\u00a0Steccato di Cutro, from those who experienced that tragedy first-hand, not only through testimonies.\u00a0Gaetano Rossi,\u00a0one of the Civil Defense volunteers who was there\u00a0the morning after the shipwreck,\u00a0<\/strong>and the other rescuers at the event\u00a0could not hold back tears<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“You had only anger and pain on you because this tragedy could have been avoided,” Rossi said, speaking of the lack of cooperation that would have allowed, after the first Frontex alert, to help those people. Pain\u00a0that makes people say: “We couldn’t save anyone,” and anger\u00a0that\u00a0calls on Europe to do something “to stop these deaths at sea.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

More anger comes from the words of Alidad Shiri, who lost his cousin to the shipwreck<\/strong>. Shiri is Afghan and, like other family members,\u00a0calls for “justice and truth.” <\/strong>After the shipwreck, the Meloni government<\/a>\u00a0made several promises, such as Italian diplomatic commitment in the EU to follow up on requests for reception and reunification in other European countries, particularly Germany, for a free Afghanistan that respects human rights, particularly those of women, and for overcoming the crises that cause migrants to flee.<\/p>\n

It did not seem to keep many of the promises, and,\u00a0as Shiri recalls, “A law for family reunification<\/strong> is still missing.” European justice has made strides, stating that Afghan women will be able to receive international protection<\/a> precisely because they come from a country where women’s rights are a utopia that has been forgotten and abused. However, a ruling from the Court of Justice\u00a0is not enough to resolve a situation with\u00a0which the EU\u00a0has been struggling\u00a0for years.<\/p>\n

There is a lack of political will to address migration flows adequately <\/strong>with an integrated and coordinated approach. Now that European policy is\u00a0tilted dangerously to the right, migration management is looking more difficult. What Cutro reminds us and must continue to remind us is that “behind the number (of migrants, ed.) there is a person,” Zingaretti said.\u00a0One cannot think of accepting that these tragedies happen at the expense of a person, no matter where they come from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the event organized by MEP Lucia Annunziata, “Saviors and Saved. Never forget,” comes a reflection on the issue of migration in the EU. Still strong pain for the victims of a shipwreck that “could have been avoided”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7877,"featured_media":274670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[28819,29748,29749,29181,29747,25754,29750,29751],"class_list":["post-406594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-afghanistan-en","tag-cutro-en","tag-event-en","tag-manifestation-en","tag-annunziata-en","tag-migration-en","tag-shipwreck-en","tag-zingaretti-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406594"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407538,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406594\/revisions\/407538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}