WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY SICILIA News Journal Update News Journal Update - (en) Sicilia Libertaria 4/2023: Migrants: The cynicism of Fortress Europe - LET'S KILL THEM AT THEIR HOME (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 Always and in any case on the skin of migrants. The tragedy of Cutro shook

spirits for a few days, filled the pages of newspapers and television news, and
became an opportunity for the government, which got away with it despite some
difficulties, to strengthen its security policy. So once the storm has passed and
the normal routine has resumed, the daily dripping of migrants tossed along the
routes of the Mediterranean, even dying there, can continue without causing any
scandal, just a mention in the media. ---- But the terrible shipwreck of Cutro is
actually the faithful and at the same time distorting mirror of the hypocrisy, of
bad faith, of the sneaky interests that govern our lives and that consider the
death of migrants, like workers - national or foreign, it makes no difference - ,
a mere accident. And when they are alive a profitable function in the logic of
profit and production.

Right from the start, the right and the government did their utmost to place all
responsibility on smugglers and human traffickers, opening a real hunt with
sketches and arrests, and pointing them out as the new monsters of all the
turpitudes committed in the Mediterranean. Willingly ignoring that the plot of
clandestine migrations is much more intricate and that, if there is a need to
identify those responsible, they should be sought in Europe, in places very close
to them. Instead, all the vulgar paraphernalia of racism and nationalism has been
pulled out: from defending borders to helping them at home, which is a way of
disguising neocolonialist aspirations. In fact, in his impetus as a faithful
servant of the country, Minister Piantedosi went so far as to reproach the
migrants for their irresponsible and reckless behaviour; while an example of how
the government intends to give concrete support to the countries of origin of the
migrants occurred on the occasion of the visit of the prime minister to the
United Arab Emirates, when all the bodies of the migrants drowned in front of the
beach of Cutro had not yet been recovered . The visit served to restore normal
trade relations with the important Persian Gulf country, which had been hampered
for some time by the revocation, at the time of the second Conte government, of
the authorizations to export arms; revocation in part already revised in 2021.
Now, however, new opportunities are opening up to be able to do business, as
Foreign Minister Tajani triumphantly declared. In fact "there are over 600
Italian companies in the country ... active mainly in the construction .. energy
... security / defence ... banking ... aerospace sectors" , as an article in the
Sole 24 Ore reports with satisfaction. The population of Yemen, for years forced
to suffer a war also fueled by weapons produced in Italy and sold to the United
Arab Emirates and other countries, can thank Meloni and Tajani for their
diligence. How can they thank, but without any irony, Eni, Finmeccanica,
Leonardo, and similar companies, for the activism of Italian governments in
supporting the economic initiatives of these giants in some of the African
countries most tormented by political, social and economic crises. And from which
the desperate ones leave in search of a better landing place.

Meanwhile the government, in its own time, went to Cutro, but not like Henry IV
to Canossa to humble itself and ask for forgiveness, rather with the arrogance of
the powerful to impose its rules. The so-called "Cutro decree" came out which
tightens the prison for the imaginary smugglers, provides for the increase of
repatriation centers with the aim of having at least one for each region, reduces
the chances of obtaining special protection, intends to remodulate the flow
decree to allow for more legal arrivals for work reasons. Apparently, arms are
needed in some sectors: seasonal agricultural workers and in tourism, in particular.

On the other hand, what would pass for being the left of the institutional
line-up has distinguished itself for having criticized the government not only
for the lack of assistance, but also for the lack of human sensitivity shown. The
migratory phenomenon is certainly complex and difficult, it is the thesis of the
left (right), however it cannot be faced with repression, with the closure of
borders, with rejections, with the criminalization of NGOs. This thought is well
expressed by one of his most accredited champions on the intellectual side, the
director of La Stampa who writes in his editorial of last March 5, addressing
Meloni directly: "Like her, we too are convinced that in tackling the dossier
immigration, Europe has sinned by cynicism and selfishness, from the Dublin
Treaty of 2003 until today[...] But unlike you, we think that all this comes
later and has nothing to do with the primary and inalienable duty [...] to save
human lives. [...] Compared to 2022, migratory flows tripled in the first two
months of 2023. They must be managed, not exorcised or criminalised". Like
Giannini, many other political or intellectual exponents of our local left have
insisted on the need to govern the migratory phenomenon, however no one has
bothered to explain precisely what they mean by this statement, if not
generically saving migrants at sea, guaranteeing hypothetical humanitarian
corridors, foreseeing a flow decree more in line with the requests of businesses.
Is there really a difference between this position and the imaginative let's help
them at home or not let them leave the right? Especially since no European
government of the right or left has so far proposed anything other than giving
money to African or Middle Eastern states to detain migrants in their
territories: Turkey, Libya and now Tunisia, as the Italian government would like.

It is a story that has been repeating itself for more than twenty years: with
every striking episode that finds the limelight in the media, controversies rage,
proclamations rain down, a sense of humanity is invoked, but above all diversions
are activated. In an article that appeared in Internazionale on 27 April 2015,
the journalist Gwynne Dyer wrote: "And so it turned out that the problem is not
the refugees who flee from war-torn places like Syria or Somalia, from cruel
dictatorships like the Eritrea or from poor areas of West Africa. They are the
evil traffickers, the "new slavers" as the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
called them, who lure migrants away from home by charging two thousand dollars
per person for a place on a makeshift boat bound for Europe".

Now how many governments, political oppositions, intellectuals and opinion
leaders are willing to identify the true origins of forced migration in wars,
neocolonial policies, environmental devastation? On the contrary, I correct
myself, certainly everyone will agree that there are the causes of the new
exoduses, but then once the conscience of their own intellectual honesty has been
appeased, they will continue to provoke and support wars and depredations, making
us believe that they are phenomena that transcend and overwhelm us.

Angelo Barberi

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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