Situation of Lampedusa: Amnesty International calls "a response that respects human rights"

Amnesty International has declared very concerned about the situation in Lampedusa, which has produced over the past few days and has asked the Italian authorities to ensure a response that respects the human rights of all persons who are on the island: it is the people that migrants and refugees.

All those who have found themselves in Lampedusa in recent months, as the islanders or migrants and refugees, have already had to face many difficult moments as the March of 2011, when Amnesty International reported a humanitarian crisis generated by the decision of the government Italian not to transfer thousands of Tunisian migrants, after the arrival locked and abandoned for days in appalling conditions. At this juncture, the population of Lampedusa has addressed the state giving an example of deep sympathy and humanity.

Amnesty International never judges allowed the violence by anyone and believes that current events can not be used to justify the use of behaviors that violate the rights of migrants and asylum seekers.

Since early 2011, when the riots began in North Africa and Middle East, Amnesty International has repeatedly called the Italian authorities to respect the rights of migrants and refugees arriving on Italian shores by sea, mostly on the island Lampedusa. Amnesty International has asked Italy to ensure the operability and adequacy of all childcare facilities available to provide assistance to those who arrive with special attention to groups vulnerable, especially children. The human rights organization also requested to ensure care centers open, without recourse to automatic detention, and ensure access to information, including the right to seek international protection. The organization also urged the Italian government to be transparent about their immigration control agreements with the countries of North Africa and the measures taken in relation to the growing god ber of arrivals.

Unfortunately, allegations that Amnesty International has received in recent months indicate that it had been an opposite direction. As pointed out by several organizations, many new arrivals, including children, were systematically and illegally detained, without access to information or knowledge of the reasons for the prolonged detention and the same. Despite having been raised in recent months only a small part of migrants and refugees who fled from North Africa and the Nuti. Middle East, Italy, like other EU states, has not hesitated to speak of a "mass influx" and continued to pursue policies of border control at the expense of the rights umani.Amnesty International was also informed of multiple removals summaries of citizens and the fact that Tunisian journalists and representatives of civil society organizations have been denied access to the centers where migrants, asylum seekers and refugees are drawn

While carrying out this policy in Lampedusa and other parts of the territory, Italy, together with other countries of the European Union and NATO, has failed to take all measures necessary to ensure that civilians fleeing from Libya and other countries through the Mediterranean to escape. Since March 2011, it is believed that at least 1,500 people have died at sea.

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The Italian Section of Amnesty International will take part in the Peace March from Perugia to Assisi on 25 September, marching behind the banner "1500 deaths in the Mediterranean. Europe, where are you?", To commemorate the 1,500 people who died in the Mediterranean Sea, fleeing the Libya.

The march will be preceded by meetings of the "1000 Youth for Peace", on 23 and 24 September, and that will take place in Bastia Umbra, near Perugia. They will come from all over Italy and the Mediterranean, a thousand girls and boys engaged in cultivating the values ​​of nonviolence, justice, freedom, human rights, peace and responsibility, with the aim of creating a crossroads of history and experiences but also a laboratory of ideas and projects.

The meeting will Bastia Umbra for Amnesty International the opportunity to describe the experience of "Camping for human rights" of Lampedusa, in which the end of July, 41 boys and girls came from all over Italy and other European countries have been able to get to know the reality of the island, through direct meetings with organizations working with migrants and refugees, the local associations and the population.


ENDS Rome, September 22, 2011

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