”We have to deal with many issues on our island that are more serious than the arrival of migrants.”
Giusi Nicolini believes that an emergency has been created around the presence of migrants on Lampedusa, “it is no biblical exodus.” Instead she maintains that, “in order to give birth or undergo chemotherapy or to study we have to go to Sicily.”
From Corriere del Mezzogiorno
PALERMO – As a guest on Monday evening’s episode of Fabio Fazio’s Che Tempo Che Fa, was Giusi Nicolini, a representative of Legambiente and, since May 2012, mayor of Lampedusa and Linosa. It is there that she has to deal with what has been termed “a migrant emergency” on a daily basis. Yet she claims, “there has never been an exodus of biblical proportions. It is a fictitious exodus, created in the boardroom, when in reality the true emergencies concerning the island are much more serious. For those who live on Lampedusa, or on the smaller island of Linosa, the mainland is Sicily. That is where we have to go to give birth, to undergo chemotherapy and also to study.”
TEN THOUSAND DEATHS IN THE SICILY CHANNEL- “I was elected in May this year,“ she explained, “and I have already witnessed 8 burials on my islands of unidentified bodies.” In the last 20 years, “more than ten thousand people have lost their lives in the Sicily Channel and at least the same amount of people have gone missing. Yet no one ever speaks about these people and no one looks for them. I’m therefore saying,” she concluded, “that we hope that boats do arrive and that these people do manage to make it to our shores and that they do so alive.”
THREATS – In September, the mayor received several serious threats for having defended migrants. An arson attack destroyed a boat which had been intended to be used as a museum dedicated to immigration. A note was left behind stating “No to migrants free on this island. Do you understand? See you next time.” It was signed “the Armed Free Lampedusa Group”
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