After the umpteenth shipwreck in the Ionian sea, with at least 600 dead, the Conference of Missionary Institutes in Italy (CIMI) takes a position and denounces “the unwatchable and disgusting blame game”. Here is the press release
As the hours go by, the death toll from the umpteenth shipwreck of a boat loaded with migrants which occurred between 13 and 14 June in Pylos, in the Ionian Sea in Greek territorial waters, becomes increasingly dramatic.
The fear is that of having to count more than 600 dead men, women and above all children left to drown and rescued extremely late. The alarm raised by the Alarm Phone to the competent authorities (Greek coastguard UHNCR Greece and Frontex) went off at 16.53 on 13 June and at 2.47 on 14 June the time of the shipwreck was recorded. The question is to know what really happened in those almost 10 hours.
As always we are witnessing the unwatchable and disgusting blame game.
The survivors abandoned on cots in a structure in the port of Kalamata, away from journalists
The bodies found (78 so far) were transported at night in the dark by a Greek coast guard patrol boat and transferred to the north of Athens in refrigerated trucks for identification.
Relatives of people who should have been on the boat blocking the switchboard of the Kalamata hospital to get news of their loved ones.
It is the “ritual” that is repeated at every shipwreck, at every “announced massacre”
Yes, these are real “announced massacres” because every “boat” that leaves can be an “announced massacre” and then there is no need to proclaim national mourning to “wash one’s conscience”.
The questions we ask ourselves and those who are called to govern are always the same: did the people who were on that boat or on the other wrecked boats have other alternatives to escape the violence? Risk your life or continue to suffer violence in Libyan concentration camps? You, what would we have done if we had been in their place?
The answer does not lie in the latest “European pact”, the answer is not found in the “dirty” consciences of the politicians who voted for it
Perhaps the answer lies “simply” in respecting international laws and conventions. Laws and conventions that all countries have voted for but which are forgotten when one thinks only of the defense of one’s own country or of “fortress Europe” and when one makes politics to defend corporate or personal interests.
International laws and conventions written over decades to prevent violence and the culture of death from prevailing again.
Respect international laws and conventions to avoid other “announced massacres”.
Consolata Missionaries; Comboni Missionaries; Xaverian Missionaries; Missionaries of the Society of African Missions; PIME missionaries; Verbited Missionaries; Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers); Missionary Community of Villaregia; Missionaries of Our Lady of the Apostles; Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception; Franciscan Missionaries of Mary; Missionaries of Mary – Xaverian; Comboni Missionaries; Consolata Missionaries
For information: [email protected] (Secretariat) [email protected] (GPIC