In a silent corner of Lampedusa cemetery retired professor, Fabio Giovanetti waters vegetation and tidies rubbish from the graves of migrants of who appreciate died crossing the Mediterranean Sea. “We now appreciate never seen or met these folk, none of them appreciate given us their title or their myth. We make now not know anything else, however they are silent human beings who had the trouble to approach upon a shipwreck,” he says.
Lampedusa is the gateway to Europe for the hundreds of migrants who unpleasant the Mediterranean per annum. This tiny island in the heart of the sea has for many years welcomed any individual who arrives, alive or useless, after the long accelerate to the European coasts. In 2024 the Italian Red Unpleasant welcomed over Forty five,000 folk. More than 9,000 folk appreciate already arrived in Lampedusa in 2025. Some of these who make now not dwell to narrate the story the sea accelerate and whose myth ends right here in Lampedusa, are buried in the local cemetery. In general shrimp is identified about them, veritably their title is identified, veritably now not even that. Giovanetti, is a member of the Dialogue board Lampedusa Solidale, a community of voters who aid these in want on the island, local and migrant alike.
Every migrant grave in this tiny cemetery tells a narrative. The Dialogue board volunteers determined to decorate them with writings and drawings that restore dignity to folk, however at the same time the tombstones narrate the drama of these who die without an identity. On the tombs, the sea is on the whole drawn wrapped in barbed wire, love in a jail. Over the years the Dialogue board has managed to reconstruct fragments of tales, a make of respect in the direction of these victims of the sea. One grave is for a man the community appreciate named ‘Yassin’ from Eritera. “We make now not if truth be told know what his title used to be. Yassin arrived useless in Lampedusa, however we wrote Yassin because a shipwrecked survivor stated that anyone advance him used to be shouting this title” explains Giovanetti. Giovanetti tells the myth of Ester Ada who died in 2009. “A Turkish merchant ship, the Pinar, rescued 153 migrants, together with a useless woman. A dispute opens between Italy and Malta and despite being in Maltese waters, Malta refuses to welcome the merchant ship. The standoff lasts four days and in the stop Italy welcomes the migrants together with the physique of Ester Ada, this younger woman who died at some stage in the crossing.”
Another younger woman identified as Welela is one of the very migrants buried in Lampedusa whose title and myth we all know says Giovanetti : “She used to be an Eritrean woman who used to be attempting to reunite with her brother and at some stage in the accelerate she suffered a extremely serious accident that left her with burns all over her physique.” “Once she arrived on the island (useless) she used to be taken to the mortuary and a girl from Lampedusa snappy donated her tomb, so we had been in a space to bury her right here. Attempting to reconstruct the history and identity of this particular person, our research intersected with that of her brother who lives in a metropolis in Northern Europe and it used to be he who told us the whole myth of this unfortunate woman,” he adds.
A pair of kilometres from the cemetery, on the Favaloro pier, patrol boats continue to disembark folk rescued at sea. On April 21, 85 folk had been rescued by the wing guard in the stormy sea, alongside with the physique of a younger man, in step with the Italian Red Unpleasant. The latest confirmed victim of over 30,000 deaths in the Mediterranean in the final ten years, in step with the International Organization for Migration.
Imad Dalil runs the migrants hotspot in Lampedusa for the Italian Red Unpleasant. He says: “We’re right here to welcome folk, alive as you stated, inner the hotspot and guarantee them, with the multidisciplinary team, all the products and providers every material and effectively being and psychiatric pork up. Also useless folk come at the dock and we’re right here for them too.”
Valeria Passeri, an aid worker for Mediterranean Hope, a refugee and migrant programme of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy says Lampedusa is a job the save migrants pass through, however these who die enroute remain and the cemetery is a job the save they will seemingly be remembered and belong. “The cemetery is a significant role because this day it’s far the role the save the folk of Lampedusa and the folk on the pass meet. The ultimate role the save they are together. It is a job the save it’s far attainable to take into accout and taking care of that dwelling draw dedicating attention, honouring and welcoming folk even supposing they did now not plan it.”
