Giorgia Meloni has not cracked Italy’s migrant crisis. On the contrary, the number of migrants crossing the central Mediterranean is on the rise once more. A total of 47,313 migrants have crossed this year up to 12 September, which is 3,000 more than the same period in 2024.
The vast majority makes land on the island of Lampedusa, like the 228 who disembarked on the small Mediterranean island on Sunday. Their three boats had departed from Zawiya and Homs in Libya, and the passengers were predominantly Egyptians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Ethiopians, and Eritreans. Lampedusa is struggling to cope with the numbers of arrivals despite a system of transferring the migrants to other reception centres in Italy.
Pope Leo’s ‘culture of reconciliation’ is a trite soundbite
According to a report in the Italian media last month, most of the migrant boats are launched from either Libya or Tunisia. On average, those on board ‘have paid high sums for the crossing and arrival in Italy, up to €7,000 (£6,000) per person’. So much for the deals signed in recent years between Prime Minister Meloni and the governments of Libya and Tunisia that were meant to stop the boats leaving North Africa.
Not all of those who set out from North Africa make it safely across the Mediterranean. Last month, 27 people drowned when their boat capsized off Lampedusa. An estimated 25,000 men, women and children have lost their lives since 2014 attempting to reach Europe.
The tragedy last month prompted the mayor of Lampedusa, Filippo Mannino, to write to Pope Leo XIV. On Friday the mayor received a response from the Vatican, one which he said left him with a ‘powerful emotion: a mixture of surprise, gratitude, and responsibility’.
The American Pontiff recorded a video message for the people of Lampedusa in which he supported their bid to win UNESCO recognition for their ‘gestures of hospitality’ towards migrants. He also acknowledged the dedication of locals, as well as priests, doctors and security forces who assisted the migrants arriving on Lampedusa after ‘their desperate journey of hope’.
Pope Leo said that the hospitality of the people of Lampedusa was ‘a bulwark of humanity, which loud arguments, ancient fears and unjust policies try to erode’. Then, in a declaration intended for wider consumption, Pope Leo called for the creation of ‘a culture of reconciliation’. He described what he envisaged:
We must repair what has been broken…recognise that we share the same dreams and the same hopes. There are no enemies – only brothers and sisters. This is the culture of reconciliation.
Pope Leo’s remarks echo those of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who was also a non-European. Two years this month Francis lashed out at those opposed to mass immigration during a visit to Marseille. ‘Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome,’ declared the Argentine. Those who said otherwise were ‘fuelling alarmist propaganda’ and acting contrary to the teaching of the Catholic church:
Those who take refuge in our midst should not be viewed as a heavy burden to be borne. If we consider them instead as brothers and sisters, they will appear to us above all as gifts.
Pope Francis made his remarks a fortnight before Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Jews in Israel. One consequence of that attack was a surge in anti-Semitism throughout Europe. Synagogues have been firebombed in France, Jews have been hunted through Amsterdam and in Berlin, the chief of police has warned the city’s Jewish community to avoid ‘Arab’ neighbourhoods.
Pope Francis could be forgiven for his naivety but it is harder to excuse Pope Leo for his comments when he must be aware of the rampant anti-Semitism imported into Europe. This includes Italy where last week an American Jewish couple were assaulted by a gang described as ‘North African’.
The previous month a Jewish man and his six-year-old son were attacked in Milan, prompting a city councillor, Daniele Nahum, to warn that ‘the anti-Semitic situation is becoming unmanageable’. According to the Milan-based Antisemitism Observatory, incidents of that nature have doubled in Italy from 454 in 2023 to 877 last year.
Pope Leo’s ‘culture of reconciliation’ is a trite soundbite. Europe, particularly its Jews, deserves more profound reflection from the Vatican.
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