Between the institutional silence of the border regime and Cyclone Harry, 2026 is already beginning to count the deaths in the Central Mediterranean.
On Thursday evening, January 22nd, at 18:40, 61 survivors arrived at Favaloro Pier. Departed from Tunisia on an iron boat, they have been taken onboard the Italian patrol boat CP 322, 50 nautical miles from Lampedusa, after being struck by Cyclone Harry—the most violent cyclone to hit the central Mediterranean in the 21st century. An event that should have triggered the highest level of alert and protection of human life. This did not happen.
Weather conditions were extreme: wind gusts of up to 120 km/h and waves reaching 7 meters. In such a context, the survival of 49 people can only be described as a miracle. A miracle that stands in defiance of the deadly policies enforced by Italy and Europe. Nevertheless, the people arrived at the Pier in severe distress, inculding a mother who lost her two one-year-old twins at sea. Their bodies were not recovered. A youngman from Mali died just minutes after arriving on the island, likely during the transport by the ambulance to the Lampedusa PTE. These deaths cannot be filed away as "fatalities": they are the direct result of precise, repeated, and intentional political choices.
Alarm Phone has confirmed that at least four to five other boats that departed from Sfax on the same day have gone missing. On one of them were family members of some of the people who arrived alive in Lampedusa. We know that on those missing boats were many Sierra Leonean nationals on board, including several women and minors. For those lives as well the silence of institutions remain, presenting once again their complicity for them. One single survivor, found on the wreckage of a boat that had been carrying 51 people, was transported yesterday to Malta in critical condition.[1]
We strongly denounce the fact that Tunisia continues to be defined as a "safe country" by the Italian government and the European Union, while mass arrests, deportations, and forced pushbacks take place there—practices that drive migrants to cross the Mediterranean on boats that are doomed to result in death and disappearance. Just one day before, on the 21st of January the EU delivered brand new Equipment for sea and land border controls to Tunisia.[2]
This is yet another direct and intentional outcome of border externalization policies and the securitized control of migration.
We denounce what is happening in Lampedusa: a hyper-militarized island, with nearly 500 law-enforcement officers for 5,000 residents (on average one for every ten people), yet lacking even the minimum resources to guarantee rescue and medical care. There is no proper hospital, there are no sufficient doctors and there is a shortage of healthcare personnel. The chain of command for managing serious medical cases aboard patrol boats is inadequate, fragmented, and dangerous. Communication failures kill.
There is a lack of equipped ambulances, a lack of life-saving equipment, a lack of a healthcare response worthy of the name—not only for those arriving on the island, but also for those who live in Lampedusa. Once again, we were forced to carry stretchers by hand on Favaloro Pier, filling the gaps left by a State that systematically abdicates its responsibilities.
Once again, we witnessed an approach to arrivals based on repression rather than protection. Once again, Frontex exercised its power against people on the move who had just survived a shipwreck, already struck by unspeakable loss. This is institutional violence. The State kills. Borders as well.
What is happening in the central Mediterranean on a daily basis is not a state of emergency. It is an intentional system. A system that produces deaths, disappearances, and traumatized survivors. A system with names, political responsibilities, and precise chains of command. And in the face of all this, the institutions' silence and inaction constitute complicity.
WE DO NOT FORGET. On Wednesday the 28th, at 12:00, we held a *CommemorAction* at the Cala Pisana cemetery in Lampedusa to remember those who died and those who disappeared, and to protest against yet another massacre carried out by the State.
This action, aimed at remembering but also denouncing, takes place shortly before the transnational CommemorAction day on 6 February, which demands truth, justice and reparation for the victims of the border regime and for the families of the missing people.[3]
Notes:
[1] CONTENT WARNING: (by Refugees in Lybia) https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUAaqAADDk6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
[3] https://commemoraction.net/2025/12/11/call-for-commemoractions-february-6th-2026/