The right to the truth, to recognition and to a dignified burial cannot be denied

Statement Memoria Mediterranea & Maldusa

On 29 September 2026, yet another shipwreck occurred in the central Mediterranean.

 
Two people have died and at least seven are missing, including children. Twenty-eight survivors arrived at the Commercial pier in Lampedusa. Sea-Watch, which carried out the rescue, reports that the Italian authorities had reportedly been informed of the vessel in distress at least 12 hours before the NGO's arrival. Frontex, using the Eagle 6 aircraft, is said to have flown over the vessel in distress for a long time without intervening in any way. The failure to provide assistance is, yet again, an everyday and normalised practice of a border regime that discriminates and kills.

Following the shipwreck, the solidarity organisations and people on the island sent a formal request to the Prefecture of Agrigento and the Ministry of the Interior for access to the hotspot, in order to provide support to the survivors and to the families of those who had died.

We were denied access to the hotspot, without any communication or notification, simply because the relevant authorities never deigned to reply to us.

For three days we gathered outside the hotspot, demanding an explanation for this silence and pressing for the chance to meet the people involved in the shipwreck, who were being held at the centre, before they were transferred to Porto Empedocle. Still no response.
It was only thanks to an act of courage by the people confined inside the hotspot – who approached the fence – that we were able to meet and exchange a few words, showing our solidarity and support.

We find it unacceptable that, in such a painful situation, civil society is prevented from offering comfort and practical support to those who have survived a shipwreck. Above all, however, we find it extremely serious that the Italian authorities and Frontex were made aware in advance of a boat in distress that was taking water on, yet failed to take any action in any way, effectively choosing to let several people die, including at least four children. This is not an isolated incident, but a predictable and preventable massacre that forms part of a racist and supremacist system closely linked to the reality we face every day: victims denied justice, unmarked graves and borders where rights are denied.

Once again, the violence at the border demonstrates how the lives of racialised people seem to have no value, even after death. We demand that, in the face of these massacres, the authorities take responsibility for providing timely and transparent responses to the families, relatives, and communities who turn to Italian institutions to find out the fate of their loved ones, to assist in their identification, and to ensure a dignified burial that respects their religious beliefs and traditions.

The right to the truth, to recognition and to a dignified burial cannot be denied! In Sicily, no new Muslim or non-Catholic cemetery has yet been established to provide burial for Muslims or people of other faiths. This absence is not merely an administrative oversight: it is a further form of institutional violence, which compounds the deaths at sea and prolongs the families' grief, denying the deceased even the respect due to their bodies, their history, and their identity.

In these days of mourning, our thoughts are with those who have survived shipwrecks and with those who have lost loved ones whilst attempting to cross the increasingly militarised borders of the European Union. We must not forget that, in order to honour the memory of those who have died or gone missing as a result of a racist and discriminatory system, we must continue to denounce those responsible, demand justice and ensure that this never happens again.