Lampedusa Back to cry. In the waters to about 14 miles south-south-west of the island a boat with Almost one hundred people on board (97 according to the first reconstructions) was shipwrecked: the Coast Guard recovered numerous survivors and at least 20 bodies. The dispersed estimated are 27but the budget is still temporary while the research continues.
What we know so far
According to the first information collected by the authorities and relaunched by the media, the alarm took place late on Wednesday 13 August. The patrol boats of the Coast guard And other structures have reached the shipwreck area: several castaways were found in watersome already lifeless. THE corpses Recovered were transported to Lampedusa, while the survivors were landed for the first care and identification. The number of people on board – indicated in 97 – and that of 27 missing they emerge from the first findings; The Counting of the victims has exceeded 20in the following hours. The research continues in a stretch of sea often subject to wind and current, factors that complicate the operations.
The dynamic is that – all too well known – of overloads overloaded that embark on water and give in the wave. In Lampedusa the humanitarian impact is immediate: the survivors are accompanied toHotspot of Contrada Imbriacolastructure whose capacity “in full speed” – for how it was designed and enhanced – is approximately 403 seats. It is a number that makes the idea of the effort required every time the landings focus in a few hours.
A symbol island and an open wound
Lampedusa knows the weight of these days well. The memory runs to 3 October 2013when the stake aboard a fishing boat caused 368 victims off the island. Since then that anniversary has become a reference to not adduing to “indifference”, as repeated several times by the Church and the magisterium of Franciswhich in Lampedusa made his first pastoral journey outside Rome.
Today, in front of the umpteenth list of Nameless bodies And Names without bodythe question that appeals to us is the same: What could we have done, what can we do now to avoid other mourning? It is an evangelical question even before politics.
The 2025 context: flows, numbers, risks
The most recent data helps to read the episode in a trend. According to the last snapshot Of UNHCR (11 August), landings to Italy in 2025 proceed with comparable volumes – and for a few more months – at 2024; to June UNHCR counts 22,971 arrives in the first five months of the year (against 21.113 in the same period 2024). These are figures that oscillate, but they tell constant pressure on the central Mediterranean route.
Within these flows, the vulnerability of minors stands out: UNICEF Estimate in about 3,500 the Children who died or missing in the Mediterranean Since 2014a wound that crosses seasons and statistics. Responsible for the rescue
The central Mediterranean remains one of the most fatal seaside stretches on the planet. There research and rescue It is a legal duty (conventions Solas And Sar) and moral: when the alarm comes – from institutional structures, surveillance aircraft, merchant ships or NGOs – the intervention chain It must be quick, coordinated, predictive with respect to wind and the state of the sea. In the case of Lampedusa, the first testimonies emerges theimmediacy of the answer of the Coast Guard and the difficulty of operating with many people already in the water. Operational details – exact times, first sighting, any previous reports – are updated and will be verified in the next official reports.
Welcome on the island: between emergency and normality
The reception machine is reactivated every time as it can: health triagedistribution of basic necessities, interviews of Identification and protection (with attention to minors and vulnerable), quick transfers to Sicily and the peninsula for decongest the hotspot. Lampedusa lives in balance between the tourist vocation and being Door of Europe: a dichotomy that the local community has faced with dignity for years, often in solitude.
The Europe that is there and what is missing
On the policy level, the EU closed the negotiation on the New migration and asylum pactwith rules designed to accelerate border procedures, strengthen screening and provide forms of solidarity (Relocation or contributions). The point will be theimplementation: without alternative legal streets and a pillar sar Shared, the “bottlenecks” will remain the same.
To remind us that safe alternatives exist, there are i humanitarian corridors: a model born from the collaboration between Community of Sant’Egidio, Evangelical churches/Valdesi And Caritasin agreement with the competent ministries. Al 2024they had already guaranteed the safe arrival of Over 7,700 people; In the 2025 the operations continue, with New groups welcomed in July. They are small numbers compared to flows, but they show that you can save without delivering families to traffickers.
