Yet it’s not an easy entry into Europe. The only welcome centre in Lampedusa is constantly overcapacity, only able to help 389 people, according to Filippo Romano, the centre’s agrigente prefect, though often having to accommodate over three and half times more people than they are able. Even still, they are met with oppression from many of the Lampedusa inhabitants and Europeans in general, who view their arrival as ‘an invasion of the European continent’, according to Nadine Morano, a member of the European Parliament alongside Dr Bartolo who is instead is actively campaigning for humanitarian corridors for the safe travel of migrants.
So, what is being done to prevent and spread awareness of the dangerous journey to Lampedusa, that has caused over 1800 people to die since January of this year? After witnessing the horrors of that October night, Fiorino oversaw the construction of a memorial statue that gathered and commemorated all the 368 names of the people who drowned, something near impossible due to there being no European protocol for the identification of shipwrecked migrants, which is now positioned in the centre of Lampedusa.