Refugees in Lampedusa

World Mission Fund support for OPCEMI / Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (Mediterranean Hope project) – working with refugees in Lampedusa (£10,000).

 As we see more persons taking the dangerous journey across the English Channel in flimsy boats, there is much that we can learn from our church partners in Italy and the Mediterranean Hope project.

This World Mission Fund grant is to support the work of the team in Lampedusa in helping refugees, with sustenance, team transportation and proactively responding to tell the story of migration that combats the often negative news stories.  This grant will support up to 10,000 migrants, the team and society at large.

[Photo: Ron Dauphin]

Mediterranean Hope (MH) is the refugee and migrant program of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI). Established in 2014, MH seeks to support people on the move through initiatives which meet urgent need, embed best practice and change narratives and policy.

MH currently has teams based in Rome, Beirut, Sicily, Calabria, Bosnia and Lampedusa.  Amongst other things, MH-Lampedusa meets the immediate needs of the thousands of asylum seekers who make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean and disembark there each year. 

In recent years, MH has attended thousands of people arriving on the island of Lampedusa. In 2020, they were present at 517 disembarkations and 16,170 migrants arrived over the course of the year. As witnessed in the early months of 2021, the flow of migrants has increased, reaching a significantly higher level than recorded in the last two years. We can assume that this trend will be maintained in the months to follow.  The seasonal increase in arrivals generated by better weather and calmer seas each year is already underway.  During the weekend of 8th May 2021 alone, over 2,000 people arrived on Lampedusa. 

Typically, those arriving by sea are dehydrated, hungry and traumatized. Many have suffered significant privations and abuse for months, if not years, before making the journey.  Many have witnessed death along the way, often during the sea-crossing itself. MH-Lampedusa can – and does - offer immediate assistance upon disembarkation and, significantly, words of welcome and concern. Providing this service whilst the pandemic rages requires particular commitment and adaptations to practice.  Disembarkations take place at a variety of locations: many at the commercial and “Favaloro” quays where boats are guided in by the coast guard; other “autonomous” arrivals at beaches and coves around the island.

Porta d'Europa, Lampedusa, Italy Door of Europe [Photo: Ron Dauphin]

The situation on Lampedusa is often exploited by those with a political agenda to present the phenomenon of migration as an emergency, an invasion or a threat.  It is used to support the rhetoric of hate which is prevalent in far right circles and to augment hostility towards migrants in the population at large.  An important element of the work of the team on the island, in tandem with our press office, is therefore countering that narrative. For that purpose, it is important to keep track of stories which are being circulated. 

The grant sought will ensure that MH-Lampedusa can continue to respond safely, swiftly and fully to the steady stream of migrants disembarking at diverse locations on the island of Lampedusa and will also help us to tackle the rhetoric of hate in the following ways:

1. By providing a budget with which to buy bottled water, plastic cups and snacks, which are distributed to people as they disembark, often dehydrated and hungry after a long journey;

2. By funding the cost of a second-hand vehicle with a large boot to allow the team to travel to the diverse locations on the island at which people disembark in order to provide a welcome and distribute the supplies referred to above;

3. By part-funding press monitoring for one year to enable us to better target articles, newsletters and podcasts which “set the story straight” and counter the tendency to over-dramatise migration flows.

Learn more here about the latest work of Mediterranean Hope through the reports from Fiona Kendall, Mission Partner in Italy.

Through World Mission Partnership, Irish Methodists contribute to the World Mission Fund annually.