While the sea continues to return the lifeless bodies of migrants on the beach of Cutro, in the last few hours, off the coast of Libya , as reported by the press agencies, a new shipwreck would have taken place.
There is no point in recriminating who should have done what and the political debate on the point does not seem conclusive at all. The continuous handing over of responsibility does not appear to be a useful exercise for resolving the age-old question and guaranteeing the safety of those who venture out to sea. It was probably the political choices that have alternated over the years that have not been decisive.
In the past, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg unanimously condemned Italy for the pushbacks to Libya in the Hirsi case. And it certainly cannot be claimed that the aforementioned phenomenon of the arrival of refugees and migrants by sea is new and/or unprecedented. Far from it.
Because for years and years and since the most remote times there have been countless people, throughout the planetary context, who have had to assume, probably despite themselves, the determination to jeopardize their lives, their everything, aboard ships and/or other makeshift boats, to go in search of work, more appreciable living conditions, new and unprecedented training opportunities, or to try to obtain international protection from persecution or any other form of threat to one's life, freedom or security, often placing their fate in the hands of unscrupulous criminal traffickers.
“ Boat people ”, to put it briefly according to a definition that has become common, because this is what it is about, to indicate, in essence, all those who have decided in the past, or decide today, to venture into the sea in such precarious conditions . The right of these people to go in search of more appreciable living conditions would seem to be counterbalanced by the duty of the States to take action to make the conditions feasible. Probably, as suggested by many, it would be appropriate to , and/or set up safe recovery channels for those who intend to travel to reach safe shores and undertake new life experiences.
