The image is shocking, now as then: idyllic Italian beaches carpeted with corpses. 368 people swallowed by the Mediterranean on a fateful morning, on this day in 2013. The largest migrant shipwreckworsened by the indifference of patrol boats and authorities.

A lot of anger, those people could have been saved

A decade later, the first random witness of that nightmare attests: “I feel very angry. Those people, like many others, could have been saved but the indifference of two boats (undoubtedly military), their indifference, thinking of returning to save them the next morning, meant that 368 did not arrive at dawn.

He speaks so forcefully Vito Fiorino, Italian ice cream maker that he had gone out fishing with some friends and encountered tragedy. Before that passatismhe says, they had to overcome fear and act: “We started trying to save them. They were naked and they were slipping because they were covered in fuel.” Their lives – he confesses – were also marked that night. Such a tragedy was followed by political mourning, European summits, promises to strengthen rescue operations and give carte blanche to NGOs…

In the last decade, more than 28,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean

Good words that have come to nothing. By lack of solidarity and awareness” in the European Union, highlights today the then Prime Minister of Italy. More of 28,000 people have diedor in the Mediterranean in these ten years, the majority (more than 22,300), precisely, on the central migratory route, the one that ends in Italy. And the situation is getting worse: this year, for example, twice as many have arrived there than last year (133,171 people so far).

This afternoon, the president of the European Parliament highlighted the “importance” of the occasion. 10 years of a terrible tragedy that, far from being unique, has been repeated and the Mediterranean has claimed the lives of children, women and men. The current emergency situation in Lampedusa, “Migration is the challenge of our generation,” has declared.

The challenge of our generation, invisible but unforgettable dead

But, while in Strasbourg today there were “solemn” acts (gestures, rather) – a moment, ten seconds, of silence – and great declarations, it is the Italian citizens – zero representatives of their Government – that have taken to the streets in a march through Lampedusa, ground zero of the tragedy, that sea that does not stop. To remind politicians that “works are loves and not good reasons.” AND to vindicate so many “invisibilized but unforgettable” dead.