Piazza Castello, the area of Lampedusa overlooking the Madonnina pier, was invaded on Monday (October 3) by thousands of students from all over Europe.

The occasion was a march, attended by Italy's Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico as well as members of institutions, associations and survivors to remember the 368 ascertained victims and the some 20 people reported missing following a shipwreck on October 3, 2013.

The march ended at a symbolic site of memory: Porta d'Europa (Door to Europe).

A march of commemoration and tears

Some of the survivors of the shipwrecks of October 3 and 11, 2013, held a banner. When participants reached Porta d'Europa, Carabinieri and finance police boats were docked in the waters in front of the monument. Survivors couldn't hold back the tears.

Mayor Filippo Mannino was also moved, while everybody stood silent in front of the monument made by Mimmo Paladino. Many students brought flowers which they tossed into the sea. All survivors gathered on a cliff, a few steps from the Porta d'Europa.

The names of the victims of both shipwrecks of October 2013 were read out loud. The moment was preceded by a prayer in Italian and Arabic. "On that day, we lost children, fathers, mothers and spouses. You know the numbers - 368. We knew them by name and surname, with a face, dreams and objectives", said Adal, one of the survivors of the October 3, 2013 shipwreck.

"We want peace and we ask for compassion for our families in Libya, and to give them the alternative to come to Italy through humanitarian corridors. I thank Lampedusa for the welcome they continue to give us."

Appeal for more European commitment

"If we want to truly shake up the conscience of those governing Europe, the right place for this Door is not Lampedusa, but the heart of Brussels", said the mayor of the Pelagie Islands, Filippo Mannino, as a provocation.

"Maybe if they cross it constantly or see it every day, it could once again have the role which every artwork should embody by questioning consciences".

The mayor observed that immigration "is a European problem which requires a European response." Europe "must do something and it should do it now", he added.

Italy's Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico said migration policies must be changed. "The State must be a community, we adhered to the European Community to share sovereignty. And Europe must understand this to manage migration flows, to go to speak with other countries", he noted.

Europe "must help, not think about naval blockades".Fico added that he thinks "the paths have already been traced, they must only be taken."

The march represented an occasion to remember proposed legislation for the institution of October 3 as a European day of memory and hosting, a proposal backed among others by the municipalities of Lampedusa and Linosa, and by the medical humanitarian charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).