The municipality of Lampedusa and Linosa was awarded the Golden San Michele Prize (Premio San Michele d'Oro) for 2023 for its effort in welcoming and sheltering migrants. The island's mayor, Filippo Mannino, collected the award during a ceremony in Castiglion Fiorentino near Arezzo, in Tuscany, on October 28.

Migrant boats - mostly departing from Tunisia - began arriving on Lampedusa in unprecedented numbers in mid-September, causing the reception facilities on the island to overflow and leaving many migrants at risk of destitution.

"Even the baby bottles had finished, the mothers were trying to protect their big bellies, there was both physical and psychological exhaustion," Mannino said at the award ceremony in Castiglion Fiorentino near Arezzo, in Tuscany.

"We put an ad on Facebook to find the material. Families opened their homes to host the migrants. The people of my municipality never held back."

'A level of humanity which cannot be found elsewhere'

"I am happy to be here to tell you how things really are. In Lampedusa there is truly a different level of humanity, one which cannot be found elsewhere," the mayor said.

The prize, established by the municipal administration of Castiglion Fiorentino, is assigned each year to persons who have distinguished themselves in various sectors, among them the promotion of Italian excellence, economic development, art and culture, sports and human rights with concrete initiatives of solidarity and charity.

"Today, with what is happening today in Italy, in Europe, and across the word, it is not at all a given to open the doors to your home, offer a warm meal, and help people we do not know, who come from the other side of the sea," said Mannino.

'We will not look the other way'

"When there is this type of recognition, such as this award we were given, it takes on a tangible value," he continued. "Everything we do, we do with passion, because we are at the center of the Mediterranean, and beyond all political calculus and vision until there will be people on dinghies asking to be saved, we will never look the other way."

Mayor Mannino then recounted Joseph's story: "He was in transit in Lampedusa, he had fallen in love with a woman, he left for France, then he decided to come back and start a family. And, as he was a good soccer player, this allowed us to be promoted in the league. This too is Lampedusa."

Together with Mannino at the ceremony for the prize was his colleague, the mayor of Castiglion Fiorentino, Mario Agnelli.

"Today isn't only the awarding of a prize, but rather an exchange of experiences regarding a situation of paradise on earth which cannot leave anyone indifferent, both for the problems and emergencies it is facing and for the special characteristics of this land," Agnelli said.