The discovery of mass graves containing the bodies of dozens of migrants, as reported in recent days by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), "is yet another confirmation of the inhumane situation in Libya, harming so many migrant brothers and sisters."

Speaking to Vatican media on February 12, Don Mattia Ferrari, chaplain of the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, stated: "In Libya, there are what the Pope calls 'concentration camps' and what the United Nations defines as 'horrors.' This is yet another account of completely unacceptable atrocities that wound our human and Christian conscience."

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His direct involvement aboard the Mare Jonio

Libya, the priest recalled, is not simply a transit country but "a country where migrants are forced to stay due to the closure of legal entry channels" and "where they are sent back due to the systematic pushbacks funded by Italy and the European Union."

Don Mattia Ferrari is well acquainted with the lives of these migrants, meeting them just after they have escaped death while serving aboard the Mare Jonio, the Mediterranea Saving Humans rescue ship. On land, he continues his commitment to survivors, such as those in the organization Refugees in Libya.

"These people report incredible violence and suffering beyond any limit, beyond any imagination. Each person carries within them a story, a face, a hope -- betrayed by this system of unspeakable violence, which occurs in fact with our complicity or, at times, simply with the complicity of our indifference," he said.

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The priest under protection for denouncing the Libyan mafia

Don Mattia also spoke about the Almasri case: "What was done has deepened an enormous wound, and therefore reconciliation is needed -- with the migrants and with those who were victims of Almasri," he commented.

The priest urges people to let themselves be questioned by all this suffering and then "to open our hearts, because these people are raising to us the cry of brotherhood, asking to be recognized in their dignity as brothers and sisters."

Due to what is happening "in Libya, in Tunisia, and in many parts of the world," human fraternity is being destroyed, he warned, and "if we do not rebuild it, we will have no alternative but barbarism—the advance of wars, violence, and environmental catastrophe."

His commitment to living out what he preaches has led to threats against him and even the need for protection -- particularly, he explained, for having denounced "the Libyan mafia system," where "leaders profit from human trafficking and migrant pushbacks, as the UN has also denounced."

To institutions, politics, and society, the Mediterranea chaplain called for "taking migrants by the hand, listening to them, meeting them, and then walking together. All of us."

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