The Italian Red Cross (CRI) has welcomed more than 164,000 migrants at the hotspot of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa since it started managing the facility on June 1, 2023, according to data released by the organization on October 5. They include 39,000 people who were hosted during the course of this year.

Remembering the deadly shipwrecks off the Sicilian island and Cutro

Speaking after Pope Leo XIV's homily to mark the Jubilee of the Missionary World and Migrants, Italian Red Cross President Rosario Valastro remembered the deadly shipwreck off Lampedusa on October 3, 2013, in which 368 people died, as well as the February 26 shipwreck two years ago off Cutro, in Calabria, in which at least 94 refugees and migrants including 35 children and teens died.

"Two days ago, we commemorated the tragedy of Lampedusa in 2013 and, with it, what happened in Cutro 10 years after the shipwreck" off the Sicilian island, he noted. "These tragedies must induce us to reflect even more on the importance of protecting and safeguarding the hope shown every day by migrant people who cross the Mediterranean to reach our coasts", stated Valastro.

These journeys are not undertaken by migrants "light-heartedly" given that "the desire for a better life far from war, poverty, socio-sanitary crises is coupled with the anguish for a crossing which, they are aware, is dangerous and full of pitfalls", he added.

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Red Cross's activity in Italian ports a 'message of peace'

"Behind data on these migrations, there are lives, faces, stories that need to be given a voice and heard, courage. And the Italian Red Cross, on Lampedusa and in all ports across the country is committed on a daily basis", said its president.

He highlighted that CRI volunteers and operators give a "great message of peace" to a "world torn by conflicts" through the welcome they provide made of "many gestures of humanity"."As our founder Henry Dunant said: 'We are all brothers'", concluded Valastro.

In 2024, the highest number of deaths was recorded along migration routes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The UN agency said nearly 9,000 people (8,938) lost their lives, including 2,452 in the Mediterranean Sea.

IOM in Libya reported on X that at least 461 people died and 424 were reported missing along the Central Mediterranean route between the beginning of this year and October 4. Over the same period, the organization noted, 20,017 migrants were intercepted at sea and taken back to Libya, including 17,313 men, 1,779 women, 718 minors and 208 people whose gender is unknown.

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