In Cutro, memory has taken root. But the shipwreck of humanity continues

Since that tragic February 26 two years ago, 5,400 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean. This is the number that IOM, UNHCR, and UNICEF provide on the eve of the second anniversary of the Steccato di Cutro massacre. So nothing has changed since that day.

It is with this bitter awareness that the caravan of cars that left Crotone arrives at 4 in the morning at the beach of death. There are about three hundred of them at this night vigil. More or less the same as last year. They are not the twenty thousand of the demonstration on the beach on March 12, 2023. But it is the sign that memory at these latitudes has nevertheless taken root. So that it never happens again.

THE SKY IS STARRY , a light breeze from the west envelops the people who in groups trample the beach and approach the shore equipped with candles. The cold is dry, biting. The sea is flat. It is a secular procession to not forget. There are representatives of the Muslim community with the local imams and priests of this outskirts of the forgotten south, represented by Francesco Savino, bishop of Cassano and vice president of the CEI. There are activists and ordinary people. Absent are the mayor of Crotone, Enzo Voce, and his counterpart of Cutro, Antonio Ceraso.

Not many political representatives. The secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, decided at the last minute to be there. Like last year. Returning from the Chamber, she took the last flight to Lamezia and at midnight she landed in Calabria with Marta Bonafoni. Exactly two years ago she was elected secretary in the Democratic primaries. To journalists and activists she expressed the request for "truth and justice so that an answer can be given to a simple question that we have been asking for two years: why didn't the adequate means of transport set sail to save those lives? There is an open investigation and this is not our responsibility. But there is a political question whose answer must be given to the victims and their families".

THE INVESTIGATION Schlein is talking about has led to a trial, with the first hearing scheduled for March 5. The six Coast Guard and GdF soldiers are accused of shipwreck and manslaughter. This is a turning point in this frantic search for the truth. The movements whose complaints started the investigation demand it. The fear is that everything will expire. It has already happened in Lampedusa, in the most serious tragedy in migrant history. It could happen again. In addition to Schlein, there is a large Democratic delegation: parliamentarians Nicola Irto and Nico Stumpo and MEP and journalist Sandro Ruotolo.

Since the Calabrian party was led by Marco Minniti, it seems like a geological era has passed. Present were the secretary of Rifondazione, Maurizio Acerbo, the regional councilor, Ferdinando Laghi and the parliamentarian and secretary of Democrazia solidale, Paolo Ciani. The social composition of the anti-racist movements and associations is large: from Lorenzo Trucco of Asgi to Filippo Sestito of Arci. And then there are the Carovane Migranti that started from Campania and crossed the territories of exploitation and gangmastering. Until arriving here in Steccato where humanity was shipwrecked.

You understand this by listening to Assad al Maliki's story. He is one of the survivors of that February 26, 2023 when he saw his little brother die of cold he was holding in his arms while he was trying to keep him afloat in the stormy sea. Today he lives in Germany, in Hamburg, studies German and works as a hairdresser. With him is his uncle Algazi Feras, who also escaped the shipwreck, and two cousins ​​who were already in Germany. "The memories," he says, "are still strong. I always dream about what happened. It's hard to get over. We knew what we were doing. We had no choice. In Syria we were always at risk of death. We came to Italy to seek peace, a better life, rights."

HOPE you can see in the eyes of Vincenzo Luciano, the fisherman who alone tried to save as many lives as possible that cursed night. And you can sense the sense of state in the technical analysis of retired admiral Vittorio Alessandro, former general commander of the coast guard: «The tragedy of Cutro was not an accident, but the result of the overlapping of vulgar rules on a system of rescue rules that is extraordinary. Let's put together the many episodes similar to Cutro and then look each other in the eye: people, regardless, should be saved or not?».