The Municipality and Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria paid homage to the sacrifice of the men, women and children who died while seeking a different future. On the Day of Remembrance for the victims of Migration, announced in 2016 by the Falcomatà Administration in the aftermath of the discovery of 45 bodies recovered at sea by the Vega patrol vessel of the Italian Navy, the territorial administrations led by the mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà himself, the prefect Clara Vaccaro, president Maria Angela Ambrogio and volunteers from the diocesan Caritas and numerous citizens gathered at the Armo Cemetery, which has become a symbolic place because it collects the remains of the many victims of the journeys of hope. Present, among others, were the municipal councilors Lucia Nucera, Franco Costantino and Anna Briante and the councilor Marcantonino Malara.
Silence and prayers accompanied the profound reflection of those who took part in the moment of reflection. Mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà, on behalf of the Reggio community, placed a bouquet of flowers on the monument built in the area that houses the tombs of migrants, redeveloped thanks to a project promoted by the Diocesan Caritas. The memory of that terrible May 31st eight years ago was strong, when the bodies of the victims of yet another tragic shipwreck were recovered and they were buried in Armo in what everyone subsequently came to know as the Migrants’ Cemetery.
From Palazzo San Giorgio and Palazzo Alvaro, therefore, came the warning that today does not just serve to remember. Rather, the cemetery of migrants, the poor, the fragile and the marginalized must continue to represent a perpetually lit beacon on integration and reception policies, with respect to which our country still proves to be far behind.
For the Municipality and the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, in fact, the Day of Remembrance for the victims of migration aims to be a thorn in the side so that, in Parliament, even the forces most reluctant to face and resolve such a delicate and complex issue can have a less ideological approach by concretely helping people fleeing wars, poverty and denied rights. The commitment of the Reggio community was also exalted and, in all these years, it has given ample demonstration of being an example on issues related to immigration, honoring its own history which is itself the history of a population of migrants.
