Lampedusa: A Grave at Sea
Radio Télévision Suisse | 16min
Postproduction script
00:00:07,225 VO: -In the cemeteries of Southern Italy, I found some graves which only have a number instead of a name. Each number represents only a fraction of the migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe. In front of these graves, I wonder: How to take care of a dead person whose identity and religion is not known? I met Antonio, the person in charge of the cemetery. He is in charge of burying women men and whole families whose identity in unkown to everyone in Sicily.
00:01:04,634 Daniela: -Where are we?
00:01:06,019 Antonio: -Here is the vault of the Scolaro family that has welcomed them. Here we have the pictures.
00:01:16,102 Daniela: -They are part of this?
00:01:18,047 Antonio: -Of this shipwreck. The great one that destroyed so many families.
1’24
Antonio Inzalaco, Cemetery manager, Augusta
00:01:27,980 Daniela: -How many people from this shipwreck arrived here?
00:01:32,378 Antonio: -In the new cemetery, we have 86 people.
00:01:39,097 Daniela: -You told me that it reminded you of the war.
00:01:45,511 Antonio: -Because we're in the middle of a war with a lot of dead bodies, victims, family fathers. They were all young. When you emigrate, you are not 80 years old. This lady must have been 25 years old, with a child of barely 6 or 7 years old. We are in a war, and in wars, the old are spared. It is the young people who go to the front.
00:02:23,742 Daniela: -Was this a trauma to you?
00:02:25,291 Antonio: -Yes, it certainly was.
00:02:42,231 Daniela: -This boat comes from Libya. It left for Libya with 12 passengers who travelled blindly during the night and arrived on this beach. This trip is very dangerous and difficult. People are risking their lives at any time. The motors do not work. They are not equipped to go far. That's a long distance trip. There's not enough food, not enough water. They are stuck on top of each other. Some won't get down on the shore simply because they have been crushed during the trip. There are so many reasons to die on this journey. We estimate that since 2014, 23,688 people have lost their lives their lives in the Mediterranean trying to reach the European coast.
3’04 Daniela Stauffacher,
Doctoral researcher in religious studies, UNIFR
00:04:13,570 VO: I'm going to go see Don Stefano. He has been the priest of Lampedusa for six years. He has lived through many tragedies that unfolded before his eyes. He found himself several times at the port with bodies whose religion and identity were not known.
00:04:46,674 Daniela: -What happened in this shipwreck in 2013?
00:04:51,945 Don Stefano: -I remember that morning of October 3rd. I could hear the sound of the sirens of the police and ambulances. We all understood something very serious had happened. We were informed that a boat had capsized just in front of the island. There were people missing, others were dead. We didn't know what had happened. Among these bodies, there were also children. I had the impression that the children were sleeping. The number of deaths started to increase until it reached 368, if I remember correctly.
5’01 Don Stefano Nastasi, Priest of Sciacca
5’23 Lampedusa, Italy, 3rd
October 2013
00:05:49,985 Daniela: -What were these bodies like?
00:05:52,610 Don Stefano: -Many were found with rosaries or with small crosses between the teeth. The explanation that we gave ourselves was that it was an act of surrender to God. Many were Christians. There were also some Muslims, but most of them were Christians.
00:06:17,028 Daniela: -You couldn't know if the number in front of you was a Christian or a Muslim?
00:06:25,425 Don Stefano: -As a general rule, we never celebrated mass because we were not sure of the Christian origin of the person. When it was possible, we did it, with a protestant pastor or a Muslim imam. When this was not possible, there was always a prayer for the person, no matter what his religious affiliation was. We have never left the person without a prayer.
00:07:03,407 Daniela: -How to give back dignity to people who have no name, no religion?
00:07:10,680 Don Stefano: -It's not that simple. Dignity is something we should preserve. It's a person with a very specific story, with a specific face, even if that face has sometimes been disfigured by the sea. I think that that we give them back their dignity by taking care of the body as if it were the body of a person that belongs to us. With great respect, great compassion. I have witnessed the preparation of bodies before his brothers and sisters were buried. I noticed the dedication and delicacy of those who did it, a brotherly affection.
00:08:23,108 Daniela: -Now what do we see here?
00:08:24,782 Police officer: -The objects recovered from the bodies as a result of the sinking. Necklaces, rings, bracelets, watches.
00:08:42,297 Daniela: -These bags containing earth have a great meaning. People brought these for good luck on their journey. Here we have a rosary. People brought the minimum with them. Faith is part of this bare minimum. Here we have a little prayer book. There is a writing in Arabic which shows us that it is a Koran. There is a name… It doesn't read well.
00:09:31,197 Daniela to police officer: -10 years have passed since the sinking. Is there still hope?
00:09:36,264 Police officer: -Sometimes we get requests. After 10 years, it's unlikely. In any case, these objects remain available to the authorities.
00:09:54,922 Daniela: -The families rarely find their loved ones. They don't know who to turn to. We are in Agrigento. How could I know that I need to call that specific police station to find out whether my brother was found dead?
00:10:45,214 Antonio: -Here is the file regarding the 2013 shipwreck. In this record, we find only numbers.
00:10:58,997 Daniela: -53, 10, 74
00:11:06,327 Antonio: -To this day, we still don't know who died that day.
00:11:14,271 Daniela: -How do you feel about it?
00:11:15,901 Antonio: -How do I feel about it? The same feeling as a father of many children, who would come to realize, at a certain age, that in a coffin was lying one of his own children. It's bound to affect us.
00:11:36,238 VO: -It's important that he was able to document this to find the dead on the sea that day. If it is poorly documented, which is often the case, people just disappear. It's as if these people died twice. Once on the sea, and once in the cemeteries because they can no longer be found.
00:12:02,206 Daniela: -Are these just numbers?
00:12:04,551 Antonio: -There are only numbers left. 29, 39, 49, all on the same side.
00:12:14,528 Daniela: -You hope that one day there will be names here? Do you still have hope?
00:12:20,968 Antonio: -It's a lost hope. I think it's a lost hope.
00:12:27,444 Daniela: -Will the numbers stay?
00:12:30,215 Antonio: -I really think so.
00:12:41,071 VO: -What interests me in my research, is to understand the gestures of solidarity of the locals. They find themselves in front of a phenomenon that is greater than on the local level. It goes way beyond the cemeteries. That's why I'm going to the cemetery, to meet a lady who has made a gesture. She hosted in her family chapel a little boy from Nigeria.
13’39 Giuseppa
Drago, Cemetery custodian
00:13:23,007 Giuseppa: -These are all migrants who arrived in 2005. They are our brothers, our cousins. They were all young, in their twenties. We are in front of the vault where we welcomed Great, the 20-month-old child who died during the rescue at sea. His epitaph summarizes the last moments of his life. If you look, there is the sea, and the mainland that you can see on the horizon. Can you see it? And the epitaph that says he came to this country with his parents in search of a life far from the horrors of war. This decision involved the whole family. We are so happy to have this child. He now lives with us because we come to the chapel every day. To have him with us means that his is not forgotten. Every day, we remember that tragedy.
00:15:19,598 Daniela: -Were you the only one to offer a place in the family vault? Did other people do the same?
00:15:28,791 Giuseppa: -I'm the only one. There was no other person. If you choose the system of burial in a vault, it is for at least 50 years. There are whole generations in it. It's not easy to find room in them. I think it was a gesture that we had to do anyway. Is that good? Ok.
16’10 Credits:
Nicolas Pallay
Daniela Stauffacher
Eliane Ruckstuhl
Otto Cavadini
Lison Amiot
Laurent Jespersen
Elias Siddiqui