The Prize

Lampedusa nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize

The people of Lampedusa, Sicily, represented by the highest authority of the Island, is nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Here is the letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Lampedusa nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
Elisabeth Eide
Department of Journalism and Media Studies
Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Studies (HiOA)
0130 Oslo

To The Norwegian Nobel Committee
c/o Geir Lundestad
Henrik Ibsens gate 51
0255 Oslo


Subject: Nomination for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize

Hereby I would like to nominate the people of Lampedusa, represented by the highest authority of the island, for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

The background for the nomination is the following.
Every year, tens of thousands of people leave their war-torn homelands in order to find a place to live in peace. They set out on a hard journey, they meet armed border agents and often face a forced return. This is not a way to solve problems, while the situation becomes very dangerous for all the people seeking a safe and peaceful life. At least 20,000 people – men, women and children – have died in the Mediterranean along the Southern coast of Europe since 1994, according to several voluntary associations working in the area. The latest 640 have drowned between the 30th September and the 11th October 2013: they were Eritrean and Syrian refugees. About a hundred of them were children. They were on their way to Europe on overloaded boats, as their only chance to get away from brutal oppression and war in the lands they come from.

Many died, but thousands of refugees have survived similar journeys and hindrances. In 2013 they were over 40,000. In the past 20 years hundreds of thousands have first landed in the small volcanic island of Lampedusa. There they have met rescuers, physicians, volunteers and ordinary citizens welcoming them in the name of peace. Lampedusa has 6,300 inhabitants that have shown their hospitality and courage over and over again. Several times the island’s citizens have contributed to save refugees from drowning, while risking their own lives. The 3rd October Costantino Baratta, a mason, took his boat out with a friend. They heard voices calling for help a few hundreds meters from the coast. When they got closer, they found a lot of floating dead bodies. Among them, though, there were also twelve people alive, the last ones to survive the shipwreck of a boat with hundreds of Eritrean asylum-seekers on board. They had neither telephone nor radio to call for help. Other fishermen have done the same as Baratta, saving many shipwrecked people. Later on, many have experienced psychological issues, because they have seen so many drowned people, while trying to save as many as they could with their limited resources.

In 2011, during the Tunisian uprising and the Lybian civil war, the Italian government decided to block all the asylum-seekers in Lampedusa, in order to prevent them from going any further. In the following months, 11,000 new-comers were taken care of by the local people at home, they got food and other help from the 6,300 inhabitants, since the State centre for asylum-seekers could only accommodate 800 people.

Italian journalist Fabrizio Gatti became world famous with his book Bilal, where he depicts a flight across Sahara and the Mediterranean. Apart from writing about such flight, he himself got undercover and experienced the extensive human compassion shown by the people in Lampedusa.

Today Lampedusa is one of the main gates to Europe, and the people of the island play a crucial role by treating boat refugees with dignity. The inhabitants have proved capable of living in peaceful co-existence with the new-comers, while showing a unique ability to express empathy and solidarity.

A Nobel Peace Prize to the institutions and the people of the island would put a spotlight on human compassion and a peaceful approach in a context that is strongly characterized by xenophobia. In Europe more and more people close their eyes to the refugees’ dignity. The Prize will also contribute to stop the outrageous trafficking, which means profit for all those sending fellow human beings in poorly equipped boats, often to face their certain death. The Prize can also give a glimpse of hope for those who are forced to leave their home country to find that safe and peaceful life they did not have where they come from. It would indicate that someone thinks of them as something more than a death rate in the statistics. Last but not least, it would be an honour for a small population, whose human compassion has been put to the test in the past 20 years and has passed such test as they respect human dignity and show that people can practise peaceful co-existence.

Kind regards
Professor Elisabeth Eide
Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Studies (HiOA)
Tel. 22452647/99538384

(traduzione di Eva Valvo)
© Riproduzione riservata


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