A Mediterranean Clandestine: A Friend or a Foe?

Abstract

A large and growing number of immigrant tragedies in the Mediterranean have increased the salience of intercultural tensions in the European Union and the urgency of pro-active and effective strategies of conflict resolution at the so-called ‘gates of Europe’. In October 2013, multiple deaths of illegal immigrants occurred in a failed attempt at reaching the European continent. Incidents such as these have turned the media’s attention towards the crises, and issues surrounding immigration have come to occupy a central position in the cultural and political discussions of both the Italian national and the European transnational consciousness. Similar tragedies recurred in 2014 and 2015. As recently reported in The Guardian by Beaumont (2014), ‘Migrants trying to reach more prosperous countries have died at a rate of eight every day for the past 14 years, the majority of them trying to get to Europe’. In accordance with the estimates provided by the International Organization for Migration (2014), almost 40,000 people have died on various migrant routes worldwide, and at least 22,000 of the same have perished trying to get to Europe. IOM also emphasize that, most likely, the true number of fatalities is even higher than the figures in its report.