Tales of horror and humanity from tiny Lampedusa

A Lampedusa doctor at the centre of the showpiece documentary of this year’s Valletta Film Festival has given viewers a taste of what to expect ahead of its screening tomorrow.

Filmed by Gianfranco Rosi, Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) - which won the Golden Bear award at this year's Berlin International Film Festival - follows life on the tiny Italian island that has for long been a gateway into Europe for asylum seekers.

At a pre-screening press conference at the Valletta university campus, Lampedusa’s head of health services Pietro Bartolo recounted the horrors he has seen in his line of work.

These include stories of asylum seekers slowly burned alive by gasoline from their boats reacting with the sea.

“At first, they welcome the warmth but eventually it burns their skin and some die from it,” he said. “When we peel off their clothes, sometimes their skin comes off with the material which of course leads to them contracting infections.”

He also recounted how some asylum seekers contract infections by being forced to sleep on dirty mattresses in Libya, how others are forced to travel despite suffering severe burns in cooking accidents in the North African country, and how female refugees get raped frequently en route to Europe.

“Last week, I saw a very young pregnant girl crying and saying she wanted to die because she didn’t know who the father of her child was, as she had been raped by five different people,” Bartolo said. “This is an everyday occurrence.”

Other asylum seekers were killed by smugglers after they tried to leave their crammed cabin to catch a breath of fresh air, tipping the boat in the process.

A particularly somber tale involves a man whose boat sunk, and tried to keep his wife, baby and a three-year-old child afloat. As tiredness crept in, he was eventually forced to let go of the young child.

Yet his story is peppered with tales of human kindness – such as when 50 Lampedusa women grouped up to deliver food and clothes to a newborn baby, or when a kindergarten was built on the island for the refugee children to play in, or how local fishermen search for refugees of their own accord.

“Thousands of asylum seekers have arrived at Lampedusa over the years, and yet the people never complained about it,” Bartolo said. “They always lend a helping hand in times of crises, purely because they want to.”

Neil Falzon, director of human rights NGO aditus, urged Maltese people to take a leaf out of the Lampedusa citizens’ book and act more welcoming to refugees.

“Hopefully this film can change the hearts and minds of people who can make a small difference in the way they treat refugees in their everyday lives,” he said. “The Maltese people have not been as welcoming to refugees as the people of Lampedusa have, and they should use Lampedusa as an example on how rewarding it ultimately is to help them.”  

Similarly, Bartolo urged European policy-makers not to lose sight of the humanitarian aspect of the refugee crisis.

“MEPs were shocked when I spoke about my experience at the European Parliament; they had no idea about the brutal realities on the ground,” he said. “These refugees are no different than the rest of us; they’re people with the same worries, dreams and weaknesses, and the people who have the responsibility to take concrete action don’t understand this yet.”

Fire at Sea will be screened on June 8 at Fort St Elmo, Valletta at 21:00, as part of the Valletta Film Festival. For more information and a full programme, log on to: http://www.vallettafilmfestival.com/programme/