There was no commemoration of any sort in Malta last week on the 10th anniversary of what has become known the world over as the Malta boat tragedy.

On that fateful Christmas night, 283 asylum seekers lost their lives while they were being transferred from a ship, the Yioham – which was carrying even more asylum seekers than those who perished – on to a small boat that could not take them all, and which anyway capsized in the rough seas.

The silence in Malta, in itself, says volumes about how the average Maltese feels on the subject of any tragedies involving asylum seekers.

Things are not much better in nearby Portopalo, the south-eastern tip of Sicily, just off Capo Passero.

For according to a report by Andrea di Grazia on Stretto Indispensabile, a website dedicated to small islands off the Sicilian coast, the 10th anniversary of the tragedy was celebrated by two public commemorations in Portopalo.

One was promoted by lay organisations, including among others the trade union CGIL and the Red Cross. The other was organised by the church and spearheaded by a local priest, Don Calogero Palacino, who brought on the local bishop G. Malandrino.

At the centre of the lay commemoration was a fisherman, Salvatore Lupo, who brought ashore the body of one victim caught among his nets and thus broke the omerta among fishermen, who all knew of bodies being caught up in nets but who had, up until then, not spoken out.

It was Lupo who then collaborated with Giovanni Maria Bellu, who in turn brought the whole tragedy in its proper dimensions to the notice of the world through his articles in La Republica.

Today, Lupo, ostracised by the local community “for having ruined the tourism of the area” is no longer a fisherman but has opened a guest house he has appropriately named La Nave Fantasma.

Lupo was among the few from Portopalo who attended the commemoration. “Those dead are on the conscience of those who created racist laws, they are the victims of Fortress Europe,” said Alfonso di Stefano, one of the organisers of the lay commemoration.

Just across the road, in the parish oratory, the Catholics were engaged in what the bishop insisted was a “celebration” and not a commemoration. They brought along with them some asylum seekers who are being hosted by the diocese.

The bishop first went into a paean of praise for diversity, insisting that all people, whatever their colour, are the children of one God, but his words progressively became harder and harder: “The birth of a human being shows that life goes on, even if we humans become butchers of each other.”

Other people have their point of view as well. At the local fishermen’s club, president Attilio Nardo said fishermen have become the villains in the national and international media and had even been accused of cannibalism. “On 18 August 2002,” said another fisherman, Corrado Scala, “I helped a boat with 151 illegal immigrants on board. For that I was arrested. For 19 hours I was on my own, although they could all hear what I said on the radio. The authorities told me to take them back to Malta but when the asylum seekers understood what was going on, they rebelled. The women threatened to kill themselves. It was only then that they allowed me to return to Pozzallo. Then the police accused me of being the scafista (the asylum seeker runner) and the court case lasted two years.”

In a second related article, Mr di Grazia writes how the priest, Don Calogero Palacino, first fulminates against the media during a homily of his in the church and tells his congregation: “There is a spy among us” but then receives him cordially in the sacristy and pointedly refers him to that part of the Acts of the Apostles that describes how the Maltese welcomed the people from the shipwreck.

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Families light candles, pray for victims

Nearly 40 to 50 families of the Malta boat tragedy victims paid homage to the departed souls by lighting 300 candles at the Company Bagh in Jalandhar last week.

Talking to Anju Agnihotri Chaba from The Indian Express, the relatives said that they had yet to receive the Rs50,000 compensation announced by the government.

Gurmaij Raj of Khangura village in Phagwara said that his 19-year-old son Harbhajan Singh, who was sent to Italy by paying Rs3 lakh to a Delhi-based travel agent, had died in the boat tragedy and to date the government had not given him any sort of assistance.

Sodhi Ram of Pandori Gagna Singh village in Hoshiarpur said that his son Balkar Singh, 19, who was sent after paying Rs2.30 lakh to a travel agent, had also become a victim of the same tragedy but the government had not done anything to help him out.

Ajit Kaur of Sangatpur village in Jalandhar said that her married son Jagdeep Singh, 30, had died in the same incident. She said her son’s wife Joginder Kaur and his two children had been living with her in poverty.