Migrant people: Scalabrinians, the Mediterranean cannot be a sea of death

PRESS RELEASE

Scalabrinian Missionaries Europe-Africa

Rome, Feb. 4, 2026 – In the central Mediterranean, migrants and refugees continue to die quietly and invisibly. In recent weeks, several boats that left from the North African coast of Tunisia never reached their destination. 380 people are reported missing at sea, with no name, no story, no certain news remaining of many of them.

These are deaths with no obituary: they are not included in official counts and are in danger of disappearing from the public consciousness as well. Women, men and children who lost their lives along one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes in an attempt to reach Europe.

As Scalabrinian Missionaries, present in the places of departure, transit and arrival of migrant people, we cannot consider these deaths as inevitable or accidental events. They are the result of precise political choices: the closing of legal access routes, theoutsourcing of borders, and theweakening of search and rescue operations at sea.

Father Francesco Buttazzo, regional superior of the Scalabrinian Missionaries Europe-Africa: “Every person who died in the Mediterranean had a name, a history, connections. When these lives remain without memory, we all lose something of our humanity. As a church and as a society, we cannot get used to a sea that becomes a border of death instead of a space of encounter.”

The gradual normalization of these tragedies has a twofold effect: on the one hand it puts the lives of people on the move at risk, and on the other it erodes collective responsibility, turning the Mediterranean into a space of death and indifference.

Remembering the victims is not a symbolic gesture, but a political and human act. It means recognizing that each person who died at sea had a life project, emotional ties, fundamental rights. It also means questioning Europe’s responsibilities and policies that continue to make migration a deadly path.

Therefore, we strongly renew some urgencies that can no longer be postponed: the opening of legal and safe channels of entry, to take people away from traffickers and landing journeys; a responsible public narrative that restores dignity to migrant people and border victims.

The Mediterranean cannot continue to be a place of death. Remembering the victims means choosing policies today that put people’s lives, dignity and futures at the center.

UCoS Press Office: Gabriele Beltrami
[email protected] – www.scalabriniani.net (+39) 328 0948221

UCoS Communications Office: Fabiola Frroku
[email protected] – (+39) 349 4595281