{"id":1961,"date":"2014-02-03T22:19:59","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T21:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euroalter.local\/news\/%c2%93the-charter-of-lampedusa%c2%94-and-the-quest-for-alternative-citizenship-and-migration-policies\/"},"modified":"2014-02-03T22:19:59","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T21:19:59","slug":"%c2%93the-charter-of-lampedusa%c2%94-and-the-quest-for-alternative-citizenship-and-migration-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euroalter.com\/it\/%c2%93the-charter-of-lampedusa%c2%94-and-the-quest-for-alternative-citizenship-and-migration-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0093The Charter of Lampedusa\u0094 and the quest for alternative citizenship and migration policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

European Alternatives is delighted to be an integral part of the process towards drafting a Lampedusa Charter for a new migration policy.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The background of the Charter to be written in Lampedusa<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the context of the Lampedusa tragedy which took place on October 4th<\/sup> when over 300 migrants travelling from Libya to Italy died off the island\u2019s coast after the boat they were travelling on caught fire and sank in the Mediterranean Sea, many citizens and organisations across Europe, including European Alternatives, launched an\u00a0Appeal for the opening of a humanitarian corridor for the European right of asylum<\/a>\u00a0reaching 20.000 signatures in a few hours.<\/p>\n

This appeal called for a\u00a0European Right to Asylum<\/strong> demanding that EU institutions focus on rights creating a humanitarian corridor towards Europe, so that those who flee war may apply for asylum directly to the European Institutions from countries of departure (Libya, Egypt, Syria for example) via consulates or other offices, without being forced to embark on dangerous journeys by sea, thus increasing human trafficking and the number of shipwrecks.<\/p>\n

In the days following the launch of this call, the active engagement regarding problems of borders\u00a0within the EU-Mediterranean area\u00a0and the free movement of people, developed further and lead to the construction of a more comprehensive proposal: \u201cThe Charter of Lampedusa<\/strong>\u201d and the quest for democratic legitimacy of EU migration policies.<\/p>\n

European Alternatives has been an active member of this process promoted by\u00a0Melting Pot Europe<\/a>, calling for a comprehensive overhaul of European migration and asylum policies<\/strong> and proposing all interested citizens and experts to gather on the island to work together for alternative proposals in this direction.<\/p>\n

The Lampedusa Process as a <\/strong>citizen-led constituent pact<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Over the past two months, many international European & North African movements and associations, experts, networks and organisations, were invited on the island to start rewriting the history of the Mediterranean space and beyond, aiming at subverting the image of this notorious place, a \u201cfrontier-island-cum-spectacle<\/em>\u201d, and demanding for concrete policy change<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This process is \u201ca constituent pact between many and diverse groups, a collective process, a common space that everyone will be responsible for preserving, each with their own practices and modalities, an opportunity to start understanding together how to construct a geography of change, in order to overcome the borders imposed by Europe and to turn this manifesto into reality<\/em>.\u201d The Mayor of Lampedusa, Ms. Giusi Nicolini, and the inhabitants of the island are also actively involved in this process and they will participate in the meetings scheduled to be held at the Airport from Friday, January 31st, to Sunday, February 2nd, 2014<\/ins>.<\/p>\n

A transeuropean movement for a new migration policy<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

From November 2013 to January 2014, European Alternatives was involved in the online assemblies and meetings with over 100 other European civil society organisations<\/strong>, coordinating the working group on EU & extra-EU organisations and their networks, facilitating their participation and knowledge-transfer (mainly focusing on the situation of Lampedusa, outreach, push-back of migrants, Italian policing procedures).<\/p>\n

The Charter and all the activities around it aim at clearly determining the rights and freedoms of every person who crosses national borders in Europe and in the Mediterranean region. The meeting is an important one with hundreds of key people taking part from all over Europe. Some of our longstanding partner organisations, such as Unimondo<\/a> and Za Lab<\/a>, will also shoot a documentary film <\/strong>about this experience with the participation of people gathering to the island for the meeting, island\u2019s inhabitants, local authorities and students.<\/p>\n

The Lampedusa Meeting \u2013 Follow Us Online<\/strong><\/h3>\n

All those who are not able to attend the meeting in person can nevertheless follow it from a distance thanks to the streaming which will cover most of the activities.<\/p>\n