Interview

Tareke Brhane, originally from Eritrea and now an Italian citizen, is the president of the Comitato 3 Ottobre and has dedicated his life to advocating for the rights of migrants and commemorating those who died at sea. His efforts led to the creation of the Day of Remembrance and Reception, officially recognised in Italy, and a campaign for a European DNA database to identify migrant victims.

I come from Eritrea. When I was 16, my dream was to be a pilot. At school I was very good at science and math, but then I lost everything. My mother, she really risked a lot to get me to a safe place outside Eritrea. I lost her during the trip because the journey was so expensive and not a lot of people have the opportunity to do this trip. She chose to get me out because it was time for me to go to military service. She had already lost my brother through conscription into the army and never heard from him again and she had lost my father – he died when I was a child. And so she ran the risk of never seeing me again by deciding to get me out. And we paid a very high price, mentally, physically, financially, everything. She decided to let me go alone. At the time I didn’t understand why. I was so angry with her because I was only 16. I said, ‘Why let me go? Mother, I’m going to die. Why leave me alone?’ She only smiled strongly and said, ‘No, don’t worry.’ I was really angry with her because we had never been apart. And then, after long years, I understood why she did it: because there wasn’t enough money, so she decided to sacrifice herself. The little she had, she gave to me. But when you’re a child, you don’t understand these things. Then, when I got to Italy in the end, I searched for her and found out that she had died. She never saw a better life, she was never even able to say goodbye. I’m so sad that I didn’t even get to say thank you. She gave me a new life.

I attempted the crossing twice. The first time, I was 18 or 19 years old. I spent more than five days at sea and I was pushed back by the Maltese coastguard. There were about 270 people in the boat. There were also around 20 children, ranging from babies to eight-year-olds. The majority of the people were men like me and they pushed us back using both Libyan and Maltese coastguards – not giving any possibility to talk or ask for asylum. Then, the police aprehended us when we got to Libya. They were rough with us. They beat everybody up and drove us to a prison in Tripoli. In that prison, there were more than 2,000 people in the same area. There was no space for any of us to even sleep. After that they took us to Misrata and then we were taken further south to the worst prison I’ve ever seen in my life.

So I spent more than four years moving from one prison to another. And then, at last, in 2005 I finally managed to get a place on a second boat. Even on this second attempt, we got lost at sea and nobody wanted to rescue us. By law, if you rescue someone, the Italian government is going to punish them with fines from EUR 5,000 to 10,000, or accuse them of trafficking, so everyone was afraid of rescuing migrants at sea. We saw ships pass and there were many on the Mediterranean at that time, but they refused to call rescue and help us. So, all of us agreed to cause a deliberate accident to make the other boats rescue us. We started a fire on our boat. There were about 280 or 290 people on board and we eventually got rescued.

Yes, it was tough for us, but it got much harder in recent years. Perhaps in the last year or so the treatment hasn’t been so bad, but before it was very hard. I saw it with my own eyes. Imagine that, of any girls who pass through Libya, many are raped and many become pregnant. Some Libyan men would use the girls like toys. Any girls and women, from the age of eight or even as young as six. They would do what they wanted with them in groups of three or five or more men. I was there for some years, I saw everything. That’s why most women coming from Libya either came with babies or children or were pregnant. They didn’t know who the fathers were and they couldn’t even ask for help because sometimes they wouldn’t be accepted by their own community. Sometimes they would treat them like criminals, asking them, ‘Why don’t you know who the father is?’ But how could they know? We knew it wasn’t another migrant – it was a Libyan.

I really don’t know. It’s complicated because a lot of people have left Eritrea and there are a lot of problems with land rights and ownership because some houses and land have been taken over by other people. So, when there is a change of government, there will be so many disputes and fights with people looking to get back their father’s land or their grandfather’s land. Others have purchased houses and land from the government, but the government itself had stolen it originally so you can imagine the disputes that will erupt. There might even be a civil war, like in Libya after Gaddafi was killed. Gaddafi died in 2011 and there’s still conflict today – people are still killing each other and the country is run by five different governments.

Imagine that, for the last 20 years, one of the biggest groups of refugees in Europe or anywhere else in the world is from Eritrea. And yet I never hear any government talk about the government of Eritrea. They never even discuss the situation and, instead, they give you asylum automatically. Even the political opposition to the government there is invisible and silent.

They can do a lot, but nobody talks about Eritrea and forcing a regime change. Imagine that, for the last 20 years, one of the biggest groups of refugees in Europe or anywhere else in the world is from Eritrea. And yet I never hear any government talk about the government of Eritrea. They never even discuss the situation and, instead, they give you asylum automatically. Even the political opposition to the government there is invisible and silent. I don’t know why, but there’s just silence.

Journalists maybe do some research and write articles, but only from outside the country. In terms of real activism, though, there is nothing, mainly because a lot of them are afraid. They are afraid because if they are Eritrean, they have family still there. If they speak out, they and their family might get into big trouble.

I remember a guy who went every day to the court gates here in Italy. He was continually shouting and crying, crying, crying. The police came and took him away and they called me to ask me to translate. The man’s story was that he was in the same boat with his wife and she died during the trip, and he needed the certificate to prove she died in order to send it back to Eritrea. The trouble was, his wife’s family had all been arrested and thrown in prison and wouldn’t be released as a punishment because the wife left Eritrea and was not paying the 3 percent tax that the government people demand from us migrants. But the wife had died and so he needed the certificate to get the family to be released and that’s why he was crying so much. But the Italian court cannot give a certificate without evidence. Imagine. Those people are probably still in prison today. Eritreans outside of the country are very frightened and don’t feel safe. They can get to you directly or sometimes indirectly through the Eritrean community abroad… they have many ways. Even me – I don’t feel safe.

So many died in the Mediterranean Sea. I started taking notes and counting deaths 10 years ago, and I’ve now reached 40,000 people. Imagine that. Who are they? Who are we going to ask for justice for them? I’m just fighting to identify a single boy. Not to give him life back, just to give him a name.

And yet, at the political level and the media level, there’s so much attention given to migration issues some people might say the profile is too high already, especially in Italy. While everyone is aware to some degree, it still feels like an invisible fact. It’s like what’s happening now in Sudan. We spend a lot of time talking about China, talking about Gaza, but it’s as if those who die at sea didn’t exist. When they find one body in the Mediterranean, all the radio and TV talk about it a bit but when it’s big numbers like 20, 30 or 40 migrant bodies, or even the 520 people who were victims in the Lampedusa capsize, then there’s virtually no talk. So many died in the Mediterranean Sea. I started taking notes and counting deaths 10 years ago, and I’ve now reached 40,000 people. Imagine that. Who are they? Who are we going to ask for justice for them? I’m just fighting to identify a single boy. Not to give him life back, just to give him a name. The way we treat migrants who cross the sea is the same, whether they are alive or dead.

The authorities say it’s not necessary to bring the bodies [out of the shipwreck]. Meanwhile, the mothers are waiting year in and year out without having peace.

I’m making a new legal proposal to the European Parliament. I’m even going to the Council of Europe. I do my best, but the progress of identifying bodies is very, very slow. At the same time, we have a lot of families and especially mothers who are continually looking for their sons, for their children, their wives, their brothers. People are still waiting, waiting, waiting. Imagine that, when you hear of any accidents in the Mediterranean, a huge percentage of the bodies are not taken back to where they came from, even when the authorities know where the wreck is and that there are still people trapped inside. They mostly remain in the sea. They become food for fish. The authorities say it’s not necessary to bring out the bodies. Meanwhile, the mothers are waiting year in and year out without having peace. Even when a body washes up, they’re not identified. They just bring the box. They take one or two photos and close it, and without any more details than whether it was a female or a male, they give it a number and put it down in the ground. They just bury the body without having all the information that the DNA can give you.

I really have difficulty understanding the way policy is made. Look at the treatment of those coming from Ukraine. All the European countries helped them with support, money and everything. Even the way mass media treats them is very positive, but then with others it is very different. We have to be honest that this is double standards. For Ukraine, they have opened the doors. They can choose to go to Italy, the UK or Germany, anywhere they want, and of course they are always called refugees. At the same time, people who come from Syria, Afghanistan or Sudan are connected with negative aspects and not often called refugees: they are seen as illegal migrants. People think: ‘They are black! They are going to take our jobs! They are going to kill us!’ And, of course, the politicians keep these ideas alive because, in some cases, they cannot even be elected unless they say these things.

We have to be honest that this is double standards. For Ukraine, they have opened the doors. They can even choose to go to Italy, the UK or Germany, anywhere they want, and, of course, they are always called refugees. At the same time, people who come from Syria, Afghanistan or Sudan are connected with negative aspects and not often called refugees: they are seen as illegal migrants.

Yes, of course, they use it to get votes – it’s so easy. It’s not so easy for them to talk about the economy, to talk about health care, to talk about jobs or to talk about the environment. Talking about immigration, though, is easy, because you’re making people afraid. They just go with propaganda and misinformation. The people landing in Lampedusa from Libya are a small number, but people coming from Ukraine are a far bigger amount.

One of my slogans is we need to protect people, not borders. When we consider migrants and refugees, we are talking about people who don’t have a choice. They move because they have to. For the majority of people who come, including me, there’s no alternative. Imagine those people coming from Syria or from Sudan: they are dying in their home countries. What are we doing for those people if we say we don’t want them to come to Europe? The numbers that need help are increasing every year. We can’t just leave them. Who is going to support all these people?

I think that, at a very minimum, we should support people who are in difficulty using resources just as we are helping those coming from Ukraine. People are dying without limit. We cannot just abandon them.

You could say, why should it be the responsibility of another country to look after people from a country that cannot organise itself better? But remember, most people don’t have the ability to fight or oppose their home governments. I think that, at a very minimum, we should support people who are in difficulty using resources just as we are helping those coming from Ukraine. People are dying without limit. We cannot just abandon them.

Yes. Of course, the numbers will increase, and more people will be displaced. But most governments are ignoring the situation. They do accept the inevitable truth about these kinds of movements but they ignore it completely. In terms of climate change, we see it every day. These countries are dry and getting dryer. The numbers coming now are manageable, but the numbers coming in the future may be unmanageable, so it’s important for governments to accept the issues and find a way to respond. Even now, a lot of people don’t have anything because of climate change, and they have no means to live. Of course, they will have to move and yet the world is not focused on this, is not helping them.

I know I cannot change today. I cannot change yesterday, but I’m going to shift tomorrow. Maybe I need 20,000 people or maybe I just need five people to make some changes. It’s the only thing that I do and that motivates me.

While I’m alive, I just want to do my best. I don’t want to see people suffering. I want to use my life going from place to place, advocating and talking with people, especially young people and students. I talk a lot. I’ve met and talked to more than 20,000 students from all kinds of countries. I know I cannot change today. I cannot change yesterday, but I’m going to shift tomorrow. Maybe I need 20,000 people or maybe I just need five people to make some changes. It’s the only thing that I do and that motivates me. Sometimes you feel you’re alone because it’s not so easy at this time to advocate on these issues, to talk about migration and discuss with people. Propaganda tells people to see migrants as criminals but, in fact, it’s all about people suffering.

Propaganda tells people to see migrants as criminals but, in fact, it’s all about people suffering.