Dear colleagues of Medpan, after a long deliberation we decided not to take part in the Conference on the Mediterranean and Marine Protected Areas taking place in Marsiglia on the 24th and 25th of June.
Our way to the Conference would cross Ventimiglia, where African citizens who wish to reach France and other northern Countries (men, women and children who come from that Mediterranean sea, which will be the object of the conference), and who have been stopped near the border in the Italian territory, are now going through a great distress.
Therefore, we believe that we cannot talk about sea protection if we cannot protect those who cross the sea in despair and without an agreement between the peoples looking out onto the same sea, even from the opposite shore.
In other words, we do not feel like crossing the border of Ventimiglia leaving behind us the faces of the desperate people we rescued from the waves: we know you will understand our reasons.We send you our brotherly embrace.
Vittorio Alessandro, President of the Cinque Terre National park
