Are Migrants in Italian waters being exploited for profit?
The Casarani investigation plays straight into Mafia hands.
I have in the past mentioned the serious matter of the large amount of migrants arriving on Italian shores and in particular in Lampedusa, which has put a great strain on social services. The Italian media report record arrivals more or less every month. Now their attention has been on an investigation which has some connection to the Vatican. Step forward Luca Cesarani, a veteran leftist and activist, a friend of the Pope, and a recent participant in a Vatican Synod by special Papal invitation.
Casarani heads an NGO called Mediterranea Saving Humans, which has a ship, called Mar Jonio, that picks up distressed migrants at sea and helps them to get to safety in Italy. The Catholic Herald has the story:
“Casarini and five other individuals associated with Mediterranea are under investigation in Sicily for an incident in 2020 in which the Mare Jonio, without permission from local authorities, disembarked 27 migrants in a Sicilian port whom it had taken on board from a Danish supply ship which had rescued them at sea 37 days before. The Danish company that owned the ship, Maersk, later paid Mediterranea roughly $135,000, in what the company described as a donation but which prosecutors suspect was a payoff for violating Italian immigration laws.”
A quick calculation establishes that the money amounts to $5,000 per migrant.
As part of the investigation, Casarani’s telephone conversations have been monitored, and the publication of these are embarrassing to say the least. In them, Cesarani talks of the huge donations he has received from the Church, which allow him to pay his rent, and mentions several Cardinals and the Pope himself as strong supporters and financial backers of his work.
I suppose the implication is that the Vatican is being taken for a ride, or that the Vatican ought not to be associating with people like Casarani, who has a colourful history; this may well be so. But far more important, from my perspective, is the way this story confirms the Mafioso belief that there are no good people, and that every do-gooder is a hypocrite.
It may well be that Casarani and his friends are altruists, concerned to help the poor and marginalised, as Pope Francis would undoubtedly encourage them to do so. But another interpretation is possible, namely that Casarani and company are instrumentalising the migrant crisis to make money, and that the Danish ‘contribution’ is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Mafia belief that all human activity springs from selfish motives would therefore find confirmation is this matter, if indeed Casarani and his NGO are primarily a means of using sympathy for migrants to get cash. And the facts can be interpreted thusly; and we can be quite sure that in Sicily they will be. Charities, NGO’s, the Church, they are all in it for what they can get, people will say - and the Casarani affair is another nail in the coffin of the credibility of public bodies, which is the necessary precondition for the flourishing of organised crime.