An integrated policy which addresses the problems that afflict the countries of origin as well as the difficulties faced by the countries of destination is required in order to host such a high volume of immigrants. Five days after the shipwreck, bodies are still being recovered within approximately one mile from Lampedusa.

For years, hundreds of migrants have been attempting to reach European shores every day. Since January of this year, approximately 22,000 have arrived on this small island. Many have been lost along the way; in 2011 alone, a total of 2,352 persons have died in the attempt. Thousands of human tragedies, involving individuals who, after an initial emotional impact, run the risk of being neutralized, are reduced to almost nothing within the flood of more or less trivial news reports that come out daily.

We live exposed to the danger that Georg Simmel detected in citizens of the large urban areas in the early twentieth century, the danger of indolence: our psychic energy is limited, our nervous system is not made ​​to react to so many different stimuli, as would be desired. However, there are things to which we must react vigorously, injecting new blood into structures and obsoletes policies.

This time, the magnitude of the tragedy has not allowed us to turn our heads away and look in another direction. Francisco, who had already gone to visit Lampedusa in July, invited by a parish priest, was the first to describe this tragedy as something shameful.  Who should be ashamed? Possibly the fishermen who run to the rescue? Possibly those who could have done something to avoid this type of situation but did not? Or perhaps the immigrants themselves who have fled their countries which are at war or which lack opportunities for them? Possibly the blame should be placed on the businessmen who illegally provide the boats to be used by the immigrants? Could it be the fault of the Italian authorities or even the European authorities perhaps? Should the blame fall to the Italians (they could be Spanish as we have a similar problem) who, for diverse reasons, support a restrictive legislation? Or could all of this be the fault of the northern countries of Europe for not offering sufficient support to the countries of Mediterranean Europe that are faced with the problem?

We can all most certainly see ourselves reflected in the term "shameful", a word used by the most relevant news media when reporting on these types of incidents. Most importantly, special attention has been placed on the breakdown between the political and humanitarian agendas, which is becoming increasingly more intolerable. This is a mismatch which reflects our lack of inertia for diligently closing the enormous gap existing between the ethical challenges that we discover and the institutional resources with which we can address them. It is quite obvious that we need to seriously reflect on the way in which we need to structure our ethical responsibilities, such as creating institutional areas that are necessary for discussing these problems and finding practical solutions.

As several commentators have pointed out, Francisco has shown signs of a leadership that up to now has been missing in the political arena; he roused us all from our state of lethargy and urged us to look in the right direction. France has requested an urgent meeting of the European Union after Italy has once again demanded help for tackling the problem of illegal immigration. However, the politicians are lagging behind. What specific types of aid are needed? Possibly just better coordination when monitoring the coasts of the northern African countries? Since the Treaty of Amsterdam of 1990, the European countries had agreed to develop a common policy regarding refugees and asylum seekers which consisted in carrying out measures meant to stamp out any and all chances of "the illegal immigrants" reaching our shores. However, this practice goes against the brutal reality of a globalized world which is clamoring for the need to revise the ideas inherited from a previous political order, especially the practice of hierarchizing one's own needs and those of strangers, and which as a last resort, questions the very idea of the "stranger". 

An integrated policy that addresses both the problems plaguing the countries of origin as well as the difficulties encountered by countries of destination is required in order to accommodate such a high volume of immigrants, especially in these times of crisis. Most of all,  we need policies that, overcoming the obsolete leftist-rightist dialectic, do not flagrantly contradict the most basic humanitarian sense, imposing sanctions on persons or organizations who, of their own accord, run the risk of coming to the aid of the immigrants in trouble, while the personal political responsibilities are systematically diluted in abstract structures. In this context, the mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, has announced that his city will welcome 155 survivors of the tragedy: a step which, in spite of sounding a bit populist represents "a first sign of rebellion against resignation and indifference."  However, this should be more than just a sign. Europe likes to present itself to the world as being both an internally and externally solidary region, but in times of crisis, we are discovering that the concept of solidarity is a demanding ideal. Among other things, solidarity means taking on, individually and collectively, the principle that inspired the classic Roman republicanism: one should not consider oneself rich, while even just one poor person still exists.