12,129 of 25,000 signatures

The newly elected EU Institutions (Parliament, European Commission and Council)

This petition is run by Snapshots From the Borders

Petition text

Make October 3rd the European Day of Memory and Welcome and ensure migration policies keep humanity and solidarity at their core while promoting responsibility sharing across Europe.

The 3rd October is a symbolic date, reminiscent of the day when, in 2013, 368 people including children, women and men lost their lives in a shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa.

Why is this important?

We ask citizens to join the border territories launching this petition in being part of a solidarity movement by signing and bringing the message of humanity and solidarity to the center of the EU institutions.

Share responsibility!
Together with the Border Territories launching this petition we want to spread our voices and call on all national and EU policy makers to fulfill their responsibilities to implement coherent migration policies. The needs and conditions of local communities hosting arriving migrants need support from the European level - a support that stands in solidarity with all human beings -- local citizens and migrants.

Stay human!
People fleeing war and persecution very often have no safe and regular alternatives to reach Europe. Only by making these solutions available urgently, people will not be forced to resort to traffickers and to risk their lives. By bringing voices and effective solutions from the border territories where migration is lived directly, we call for a fairer world.

Be part of solidarity movement!
Join us, sign the petition and let’s change together bringing stories and voices from the borders at the core of EU.

Make the 3rd October as the European Day of Memory and Welcome!
In 2016 the Italian Senate established by law that the date of October 3rd would be the Italian Day of Memory and Welcome (this initiative was held and promoted thanks to Comitato 3 Ottobre, born with this specific goal), to be celebrated every year to remember and commemorate all the victims of immigration and to promote awareness and solidarity initiatives. It is time we introduce this day in entire Europe.

From October 3, 2013 to today, 17,900 migrants and refugees have died or are missing in the Mediterranean Sea. While 2016 was the most lethal year, with 5,096 people who lost their lives in a desperate attempt to find salvation in Europe. In 2018 one out of every 18 people who crossed the Mediterranean heading to Europe lost his/her live: an unacceptable human cost and an unacceptable human statistic.

The 3rd of October will be a day to commemorate and reflect on these human losses; a day where wrong policies confront our individual and European values which should always stand higher. A day to remember the past, to correct the present and to envision our European future of solidarity and respect of all human lives.

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“Make the 3rd October the European Day of Memory and Welcome!” is the demand of the campaign NO MORE BRICKS IN THE WALL! implemented by Snapshots from the Borders project, that links border towns and Islands facing migration at borders entrance.

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