Italy - IOM Rome, together with the Choir of the Roman Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Mons. Pablo Colino, will organize this evening at 7.00 pm a concert “in memory of the migrants who lost their lives in Lampedusa, in the Mediterranean sea and elsewhere, in search of a better life.” The concert will take place in Rome’s Santa Maria del Popolo Basilica.

Director General of IOM, Ambassador William Lacy Swing, will participate in the event and will address his introductory remarks before the beginning of the concert.

“More than 20,000 people died in the last 20 years while trying to reach Italian shores. 2,300 lost their lives in 2011, about 700 in 2013,” says José Angel Oropeza, Director of the IOM coordinating office for the Mediterranean. “Too many deaths, too many hopes drowned in the strip of sea which separates North Africa from Europe.”

“IOM,” affirms Oropeza, “is close to all the families and all the people struck by these tragedies, and underlines the commitment of those who, in such difficult situations, work without break on the front line in order to provide assistance and support to the migrants who try to arrive in Italy.”

“The concert aims at keeping alive the memory of the migrants who died in the shipwrecks occurred on the 3^rd and the 11^th of October of this year (400 victims and more than 150 missing). We should always remember that they are not just numbers, but men, women and children, whose destiny cannot leave us unmoved,” concludes Oropeza.

For more information, please contact

Flavio Di Giacomo
IOM Rome
Tel. +39 06 44 186 207
Email fdigiacomo@iom.int