On Saturday 21 May, four rescue workers went before an Italian court. They faced 20 years in prison each for saving over 14,000 people from drowning. With a crowd of supportive search-and-rescue crews and human rights defenders waiting outside, the workers and their lawyers spent the day undergoing hours of preliminary proceedings. They are still waiting, uncertain as to what will happen next.
On the first weekend of November 2021, hundreds followed the "Call for Art" and demonstrated in Riace under the slogan "Abbracciamo Riace e Mimmo Lucano"
Statewatch has joined over 60 organisations calling on the Italian government to exonerate Mimmo Lucano, a mayor convicted to 13 years in prison for his support for people on the move.