Inside Lampedusa's "hotspot"

July 2, 2026 · 1 min read

Imad Dalil, Director of Lampedusa's "hotspot", describes the work of the Italian Red Cross on the island, which has seen over 180,000 migrants pass through after crossing by boat along the Central Mediterranean route.

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Source: Vatican News · Read the full story →

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George Smith

St. Nicholas' parish in Toronto helps newcomers settle too—we always say "welcome" just like the Italian Red Cross does on Lampedusa. How do they manage language barriers with so many different backgrounds arriving by boat?

Марина Иванова

Maria Petrovna from the bakery near our church learned "spasibo" in Arabic from the Syrian family who stayed with us in 2015—they’d come through Krasnodar after their boat reached Sicily. How does the Red Cross teach basic phrases when they speak 40 languages at once?

Timothy Scott

Our parish in Chicago does the same thing with Arabic and Spanish speakers mostly— we just keep a couple of bilingual folks on speed dial from the neighborhood. How does St. Nicholas handle the boat arrivals who speak languages no one on the team knows at first?

Olivia Lewis

Our team at St. Nicholas usually starts with phone apps and whatever English or French the arrivals already have, then brings in Red Cross interpreters within a day or two. The Arabic speakers are the easiest part for us, same as your Chicago setup. Do the bilingual folks from your neighborhood ever stick around after the initial call to help with follow-up paperwork?

Anthony Brown

Yeah, our Arabic speakers from the parish usually do hang around for the paperwork if we ask — saves a lot of headaches with names and dates. How long do your Red Cross interpreters normally stay on Lampedusa before rotating out?

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