We find it hard and, above all, very uncomfortable to hear some news. Better said, it's hard to know. To know that there are too many people suffering all over the planet; to know that our world is for them a “paradise” – a “paradise not yet won” and not a “paradise lost” – that too many people prefer to lose their lives rather than trying to take their lives unnecessarily, to see their children die and, ultimately, to continue in their countries of origin.

We should also make it hard to know that hundreds and thousands of people die at sea in trying to reach us and that we will never know how many they were, who they were, what they were called, what they left behind, who they were waiting for and that no one will know exactly what happened to them.

It is hard, of course, to read that, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in 2013 60,000 people tried to reach Italy from North Africa, a figure that amounted to 170,000 in 2014. Although we do not yet have data on 2015, it is enough for us to take a look at what has happened in these days, to realize that those figures are completely exceeded. And bear in mind that today most people are political refugees and the Geneva Convention should be implemented, recognizing the right of asylum.

It's also hard to read and know that all of this, or at least most of it, is avoidable and that solutions can be put on two levels. Because this real drama that we are seeing has two clear reasons: on the one hand, poverty and hostilities and political persecution that occur in many countries on the planet; on the other hand, the attitude of the Western countries towards migration, as is the case with the European Union.

Bear in mind the responsibility of our “paradise” in the situation of several countries: how we continue to exploit the wealth of those territories and exploit their people; how we do “politics” in many countries and destabilise them – look at what is happening in Libya or Syria; how we have considerably reduced the amount of money devoted to development cooperation and, therefore, cooperation and development possibilities in these countries.

To know what measures are being taken to tighten or shield the borders of the European Union, in Spain, in Greece… in order to protect our “territories” and, above all, our way of life and our tranquillity – how immigrants return from the “hot” borders through a measure that goes directly against human rights. And it is no lighter to know that, in the words of Amnesty International, direct measures are not taken that are necessary to prevent this tragedy or to reduce its consequences, that is, that the means of rescue are not maintained in the Mediterranean, even if possible.

It should make us hard to realize that this situation is a direct consequence of our brutality, inhumanity and violence; that it is not possible to maintain our personal and collective life without respecting the fundamental rights of many others, and that we are obliged to change the advantages and norms of this “paradise”.

We find it hard and unfair that our children have to go abroad in search of work or freedom. Let's think, for a moment, about what it would be if they had to leave their lives at sea.

This injustice should be unbearable for everyone.