Migrants, Richard Gere: "Salvini doesn't interest me, I help people"

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"I'm not interested in Salvini, the politicians instead of helping these people demonize them and this must end and it can end if we finish it. My only interest is helping these people. Enough". Thus the actor Richard Gere responding to the reporters in Lampedusa at a press conference with Open Arms.

"I am not Italian and I am reluctant to talk about today's Italian political situation. I too come from a country where the political situation is bizarre and where those coming from Mexico, El Salvador, Panama and Honduras are demonized", he added. . "There seems to be a generation of politicians who put their energy into dividing people, as if there was gain in dividing, which is an idiotic thing. But we are all interdependent."

Most are Christians
"Unlike what politicians, governments and some newspapers say, most of the migrants are Christians," the actor said.

I've heard horrible stories from women
"They all touched my heart," Gere continued. "I talked to a group of women on the ship: a grandmother, with her daughter and grandchildren, and their story is horrible. They threatened to hurt the rest of the family if the mother of children had not given herself sexually several times and she sacrificed herself ".

Unlock the Open Arms situation now
"This stalemate of the Open Arms must be interrupted, now. On board the situation is serious, there are people living crowded together and if the condition is not worse it is thanks to the volunteers of the ship," he said, adding: "All of us who came on board and we noticed that the 121 people were well cared for by the Open Arms, they eat 3 times a day and they seem to be fine. Then, you realize that they are very tight on the boat, the physical contact is close and there is a loud noise ".

"It is obvious - the actor said - that the balance is ready to break so this situation must be interrupted now. The situation is serious, many of these people have already been on boats, they have been brought back to Libya and tortured and then back on the road. If the Open Arms had not been there, these 121 people would have died. These people do not have the vision of the future, they have only the immediate need to leave the place of the horrors where they were in Libya and they are ready to die to do it ".

Safety bis, I could not believe it was approved
"In Lampedusa I came spontaneously, no one asked me. I was on vacation with my family near Rome, when I heard of the approval of the decree on migrants and I couldn't believe that my Italian friends could come up with such a thing "So I called my friends at Open Arms that I met a few years ago in Barcelona, ​​in ten minutes I jumped on a car and went to the airport to come to Lampedusa," Gere said.

My son James struck by Open Arms
"My son who is here with me in Lampedusa was very impressed by this story and above all by the operators of Open Arms, who have a huge heart as well as great professionalism: I myself will do even more after this experience," Gere concluded. The son of actor Homer James Jigme, 19, was also present at the press conference.