Italy Must Act was born as a result of a protest sit-in organised in Florence in September 2020 following the fire that destroyed the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.
That act of protest and demand of humane reception conditions for migrants led to the creation of Italy Must Act.
In July 2022, Italy Must Act was officially founded as a not-for-profit organization.
Italy Must Act (IMA) was born and operates as the national chapter of Europe Must Act (EMA), a pan-European social movement advocating for European migration policies that respect human rights and dignified reception conditions for all migrants in Europe.
Europe Must Act was first born as a campaign by volunteers and aid workers on the Greek islands in March 2020, when, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Greek authorities had suspended the right to asylum and hotspots were becoming increasingly crowded.
Within a few days, 160 associations and human rights groups joined EMA’s call to action, and within a few weeks more than 100,000 people signed the petition demanding the European Commission to transfer asylum seekers and refugees from the crowded hotspots on the Greek islands to other territories.
Since then, Europe Must Act has been carrying out campaigns, awareness-raising activities and advocacy events. By supporting and networking volunteers and activists across the entire continent, it highlights the broad solidarity that exists among European citizens towards migrants and tries to influence political representatives to achieve just and humane migration policies.
#CitiesMustAct, the main campaign by EMA, led to the creation of national and city chapters that focus on building welcoming communities, enabling the movement to be active at local, national and European levels.
Since 2020, EMA and its chapters have organised and coordinated many different activities to build welcoming communities, shed light on violations of migrants’ fundamental rights at Europe’s borders and seek to influence decision-making. In particular, exhibitions, conferences and debates, and meetings with national and European political representatives were organised. The Raising Voices project worked with people on the move who wish to share their stories, producing shared testimonies on social media, in the press and with politicians to bring out the first-hand experiences of people seeking asylum in Europe. Finally, trips were organised for politicians to the Greek islands to allow them to see for themselves the inhuman conditions and rights violations at Europe’s borders.
We lobby national and European institutions to create radical change in current European migration policies
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