Feature: Looking at migrants through eyes of migrants in Sicily's Catania port

"My name is India. My mother gave me this name because she loves that country. My mother is Sicilian and my father is Afro-American," the 16-year-old India Isabelle Johnson said.

She lives with her family in Catania of southern Italy, where her parents, two English teachers, met and married.?

"I am an Italian national, but a part of me feels close to all these people who are seeking a better life in Europe," she told Xinhua while walking in a street not far from the port of Catania, where this week another around 200 migrants from African and Middle Eastern countries landed after surviving the dangerous Mediterranean sea crossing.

"Sometimes we talk about immigration at school. These people are human beings and we have the duty to welcome and help them. But at the same time I know that the issue is very complex, it has to do with relations between States and needs solution that go beyond immigration policies," the girl went on saying.

Like other famous Sicilian ports such as Siracusa and Pozzallo, Catania in the latest years has been the arrival place for tens of thousands of desperate people fleeing wars and unrest in their home countries. "In this port we receive around 500-600 migrants every week. The flows generally diminish with the bad weather and grow during the summer season," a policeman at the port of Catania told Xinhua.

He said that squads of more than 100 aid workers, including sanitary personnel, armed forces, social work assistants and all kinds of volunteers are ready to welcome the migrants every time that a navy or a merchant vessel rescues them in international waters and brings them to the port. "It is a real drama. Sicilians are traditionally very hospitable, but now many citizens begin to get tired of suffering from all the problems caused by these incessant flows," the policeman went on saying.

A black migrant started talking with Xinhua while waiting for a bus just outside the port. "I do not understand Italian, nor English or French, just Senegalese," he suddenly said in good Italian accent when asked about his story.

"They are afraid of talking with journalists, they fear they could be returned to their countries of origin," another policeman commented.

"I really do not know what to say. They are poor people and I feel close to them," said a 65-year-old woman coming from Mauritius, Lalita Ramasatt. "I have been living in Catania for 27 years and I can understand the suffering of these migrants striving for a better life."

Ramasatt said she has spent a life working as a housekeeper. "I am retired now and finally can enjoy a bit or rest, so every time that I meet these people I feel pain in my heart," she said while carrying a shopping bag back home.

Two friends from Bangladesh told Xinhua that they came to Italy years ago by plane. "Thus we did not experience the Mediterranean tragedy," the older one, Elias Hossan, who arrived eight years ago when he was under age, said. "But we fully understand the sorrow of sea migrants, and try to help them every time that we can. We give them some food and talk to them, we listen to their stories," Hossan added.

"However, the situation is hard for everyone here. The real problem is that there is no work, neither for the migrants nor for the local people," he explained to Xinhua. "I am 24 now and feel that nothing has changed since I arrived in Sicily. Before coming here, I imagined that I would find a good job and live a comfortable life. Instead now I think that everybody is living in the same poverty," the Bangladeshi, who works as a pizza maker in Catania, said.

Sicily is part of Italy's less developed south. In fact, according to local experts, the migrants landing on its coast see the Italian island region just as a gate into Europe and aim to reach more developed regions in the north of the continent.

"When I went back to visit my mother in Bangladesh some time ago, I realized that my country has changed very much, it has undergone rapid development," the younger friend, Liton Kholifa, said. "Here I am living with my father. I am a dishwasher in a restaurant and he is a street peddler. I am considering going back to my home country, I am really thinking about it," he told Xinhua. Endit