July 2, 2023, in the Muslim part of the Mont-Valérien Cemetery, Paris. The Algerian community, family and friends bid a final farewell to Nahel Merzouk.

Yet another name to be added to the list of people of non-European or Western origin, brutally killed by policemen without any valid reason. This time it was the life of a 17-year-old boy that was taken.

History repeats itself, in the spotlight of the press and protests, as in the case of George Floyd, the African-American man who lost his life in Minneapolis, US., after nearly nine endless minutes of agony, suffocated by the pressure exerted on his neck by a police officer; or in silence as with Alhoussein Camara, the 19-year-old killed a few weeks earlier in France for failing to stop at a checkpoint.

Nahel, George, Alhoussein would have probably been treated differently if they had white skin. The difference between life and death cannot be determined by origin, ethnicity, nationality, skin colour or the provision of a highly disproportionate reaction to not stopping at a checkpoint. This is not acceptable. 

Anger brings anger, violence begets violence and hatred festers and multiplies. After the release of video testimonies, which seem to highlight that there was no circumstance of danger to himself or third parties that would have compelled the police officer to shoot, the anger of the suburbs spilled out onto the streets in major French cities, even reaching Brussels and Lausanne.

A wave of attacks, made up of violence, arson, looting, devastation, clashes, injuries and victims, rekindled by the killing of a “brother” from the banlieues, also reveals the symptom of a problem rooted in something deeper. It reveals a malaise that affects those neighbourhoods where people mainly come from a migrant experience or second and third generations, born and raised in contexts of degradation, poverty and lack of opportunities for inclusion and integration.

Anger brings anger, violence begets violence, and hatred festers and multiplies- Regina Catrambone

This is a situation too often ignored by society and politics that, on one hand, sparks controversy due to the lack of integration but, on the other, overlooks the needs and necessities of those who find themselves living in these circumstances without adopting targeted measures to reduce social inequality.

The marginalisation of French suburbs, increasingly closed in on themselves, and the fear – spread by politicians – of the invasion of the foreigner who practises a different religion or belongs to a different ethnic group, have sharpened a sense of discrimination and intolerance.

These have exacerbated conflictual relations among different identities.

And, yet, after so many years of fighting for inclusion, for the cultivation of a pluralistic society that could guarantee equal rights and equal opportunities to everyone regardless of their social status, we find ourselves in an increasingly divided world where mutual aspirations are ignored and where a certain nefarious kind of politics stokes a perilous “us” and “them” paradigm.

The risk is that, once these protests calm, everything will silently return to a general indifference. To the eery silence of the suburbs, becoming increasingly peripheral, sidelining increased social and political representation.

These are ultimately ingredients that incite additional hatred and misunderstanding, the closing of borders and lead to the loss of innocent lives at checkpoints.

Regina Catrambone is a co-founder and director of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, MOAS.