68 years have passed since the Marcinelle tragedy : on August 8, 1956, a fire in the Bois du Cazier coal mine caused the death of 262 people, 136 of those workers were Italian. Not all the bodies were recovered, many were unidentified.

Many Sardinians also worked at the mine and were among those who participated in the rescue and subsequent reconstruction operations.

«The Day of the Sacrifice of Italian Work in the World, on the anniversary of the Marcinelle mining disaster, where 136 Italian workers died in 1956, commits us to the recognition of work as a universal value, both in the memory of the sacrifice of our compatriots who emigrated abroad during the twentieth century, and in the affirmation, for all the people who work in Italy today, of this fundamental constitutional right through effective safety conditions". Thus the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, on the 68th anniversary of the Marcinelle tragedy.

NORDIO – «The Ministry of Justice has recently established a study commission to improve the guarantees and legal protections in this delicate sector, in a logic not only of sanctions but above all of prevention and protection of workers in the workplace», concludes Nordio.

MATTARELLA - The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of the Marcinelle tragedy and the 23rd National Day of the Sacrifice of Italian Work in the World, sent a message: «Twenty-three years ago the date of the Marcinelle mining disaster of 1956 gave birth to the National Day of the Sacrifice of Italian Work in the World. The scale of the tragedy that shocked 262 families - of which 136 were Italian - sixty-eight years ago has given it a very strong symbolic charge. What happened at the Bois du Cazier is therefore a reminder of the sacrifice of all Italian workers who died abroad while carrying out their professional activities and of those who contributed their industriousness to even distant countries. From its first article, the Constitution of the Republic establishes an inseparable ideal bond between democracy and work. Full respect for the dignity of workers is a fundamental principle, also affirmed at an international level; an objective which, however, has not yet been fully achieved." «Carrying out your work safely is the first elementary condition. Marcinelle and the other tragedies that have involved Italian migrants on the five continents still constitute an unavoidable warning to promote the dignity of work, an indispensable value of the identity of our community. To those who have lost family members, friends and colleagues, victims of work, at the Bois du Cazier and in other parts of the world, I renew the expression of the Republic's feelings of closeness and solidarity."