Pietro Bartolo, an Italian doctor and politician, was born in Lampedusa in 1956. He is known for having been the physician responsible for first response visits for the migrants who disembarked in Lampedusa and stayed in the reception center on the island, from 1992 to 2019. Bartolo has always supported welcoming immigrants and asylum seekers and the establishment of humanitarian corridors against human trafficking. In March 2011, he was appointed coordinator of all health activities in the Pelagian Islands. He was on the front line in the rescue of the survivors of the sadly renowned shipwreck of a fishing boat loaded with more than five hundred migrants which occurred off the coast of Lampedusa on 3 October 2013, in which 368 people died. He was a municipal councillor in Lampedusa and Linosa from 1988 until 2007 and deputy mayor and health assessor of the municipality of Pelagie from 1988 to 1993. Since 2019, he has been a European Member of Parliament.