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2015-2018 Piana di Gioia Tauro, Calabria, Italy.
On the evening of January 7th, 2010, on the street that links Rosarno to Gioia Tauro (Calabria Region), two unknown guys fired an air gun on three African day labourers walking home after a day at work in the fields, picking oranges and mandarines. The assault caused a revolt in Rosarno against the mafia contributing to the exploitation of African migrants. Due to the critical situation, the Interior Ministry forcefully transferred all the migrants from the Plain of Gioia Tauro, leaving them in cities such as Roma and Napoli without houses, assistance, documents, and future perspectives. Therefore, in the absence of means of survival, most of them returned to Gioia Tauro. They occupied some farmhouses demolished by the Prefecture of Rosarno in 2011. Only in January 2012, in the industrial area of San Ferdinando, a sterile environment with hardly any familiar reference point, the Ministry of the Interior created a tent city with 50 tents to host 300 migrants. After six months, the government stopped the founding; the NGO Caritas left its management. It became one of the largest shanty houses complexes in South Italy. My project witnessed this non-place between 2015 and 2018; over 1000 people populated it, and it has been at the centre of the national news for fires, murders, and evictions. While the migrants were in limbo, waiting for documents and a better place to live. They were exploited by the 'Ndrangheta and forgotten by the government. Vita Magazine Open Migration |
