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In Limbo

In 2015 European migration crises reached its peak . Thousands of migrants from Asia and Africa reached Europe in hop e to find a new life. Africans arrived in Italy, primarily because of the accessibility of the most S outhern Italian territories for them. T he port of Reggio Calabria accepted 1000 people every week. Now the migration crisis is not the center of interest of large media, but this does not mean that the problem has disappeared. 300-500 people are still coming to the Italian coast every week desperately buying seats in huge rubber boats for a lot of money and sailing towardsthe coasts of the S outhern Italy in hope that they will be discovered and picked up by the ship of Doctors Without Borders. Specialists already know these routes. On board of such boats, for the most part, there are teenagers and young men looking for a new home, work, family in Europe. For them Italy is the life of a dream which they are a waiting in the port, exhausted after a long journey, hungry, barefoot. Not everything is so simple in reality. In the port they will have to spend from several days to a week before young men will transported to the temporary detention camps. In the port they are given rations, water and providetreate ment if needed . There are a lot of men and it is not clear where to put them, it takes quite a lot of time to find places. All this is done by state migration services with the support of NGOs working in the region.

The temporary detention camps are rather different places – it can be a former gym, a hotel, an abandoned school or even a prison. Some people are lodged in hotels on the shore. The state makes payments to the owners of such institutions for the maintenance of migrants. Provided that Reggio Calabria is not the most popular tourist destination and the hotels are mostly empty, this is a good help. For some young men who have never seen the sea and do not know how to swim – at first such a life seems like a paradise. Due to lack of space, half of the arrivals are sent to empty, unfinished prisons and gyms in the highlands. It is cold here, even in summer, iron bars, vapor from the mouth, spartan conditions. So far, they do not understand that the bureaucratic system examining their applications for a residence permit is very slow, due to lack of resources and constant workload. They will have to spend several years in temporary detention camps. Regardless of the conditions, the life of men turns into a slow, viscous expectation of the result of considering their documents. Those things that brought joy in the first few weeks turn into a routine. Some arrivals are diagnosed with mental disorders. Adults cannot work without documents. Only a few minors are given the opportunity to study at school however, the environment there is often hostile – not all children are ready to perceive a new student with a different skin color.

Life on the land of dreams, unfortunately, turns into another test that young people meet with dignity. Sometimes, sadness gives way to laughter and they again run towards the cold water on the coast, the music from the room sounds loudly, young people dance to the sound of rap. Perhaps tomorrow they will become a little closer to the dream.

This photo project documents the life of refugees on the Italian coast of Reggio Calabria in 2018-19. The migration team of the Doctors of the World Italy NGO , which provided me with access to the camps and agreed on filming in the port, greatly assisted in the implementation of the project .

During the filming, young migrants were getting used to me for a long time – I was a stranger with a camera for them. However little by little we became friends, got to know each other and I just started spending time with them, sometimes even without a camera. My special pride – I taught 2 teenagers to swim in Melito camp .

Now the problem of migration has entered a latent phase, but this does not mean that the characters of my story do not exist. The y are not decreasing numbers, they are people, and photography will once again remind us of what is important.

2018 – 2019, Reggio Calabria, Italy.