COLLECTION 01.5 // Camps & Centers
“The fifth part talks about the centers and the camp or campo that they give you.
Maybe the camp is dirty and if there are bugs. Maybe the bathrooms are small or dirty.
Maybe there is no air during the summer and it is very hot and this makes it hard to breathe.
And there is not enough space for the people living in the camp. Sometimes the rooms where you sleep are small and there are too many people in the rooms.
Maybe the people who are in charge of the camp treat you badly. Maybe they control you and if they give you a curfew.
Maybe the camp has many rules and they do not let you use the kitchens and if they do not let you have visitors.
The food is bad and it makes you tired. It makes you feel like you do not have control over your mind and your body. It makes you feel weak.
And all this makes you feel like you do not have the choice to make decisions for your own life. It makes you feel like you do not have control of your own life because you want the freedom to decide when you can eat and when you can sleep and when you can shower.”
Maybe the camp is dirty and if there are bugs. Maybe the bathrooms are small or dirty.
Maybe there is no air during the summer and it is very hot and this makes it hard to breathe.
And there is not enough space for the people living in the camp. Sometimes the rooms where you sleep are small and there are too many people in the rooms.
Maybe the people who are in charge of the camp treat you badly. Maybe they control you and if they give you a curfew.
Maybe the camp has many rules and they do not let you use the kitchens and if they do not let you have visitors.
The food is bad and it makes you tired. It makes you feel like you do not have control over your mind and your body. It makes you feel weak.
And all this makes you feel like you do not have the choice to make decisions for your own life. It makes you feel like you do not have control of your own life because you want the freedom to decide when you can eat and when you can sleep and when you can shower.”
Edited by F.S. & E.C.
REF. A.I_01.5_AUG19
“I have to start again from zero”
DATE:
Summer 2019
AUTHOR:
W.B., Age 30, Soninke, from Senegal
PLACE RECORDED:
Tiburtina, Rome IT
“I have to start again from zero”
DATE:
Summer 2019
AUTHOR:
W.B., Age 30, Soninke, from Senegal
PLACE RECORDED:
Tiburtina, Rome IT
“Now I sleep outside next to the train station. I was in a camp for three months, but then my documents expired so I could not stay there any longer. If they give me a negative on my documents this time, then I cannot get another camp in Rome. If they give me a positive on my documents, then I can stay in a camp for maybe six months or eight months. Every time I have to leave a camp I have to start again from zero.”
REF. A.I_01.5_AUG19
“Sleep in the street anymore”
DATE:
Summer 2019
AUTHOR:
M.S., Age 21, Mandinka, from The Gambia
PLACE RECORDED:
Tiburtina, Rome IT
“Sleep in the street anymore”
DATE:
Summer 2019
AUTHOR:
M.S., Age 21, Mandinka, from The Gambia
PLACE RECORDED:
Tiburtina, Rome IT
“I am waiting like this for my document for a long time. Before Rome, I was in Palermo. There I slept in a mission. We entered the mission only at night. There you sleep with the bed on the ground, and the toilet is a bucket. I thought that Rome is better for the lawyer, so I come here. But here I am living outside. They will not give me a place in the center here because my document has expired, which is why I need a lawyer. I don’t want to sleep in the street anymore! I guess that I will go back to the mission in Palermo.”
REF. A.I_01.5_AUG19
“There is no freedom”
DATE:
Summer 2019
AUTHOR:
L.S., Age 31, Fula, from Mali
PLACE RECORDED:
Tiburtina, Rome IT
“There is no freedom”
DATE:
Summer 2019
AUTHOR:
L.S., Age 31, Fula, from Mali
PLACE RECORDED:
Tiburtina, Rome IT
“After they tell you that the camp is finished, you cannot get another one if you do not have the right document. Then you can only find a bed in a « dormitorio » where they open at 22h and you have to leave in the morning when they close at 7. This is not a good place to live: there is no privacy. There is no freedom. When you go to leave for work in the morning, you disturb the people sleeping. I only go here when it is too cold that I cannot sleep outside.”
REF. A.I_01.5_AUG19
“It turns my stomach into knots”
DATE:
Summer 2019
AUTHOR:
B.D., Age 38, Wolof, from Senegal
PLACE RECORDED:
Termini, Rome IT
“It turns my stomach into knots”
DATE:
Summer 2019
AUTHOR:
B.D., Age 38, Wolof, from Senegal
PLACE RECORDED:
Termini, Rome IT
“The food in the camp is always pasta and soup. It makes my stomach hurt. It makes me tired and so that I cannot think clearly. I cannot digest it. In our culture, we eat rice. For nineteen years I am in Europe. Still the pasta gives me pain. It turns my stomach into knots.”