Master Award, From There to Here. Immigration in the time of Fortress Europe by Giulio Piscitelli. Sahara desert, Libya, Border with Egypt, May 18th, 2014. Refugees crossing the desert and found in the desert by a local militia after 3 days of trip without water. In the area there aren’t no NGO’s or humanitarian groups that could help the refugees that almost everyday arrive from the desert, often injured or precarious health conditions. The militia found 3 vehicles with 85 refugees coming from Sudan and directed to Libya, stuck in the desert because of problems with the tires. In the picture the refugees run on the sand to reach one of the van that has restarted the trip after the repair of the tires and engine. The Sahara Desert, unites the sub-Saharan Africa, with the Maghreb countries. It is crossed by immigrants, mostly from East Africa and in particular political refugees, mostly from the Horn of Africa. The crossing of the Sahara is done with trucks, entrusted to criminal organizations involved in human trafficking. During the journey the passengers suffer the violence, by different kinds of militias much present in those territories (Libya, Chad, Sudan), and sometimes by the same smugglers who organize the trips. Over the past decade, at least 1,594 people have lost their lives crossing the Sahara, according to estimates of the site Fortress Europe. © Giulio Piscitelli/Contrasto.

Strait of Sicily, Mediterranean Sea, April 2, 2011. A boat with more than 100 migrants from Tunisia waving at an Egyptian fishing boat to ask for directions to the Italian coast. © Giulio Piscitelli/Contrasto/Réa.