On the dehumanization of migrants

In Fuocoammare (Fire at sea, a documentary from 2016 about migration across the mediterranean) there’s a clip where a young Nigerian man narrates his journey to Lampedusa. He says of his story: “the sea is not a road”.

One world Mag asked me for their beautiful summer printed number to create a visual column on the subject of migration and dehumanisation.

We considered different options, and in the end settled for a surreal solution; surrealism is a tool to approach something this tragic and violent.

The sea is not a road. The European Union uses the sea as a wall, the way medieval castles used moats. It’s time to build a radically kinder and more just system to decriminalize migration and seek asylum.