NORCAP News story 'Combining urban architecture and humanitarian work'

Sicily

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©In Transit

In Transit field research

Ragusa, Sicily, March 2017. A Finnish student of architecture, the only member of our group with any knowledge of the Italian language accompanied by her teacher who is of no linguistic help, is trying to explain to a measured, but friendly, middle-aged man - the seventh civil servant we meet at the office of the Prefettura di Ragusa - that we would like to visit the Pozzallo Hotspot, Arrival Center for Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum-seekers - to look at the architecture. Entering Italian government offices has been compared to walking through a certain gate in Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, which bears the inscription: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”. Our seventh meeting ends with a handshake and a promise seemingly out of reach. “We will call you if your request is approved by the Ministry of Interior,” the man says. “Oh. In Rome, the actual Ministry?” we ask. “Si, Roma.”

In March 2017, the In Transit 3 Studio travelled to Sicily and Rome, to study the Italian arrival and reception model, the spatial effects of migration, and to identify and explore Sicilian villages with aging and decreasing populations as potential host communities. The interaction and exchange of knowledge with local authorities, UNHCR officials, international NGO representatives, and grassroot-organizations, directly influenced the project proposals developed for the Italian context. See the projects here

Read more about the Mediterranean situaion at the UNHCR Operational Portal