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Lampedusa Calling: Understanding Human Flows from Africa to Italy/Europe

Round Table Debate & Documentary

The Centre of African Studies of the University of Edinburgh, with the kind support of the Italian Cultural Institute and Italian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, is pleased to announce the round table debate on Lampedusa calling: understanding human flows from Africa to Italy/Europe.

The island of Lampedusa has been the symbol and focal point of the flows of refugees and economic migrants who, at great risk, cross the Mediterranean in search of safety and security in Europe. Conflict, poverty, aspirations to a better life and other factors push and pull flows of people from Africa and the Middle East towards Europe via Italy. The numbers of people attempting the crossing have risen hugely year on year, as have the number of casualties. The humanitarian and political response of the European Union has been fragmented and insufficient.

The round table will offer a space to debate and reflect on the current crisis, with representation from different perspectives, from the point of view of refugees, from humanitarian organisations and academics. The event includes a screening of ‘To whom it may concern’ (2013) a short documentary by Mohamed Zakaria Ali, a young Somali photo-reporter who landed in Lampedusa as an asylum seeker in 2008. Four years later he returns to the island as a free man, recalling his experience of Lampedusa and the CIE (Center for Identification Expulsion) as one of exclusion rather than arrival.

Photo © Mario Badagliacca

Free admission, all welcomed

  • Organizzato da: Barbara Bompani, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh; Carlo Pirozzi, TML Project, Department of Italian, University of St Andrews
  • In collaborazione con: Italian Cultural Institute, Edinburgh and Italian Studies of the University of Edinburgh