‘I bambini si guardano’: The documentaries of Costanza Quatriglio

The Shaping of the EU’s Migration Policy:

“…These people are refugees. You know, words are important" (Luciano & Piscopo, 2018). This excerpt shows that the media had already begun to refer to the irregular status of those involved in the tragedy.…”

“…This is characterised by the fact that the survivors of the Lampedusa shipwreck were charged with the crime of illegal migration. "The law is the law", stated Prime Minister Enrico Letta (Luciano & Piscopo, 2018). This key framing of the survivors not as refugees in need of international protection, but firstly as illegal migrants, has been key to the development of EU migration policy.…”

“…The HBO documentary It Will be Chaos (Luciano & Piscopo, 2018) has documented the unfolding of the Lampedusa tragedy and the EU response in detail, including how people were categorised as migrants by the politicians from the very beginning. The documentary shows Guisi Nicolini, the Mayor of Lampedusa, stressing to the media from the beginning: "let's make it clear.…”

“…William Swing from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that "clearly, for us and I think for you [referring to Nicolini], the top priority has to be to save lives, to save people from dying. We should take urgent actions and stronger international coordination" (Luciano & Piscopo, 2018). Nicolini then emphasised the duty the stakeholders had to receive the refugees with adequate and decent reception standards.…”

“…She also said "our system was conceived to push them back, rather than receiving them. The 'strength' of Lampedusa is to witness what's going on first hand" (Luciano & Piscopo, 2018). The documentary also depicts the solidarity between the refugees and the people of Lampedusa: a fisherman tells a refugee that there is no need to thank him as he was happy to have been there to help.…”