Ten Years after Lampedusa

‘Ten Years after Lampedusa’ was selected for the 2024 Shortlist with Ten Years After Lampedusa: Why Can’t Europe Find an Answer to the Deaths?

Project Description

On October 3, 2013, a boat carrying refugees from Libya sank off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. refugees coming from Libya. Of the 545 people on board, 368 drowned: men, women and children from Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia. What had previously happened in silence suddenly became suddenly became visible: people were dying off the coasts of Europe every day.

At the heart of our story is a false promise. Numerous political steps followed the Lampedusa catastrophe, laws were passed and new institutions and mechanisms were and mechanisms were set up – all with the proclamation: something like Lampedusa must never happen again. But instead of fewer deaths in the Mediterranean, the opposite is the case. The Mediterranean routes remain one of the few, but deadliest, options for many migrants. In a team of journalists from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, we wanted to trace the developments that the boat accident has triggered, on a political political level and on a personal level. How has this tragedy affected people’s lives and political political decisions throughout Europe to this day?

Bios

Pierluigi Bizzini is a freelance journalist based in Sicily. He is a member of FADA Collective. He covers migration, digital rights and environmental issues in the Mediterranean basin. He was a fellow reporter at AlgorithmWatch. He is curator at The Syllabus. 

Nora Börding is a freelance photojournalist based in Leipzig. In her approach she focuses on the combination of in-depth research and visual representation of her protagonists, recently focusing on the criminalization of migration in Italy. She is part of the Selbstlaut-Kollektiv, a journalism collective with members in Germany, Austria and Switzerland working together on big researches. 

Paul Hildebrandt is a freelance reporter based in Berlin. In his work he focuses on human rights issues, recently on human trafficking in Libya. He is part of the Selbstlaut-Kollektiv, an international journalism collective. 

Eva Hoffmann mostly works on long term projects as an investigative journalist, covering cases of power abuse, sexual violence and stories on failure of public authorities mainly within Germany. 

Simon Langemann works as an editor and reporter for the German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT since 2021. He mostly covers topics related to migration, foreign politics, justice and crime. 

Helena Lea Manhartsberger, is a visual journalist based in Vienna. In her work, she addresses topics such as sexuality and identity, migration, armed conflicts and social movements. She focuses on collaborative methods in photography, is part of the Selbstlaut-Kollektiv and also works as an educator at the ipsum association.

Sarah Mersch has been living and working as a freelance correspondent in Tunisia since 2011. She is a multimedia journalist, working mainly for German language public radio stations, newspapers and websites. 

Anina Ritscher is a reporter based in Zurich. She works as an investigative journalist on issues of justice and state power as well as court reporting. She is part of Selbstlaut-Kollektiv an international journalism collective. 

Anna-Theresa Bachmann is a Berlin-based freelance reporter. Her work focuses mostly on West Asia, North Africa and the South Caucasus. She is part of the Selbstlaut-Kollektiv, a journalism collective with members in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 

Ann Esswein is a multimedia journalist based in Berlin. She works on migrations, development, aid and social injustice mostly from abroad. She is also part of the collective.