Italy is to combat its migrant crisis with an online glimpse of reality.
The €1.5 million “Migrant Aware” project was unveiled on Thursday by the government.
A series of videos and interviews online are designed to warn people from sub-Saharan Africa of the perils involved in crossing the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea. It also highlights the skulduggery of the illegal migrant traffickers.
“Europe’s migrant crisis is an epochal struggle,” Italy’s Interior Minister, Angelino Alfano told journalists in Rome. “This communication campaign is just one of the ways in which we are seeking to tackle the crisis.”
The effort targets particularly those aged between 16 and 35 and can be found as a website, as well as on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Radio stations in Africa will broadcast the interviews.
“It is a road to hell,” says 36-year-old west African, Tchamba. “The traffickers don’t care if you live or die.”
Other first-person accounts tell of harrowing experiences with testimony in English, French and Arabic to reach a wide audience.
“Obviously we pride ourselves on welcoming all those fleeing war and don’t intend to stop them from coming,” Alfano said. “But we can’t welcome everybody.”
In 2014, the majority of the 170,000 migrants arriving in Italy were refugees fleeing war in Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea.
“However, in 2015 some 60% of the 150,000 arrivals were not legitimate humanitarian cases, rather people seeking better, more prosperous life,” Alfano said.
