Get Information to Migrants and Refugees in Italy

Now in our second month of work, the project has come to life!  

After gathering all the materials needed for Wifi connection and radio, the team set up a fixed appointment with migrants at the informal camp under Ventigmiglia’s bridge where many have set up small tents, huts, and beds. Due to the precarious hygienic conditions, episodic violence and the lack of most basic services, those who live by this bridge, around 150-200 people, have many grievances and concerns that need to be voiced.

These daily meetings provide several people with Wifi, which is not even available at the Red Cross camp for the 300 people hosted there. The Info Legal point also does not provide this service, making WeWorld services necessary to complement other basic service provision in the area.

In addition to internet connection, the web radio project has also recorded loops in Arabic, English and French with basic information like where to find medical assistance, legal assistance or food distribution areas, which are streamed online and by the main bridge site. The team is also organizing to record legal information in several languages to add to these five radio broadcasts a week. As each broadcast brings people together, the work is very helpful for NGOs to find and help the most vulnerable cases and connect them with a WeWorld lawyer or a social worker.

“I don’t like journalist, people take photos. But you. You, I like. I like the radio and I feel good to make the interview. With you it’s ok,” one of the migrants stated to WeWorld.

The daily presence of the web radio staff has allowed the team to overcome the original mistrust of the migrants and has served as a way to directly hear their stories. To counteract misleading media discourse, the team tries to emphasize the human side of these migration stories. In the interviews, migrants usually talk about the desert and the hard journey done in groups of 40-60 people where the greatest danger is the lack of water as well as the danger that lies in Libya, referred to as “an extremely dangerous place where people’s lives are worth nothing and you can die at any time for the most trivial reasons.” Given these traumatic experiences, the web radio also tried to play local and migrant musicians to provide a moment of tranquility and entertainment amongst the stressful and harsh environment.

“The music unites people and is international,” said Aly, a Sudanese web radio user, while a group of Sudanese people intoned together a song of Mahmoud Abdel Aziz.

During this period, the team discovered an application that enables people to listen to web radios around the world, which seems very popular among the migrants. It includes radio stations from African countries as well (among them Sudan, Mali, and Chad) so migrants can even receive news about their country of origin which would otherwise be difficult to access.

In June, Internews held a fundraising initiative with GlobalGiving to provide critical information to refugees and migrants, especially children traveling alone. With a small subgrant to WeWorld from this fundraising, Internews was able to provide our local partner, Andrea P. with the resources needed to start a web radio project for the migrants in Italy, called Yalla Yalla.

Starting in July, the WeWorld team took the first steps of setting up Yalla Yalla in Ventimiglia, where many migrants are arriving desperate to find shelter and food and to connect with their families and friends. They analyzed the context of the neighborhood to gather as much information about the organizations in the area helping migrants and the government camps for the migrants, like Roya which is run by the Italian Red Cross and the local police.

They found that the camps were overcrowded without enough beds, showers or toilets and that there was no WiFi connection, leaving people out of touch with their families and the local news. They also found that 40-50 women and their children were living inside the San Antonio Church, also called, “Gianchette Church.” However, when this church was shut down in early August many migrants, especially minors, were left to take refuge along the Roya River in self-made and temporary shelters without access to basic hygiene.

After one week of analysis and organizing, the WeWorld team immediately began broadcasting basic information about Ventimiglia’s city services and policies and updates about the Roya camp to the migrants in the city. As the situation in the city changes, the web radio moves their informal setup around the city, currently it stands by the river near Ventimiglia’s bridge to be in close contact with the young migrants staying there. The Yalla Yalla users are also able to access Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp especially to contact distant family members and stay on top of news and new information.

In the beginning the migrants were shy and doubtful about the new media presence. But the team continued to broadcast important information in Arabic, French and English and worked on engaging with the migrant communities to ensure that the radio was providing them with relevant and useful information. They even conducted a series of very deep and touching interviews with a few migrants. One of them was very keen to talk about his trip to reach Italy. He went through the Niger desert and then he came to Italy through Libya. He spoke about Tripoli and the trip to Ventimiglia. The team also collected testimonies from Afghan migrants who talked about their long trip from Kabul to Ventimiglia.

The radio broadcast is now a regular event for migrants and people in transit to meet and exchange experiences together, as well as a source of trusted vital information. On average 15-20 migrants connect daily to the web radio. Engaging with the local community brought to the surface both a Sudanese and Chadian rapper who performed a couple of their pieces on creative commons bases. Though it is a simple medium, Yalla Yalla allows migrants to build a community in their new location. It is a means to demonstrate solidarity and favor cultural exchange in this particular historical moment, when intolerance and racism are a powerful narrative.