Hill of Shame

2011

The so-called Hill of Shame is a hill in the island of Lampedusa, half-way between Sicily and North Africa in the Mediterrannean Sea, where hundreds of migrants lived in poor conditions in improvised tents during the immigration crisis in April 2011. Tents were built with metal sticks, sheets, clothes and mattress in an open-air dump of plastic bags, dishes and bottles used as urinals. In 2011, about 53,000 North African and Sub-Saharan migrants arrived in the so-called “Door of Europe”, fleeing the unrest of the region and stranded on the on the island in appalling conditions. Migrants weren’t provided with the most basic humanitarian assistance such as shelter, medical care, blankets and access to sanitary facilities, while thousands slept outdoors.