1

This is Corso Giulio Cesare, in front of the mosque. It's a home for refugees, it's been burnt.
A home?
Yes, people sleep there.


2


These are all cars, let's say, inhabited... used by immigrants who don't have anywhere to sleep. You can see someone's sleeping in there.


3

This is on Corso Giulio Cesare. I took it because there are so many people who sleep here. Because there are people that don't know where to sleep and maybe they find a mattress dumped there. It's near where I live. I see them every morning. And even though it's cold, like at the moment... You can take what you find and sleep there.

4


This is near to Balon (flea market). It's here, in Savona, it's Via Lungo Dora Savona. Someone uses this bed. He didn't want to be in the photo so he moved. During the daytime he puts it away somewhere and brings it back at night, to use it. But he didn't want to be in the photo. It's near Sermig. Do you see the trousers? (laughing) That's his stuff.
What is Sermig?
It's a social centre...There are shelters, garrisons, churches around it, everything.

5

This is another house in Corso Regina Margherita. So many people live here, all of them foreigners.
Do you live here, too?
No. And this one is taken in a flat. It's a balcony, it's on the balcony. It's the access balcony.
Does someone you know live there or...?
A family, a woman, a husband and three, four sons. There are six of them, there, but the flat is very small, they don't fit in. One room and a kitchen.


6

The same thing. It's an abandoned house where a lot of people live. At least twenty people sleep here, look at the state of the door! It's a squat. This is in same building, but not the same flat. It's on another floor.


7


This is a door, because all the wires are outside, the lighting wires, it's caught fire several times. This is in the same house again. Loads of incidents occur because the wires aren't well made, aren't insulated. Look, all the wires, all the gas tubes open like that, look.


8

The stairs. This is another building, in Corso Regina again, near the last one. This is a bedframe, leaning against the wall. Someone brought it here, the person who uses it.

9

This is the same building. The toilet for the whole floor is outside. In the mornings there are ten people waiting outside. If you have to go to work for six o`clock, you have to wake up at four, because there`s only one toilet.

10


This is another flat where foreigners live. One woman and her sons. It`s in the same building. Fifty families, all foreigners. Only two or three families are Italian.


11


This one, too. The same building. Look, at the back of the picture, for example, there`s this child, well, he`s not a child, he's a kid. He has been sleeping here. When the photo was already taken, he goes back, takes the mattress and sleeps.
What about these bicycles?
They've been there for a few months. Nobody owns them, I don`t know how they got there. It`s in the same building again, all the people are foreigners, Africans, Moroccans, Tunisians, Algerians.
Do they get on with each other or are there any problems?
No, because everyone works.


12


This is the market at Porta Palazzo. There`s an Italian that works there who gives me fifty thousand Liras per week, for the work I do. That`s all I have. It`s a half-hour job in the morning. You just put up the stall, then it takes another half-hour in the evening to take it down. He gives me fifty thousand every Saturday. The market runs every day.
But you have a family...
Yes, I have my wife with me. Before, I had my job in a factory, I had a residence permit, everything. Then the police arrested me for nothing, I was in the jail for three months. Then they let me out but they took away my permit. The judge had to let me free `cos it came out that the policemen lied. The three policemen that arrested me have been suspended, but I'm on a `black list` now. Look, I have my `work book`. I used to work in a factory, in a cooperative. I have my own work book, but I don`t have the residence permit. I passed an exam, I`m certified. I used to work in Porta Palazzo as a carpenter. I worked on the underpass in Porta Palazzo as a carpenter. But now I don`t have anything. I don`t want to steal, I don`t want to be a dealer, I don`t want anything like that. What led to this situation? It`s the fault of the police that arrested me for nothing. I was in the jail for three months for nothing. And without eating or drinking...I went on a hunger strike and sewed my lips together so as not to be able to eat or drink. For three months, three months. My weight went down to 32 kilos.
How do you mean you sewed your lips?
I sewed them, look, here (shows the marks on his lips), with a needle and thread. I`m not a dealer. I never was. Just imagine, becoming a dealer at fifty! Later on when my wife was five months pregnant, and we were at home, the police came round, at six in the morning. I said to them, 'look, my wife is pregnant'... She lost her child. She lost the baby. I didn't know where to go. I cried, I went all over the place, tried everything, I thought I was going to die. That was that.
You know, I haven`t eaten meat for twenty days now. Here, in Italy! Look at my clothes! In Italy, where there`s everything, it`s not like Tunis or Morocco. There`s everything here, and I can`t eat meat. Here, in this world, which is nowhere near as poor as other places. I just look at the people that have their coffee in the bars. I can`t go there `cos I don`t have a spare Lira. I don`t want to steal, to deal. I just want an honest job and live with my wife.


13


This is my flat. It`s an abandoned building.
Where is this house?
In Via Borgo Dora. It`s near the mosque. The windows are made of plastic (laughs). And the cooker. I have one, two of them but neither of them works. I swear. I even have three of them. They don`t work. I use them as tables. I use candles for light. There`s no lighting. Look, here, in Italy. I've been using candles for three years. Just like in the Third World.


14


This is in my house again.
How long have you been in Italy?
I have been here for 18, 20 years.
How long did you have your job?
Until '99. Up 'til then I worked regulary, I made underpasses, carpentery work, but nothing since then. I wake up in the morning, go around, ask people to give me some money so that I can buy some bread for my wife, you know... I don`t want to steal, to deal, I want to live honestly. My wife cries.
Do you have children?
I had two sons that died in Italy. One was found on the street two years ago, killed by someone that ran away. I don`t want to go back to Tunisia, I want to stay in the place where my son died. The other one, as I told you, my wife was pregnant for five months, and he died, too. Italy is brutal. It really is. Italy wants people to be dealers, to steal and do bad things. That's it. Nobody is serious here. There`s not one honest man in Italy.


15


This one is in my house too.
What are these pictures on the wall?
A friend and that's my wife in the other one.


16


This is the bathroom. Look, what a state. It's disgusting.


17


This is the view out. Look at the state of these windows (laughing). This is the access balcony.