In Barcelona’s Zona Franca, there is a warehouse that doesn’t store goods, but people. People imprisoned without conviction or sentence; their only crime: being migrants. A dark, opaque world that seems not to exist — until news of abuse, humiliation and human rights violations resurfaces, again and again, in the media.
Over the past years, I have gained access to the Barcelona Immigration Detention Centre to understand the conditions in which detainees live. From the visiting room, I’ve interviewed dozens of people, listening to their stories of anguish and despair. The relationship often continued after they returned to the streets of Barcelona, because most of them are not deported. This project seeks to tell the story of our neighbours’ lives — both inside and outside the CIE.The project Lives Truncated by the CIE. Stories Inside and Outside the Barcelona Immigration Detention Centre won the 31st Montserrat Roig Award for Investigative Journalism, granted by the Barcelona City Council.