MATTEO PLACUCCI
CROSSING the BALKANS

The European Union is the point of arrival for all migrants on the Balkan Route. More than half of them are single men between the age of 15 and 30. On December 23rd, 2020 the fire of the Temporary Reception Centre for single men in Lipa, Una-Sana Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has put Balkans under the spotlight, showing the tough situation this area is facing. Out of the more than 1500 present in the camp, around 600 migrants left the area and found shelter in the nearest town of Bihać, 30km away. For the approximately 900 who have decided to stay, the Government slowly installed military tents to provide shelter from the snow and cold of the season. Despite the intervention, the camp remained a hostile place. The Una-Sana Canton is the bottleneck where every year migrants wait for the winter season to pass to attempt “the game”, the two to three weeks walk through the mountains that lead them to Italy, what they utopically consider the first safe country of the EU.

Author
Matteo is an Italian photo reporter born in 1983.His experience in the world of photography began in 2017. During a long two years journey he felt the urgency to tell what surrounded him and the stories of those people who were sharing a part of their life with him. Empathy, sensitivity and listening skills are the milestones of a photography path that is inevitably developing day by day with him.
Social issues, political and religious events, as well as environmental conflicts and climate change. These are just some of the topics that he overlaps on the common thread of most of his projects: the mental health and the emotional sphere of the subjects of the stories he tells.
Decide to be photographer with no previous academical experience has not been an easy choice, but a decision due to the necessity to document. “I firmly believe that we are witness of our time and it needs to be documented. In 2017, choosing to be a photographer, I decided to be an active part of this witnessing”

Website
www.matteoplacucci.com

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