Original version

BBC World Service Online

The Documentary

Documentaries

Factual

Investigating global developments, issues and affairs.

The Documentary: The Cook, the Carpenter and the Migrants

The Documentary: The Cook, the Carpenter and the Migrants: The Cook, the Carpenter and the Migrants

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Maria Grazia - Chef

25/07/2015 GMT

The Cook, the Carpenter and the Migrants

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The Cook, the Carpenter and the Migrants, The Cook, the Carpenter and the Migrants

The ordinary Italians who are dealing with the impact of the Mediterranean migrant crisis

Meet the ordinary Italians who are dealing with the impact of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

As the first port of call for most of the boats that survive the journey from North Africa, Italy has more first-hand experience than most European countries of the Mediterranean migrant crisis. Emma-Jane Kirby meets ordinary Italians to hear about  the practicalities of the arrival of so many desperate people and how they are coping emotionally seeing such sadness and suffering in close proximity.

Housewife Maria Gratzia is a volunteer chef with a big heart and a big voice. Each week she doles out hundreds of kilos of pasta to the newly arrived migrants.
 
Emma talks to a grave digger who has buried many of the bodies washed up on the beach, a hospital director who has had to completely reorganise his hospital to cope with the new patients, an optician who rescued dozens of drowning migrants on a weekend sailing trip and a carpenter who makes crosses for migrants from the wrecks of the boats that brought them to Europe.

BBC World Service

Emma-Jane Kirby meets the ordinary Italians who are dealing with the impact of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Documentary

The Cook, the Carpenter and the Migrants

The Cook, the Carpenter and the Migrants

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service