European Commission colleague from the Taxation and Customs directorate has published a novel in Italian “Il mare della Speranza”. He narrates the story of two guys, Karim and Abdul, 18 years old, who live in a small village in Africa, where they spend everyday helping their parents in the fields from sunrise, then work until late after school to gather enough money to survive the week, or sometimes just the day.

He says he wrote this book because he believes that in Italy, and generally, in Europe, "migration as a phenomenon is heavily instrumentalised and politicised, and this leads people to have a biased perception of it, which does not reflect reality. For example, since the first big waves of migration in the Country, during the 90s, the number of crimes significantly decreased, while migrants continue to come, alongside the fact that the number of migrants in relation to the total detained people has been diminishing over the years despite the fact that the flow of migrants continues."