Fabrizio Gatti is an Italian investigative journalist and author. He writes for the Italian weekly l'Espresso and his reportage and undercover investigations have been translated all over the world. Gatti has travelled most of the routes of immigration into Europe. Between 2003 and 2007 he also crossed the Sahara desert four times with hundreds of migrants, infiltrated a gang of human traffickers in Northern Africa as a gangster's personal driver, was rescued at sea, was jailed in the Lampedusadetention centre as an Iraqi illegal migrant, and worked as a slave labourer on a tomato farm in Italy. Gatti told all his undercover experiences from Africa to Europe in the book «Bilal: My undercover journey into the modern slave-trade». The book was also published in French, German, Norwegian and Swedish. Born in Milan, he started his career in 1991, writing mostly about illegal immigration, first on Corriere della Sera and, from 2004, on l'Espresso. Gatti was born in Milan. His preferred investigation method is passing as one of the people he is writing about. On 16 April 2007 he received the 2006 Journalist Award of the European Union, for his reporting about the working conditions of the immigrants in Apulia. In the article Io schiavo in Puglia published in L'Espresso, he describes his experience as an undercover immigrant worker at tomato harvest. Other inquiries deal with the treatment of the Kosovar refugees who try to cross the Swiss border, the life conditions in the Temporary Stay Center from Lampedusa, the hygienic situation of Umberto I Clinic in Rome. In 2007, he received the Italian National Award for Investigative Journalism for his article about differences of treatment of Romanian citizens in Italy and other European Union states. In 2007, Editore Rizzoli published his book "Bilal. Il mio viaggio da infiltrato nel mercato dei nuovi schiavi" ("Bilal. My undercover journey into the modern slavetrade"
Documentary
A sea of shame, produced by L'Espresso, La Repubblica, Sky, and 42° Parallelo, 2017,.
Books
"Educazione americana" -
"Peståren" -
"Au nom del la mafia" -
"Gli anni della peste" -
"Bilal. På slavrutten till Europa" -
"Bilal. Med de papirløse til festning Europa" -
"L'Eco della frottola" -
"Viki som ville gå i skolan" -
"Bilal. Als Illegaler auf dem Weg nach Europa" -
"Bilal. Sur la route des clandestins" -
"Bilal. Viaggiare, lavorare, morire da clandestini -
"Viki che voleva andare a scuola" -
Awards
2018 - Catania, Santa Venerina, Premio Maria Grazia Cutuli. 2016 - Trento, Premio Baffo Rosso - Roberto Morrione per il giornalismo investigativo. 2015 - Ravenna, Premio Guidarello per il giornalismo d'autore.
