Migrants help out with Motya excavations. Project run by Palermo university
Young asylum seekers from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Iran, Mali, Pakistan and Guinea are set to take part in new excavations on the site of the ancient Phoenician settlement of Motya, on the Sicilian island of San Pantaleo.
The asylum seekers are currently staying at reception centres in the province of Trapani in western Sicily. They will take part in the dig thanks to a project that is the result of an agreement between Palermo University, the Trapani culture superintendency and the Marsala city council. A statement said the project will "favour the integration of the selected asylum seekers" in the area.
It said the young people taking part are aged between 18 and 30 and have a good level of education - one is a mechanical engineering graduate and several speak two foreign languages, in addition to their mother tongues. The dig will start in the middle of July and last about seven weeks.
