Almería is the gate to Europe and a place where drug traffickers combine the lucrative drugs trade with people trafficking.
Christophe Chammartin
Most immigrants from North Africa rarely go into the city centre, where it is normal to be beaten, sometimes even by the police.
Christophe Chammartin
The Cortijos, small brick buildings with two to six rooms in which dozens of people live, are often in poor condition and without sanitation.
Christophe Chammartin
The authorities of El Ejido city refuse to provide the immigrants with basic services such as rubbish collection. May 2006.
Christophe Chammartin
Separated from their families, without contact with Andalusian society and far from the city centre, the immigrants live in small groups, divided by nationality. An unemployed immigrant from Morocco cleans the kitchen that he shares with six compatriots.
Christophe Chammartin
More than half of the immigrants are unemployed, relying on intensive farming for work. To survive, the men comb through several kilometres per day to pick a few kilos of snails that they then try to sell to restaurants - for less than one euro per kilo. Campohermoso, May 2007.
Christophe Chammartin
The toilet is just a simple hole in the earth. Campohermoso, May 2007.
Christophe Chammartin
Drinking water from taps several hundred metres away is stored in plastic containers.
Christophe Chammartin
"The worst thing is the waiting." Campohermoso, May 2007.
Christophe Chammartin
At six in the morning many men wait on the side of the street for work. Whoever is still standing there at seven can go back to his lodgings - and wait for tomorrow. Campohermoso, May 2007.
Christophe Chammartin
With the hard-earned money, some dream of buying a radio, a television, a bicycle or even a second-hand car.
Christophe Chammartin
An immigrant from Senegal. In Tabernas, May 2006.
Christophe Chammartin
A group of Senegalese workers put some money together to buy food.
Christophe Chammartin
Living quarters for Senegalese immigrants provided by their employer. Near Tabernas, 70 km from Almería, May 2007.
Christophe Chammartin
The ruins of a house in Barranquete. The men have used plastic to make the house somehow inhabitable.
Christophe Chammartin
The immigrants look for old pallets and plastic sheeting to build shelters for themselves on unused plots of land.
Christophe Chammartin
Four young Moroccans live in this cramped shelter that they cobbled together in a collapsed house.
Christophe Chammartin
A mosque in Campohermoso - built from plastic sheeting that was used to package pesticide.
Christophe Chammartin
The harsh reality of immigrant life in El Ejido.
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The work of Swiss photographer Christophe Chammartin focuses on immigrants and integration problems. “I want to show a social reality that interests me and moves us,” the artist says.
On his journey along the coast of Andalusia in southern Spain, he witnessed the living conditions of the immigrants from northern and sub-Saharan Africa. The title of the exhibition: “Plastic prison. Almería 2007.”
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You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.