Gabriele del Grande


Gabriele del Grande is an Italian journalist, blogger, writer and human rights activist. In Europe, he is one of the leading human rights defenders in the area of illegal immigrants to Italy and to Europe.
On April 10, 2017, he was arrested in the Hatay Province near the Syria–Turkey border. He was freed after two weeks.

Life

Born in Lucca to Massimo and Sara Urro, Gabriele Del Grande studied history and oriental studies in Bologna and trained as a journalist at the 'Lelio Basso Foundation' in Rome.
In 2006, he founded the blog Fortress Europe, one of the main observatories of the victims of migration along the European borders. Since then he has been traveling as a freelance journalist around Southern Europe, Northern and West Africa and the Middle East reporting about migrations, wars and jihadism.
His reportages has been published in Time, Al Monitor, Vocativ, Taz, Internazionale, Rai, Radio3, RSI, Jungle World, Roads & Kingdoms, L’Unità, Redattore Sociale and others.
In 2014 he was one of the co-authors and co-directors of the internationally awarded docufilm Io sto con la sposa .
His last book, Dawla, is a deep investigation into the history of the Islamic State in Syria narrated through the stories of a number of former jihadists who deserted the organization after its defeat.

Works