The project tells the story of Zijad, a Romani man from Croatia, and his struggle to reunite his family. I met Zijad in the summer of 2020, when he lived at “Campo Rom di Castel Romano,” one of the official Romani camps established by the city of Rome. The camp had no running water, and most residents lived in prefabricated housing containers. At the time, 36-year-old Zijad has no job. He is father to six children—four daughters (Annabelle, 5; Cattleya, 6; Madonna, 8; and Kelly, 10) and two sons (Charly, 16, and Aziz, 17)—and married to Saima, aged 34, who has been detained in Rebibbia Penitentiary since 2016 and sentenced to eleven years for repeated robberies.

Annabelle, Zijad’s youngest daughter, was born just a few months before her mother’s imprisonment. She spent the first three years of her life inside the prison, as Italian law allows babies to remain with their mothers until that age. After her third birthday, Annabelle reunited with her father and moved to the camp — but the reunion was short-lived.

While many children lived at the camp, the environment proved overwhelming for Annabelle. A social worker who already knew her through her mother’s case at the penitentiary stepped in, and though no formal custody was arranged, Annabelle stayed temporarily with the worker’s family in Calabria.

In October 2020, Italian authorities informed Zijad that all four of his daughters would be placed in foster care, a measure that is relatively common for children living in Romani camps across Italy. For Zijad, who risked losing legal custody of his daughters and potentially seeing them permanently adopted, the only way to reunite with them was to secure steady work and safe housing. In January 2021, Annabelle and her three sisters were taken to a foster home, while Zijad’s two sons were allowed to remain with him at the camp.

I documented Zijad’s struggle to reunite his family between 2020 and 2023. At first, his only contact with his daughters was through daily phone calls, with in-person visits arranged on Saturday afternoons at the foster home.

A turning point came in summer 2021, when Zijad received a state subsidy to rent a home in Valle Martella, a small town on the eastern outskirts of Rome. From then on, his daughters, still deeply attached to their father, were allowed to spend weekends with him. After a series of short-term jobs, he eventually secured stable work as a construction worker.

Efforts to reunite the family advanced further in October 2022, when officials granted Saima permission to work outside the prison during the week until 6 p.m. Her good conduct also earned her a five-day permit to stay with her family. For the first time in years, Zijad, Saima, and their daughters could once again share a home — if only part-time.

A February 2023 court ruling determined he would be reunited with his daughters, with custody scheduled to be restored in May of that year.