During the summer of 2015, 69 Nigerian migrant women intercepted at sea were transferred from Sicily to the detention centre of Rome-Ponte Galeria in view of being deported from Rome-Fiumicino airport. A media campaign denounced the fact that the women were potential victims of trafficking, but only a few were admitted for protection status by Italian authorities while, on 17 September, twenty were forcefully repatriated to Lagos. By drawing on this case, the article will critically discuss the gendering process recently undergone by the Italian southern border as well as practices of political subjectivity which deconstruct discursive and normative criteria that hierarchize instances of free movement
