Pieces of fabric of various vibrant shades fill the Naples studio where Paboy Bojang and his team of four are working around the clock to stitch together 250 cushions for their next customer, The Conran Shop. They are not long from dispatching their first orders to Selfridges and Paul Smith, and with requests for the distinctive cotton cushions with ruffled borders flooding in from around the world, they will be busy for months to come.

Bojang, 29, is among the thousands of people to have landed on Italy’s shores during the last decade. He fled dictatorship in the Gambia, witnessed horror in Libya and survived a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. He has found solace in southern Italy, in a city whose warm embrace has enabled him and other refugees to thrive despite an EU asylum system that is stacked against them.