Difficult and dangerous way of refugees to Europe
Shocking images of a drowned Syrian boy, whose body was found on the shore in Bodrum, Turkey, have become one of the terrible symbols of the current crisis caused by an unprecedented influx of migrants to Europe.
At the same time, in recent years, many other pictures have been taken that tell how dangerous it is to travel illegally to Europe and how sometimes they accept those who nevertheless overcame all difficulties and managed to get into the Old World.
(Total 10 photos)
1. Reuters photographer Juan Medina captured the moment when, in 2004, a group of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa tried to reach the Canary Islands by boat. As the Spanish Coast Guard approached the boat, it capsized and nine people drowned. Medina filmed the rescue of two refugees from Mali - Isa and Ibrahim. The photo won the 2005 World Press Photo Award.
2. The Canary Islands remained one of the main destinations for refugees from Africa two years later. As a rule, they make a dangerous journey of a thousand kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, starting from Mauritania or Senegal. As a result of such a long stay at sea, many sail to the Canaries, suffering from hunger and dehydration.
In this photo, tourists on the beach in Tenerife are trying to help a boy who has arrived from Africa. Photographer Arturo Rodíguez won the World Press Photo award in 2007 for the image.
3. Two tiny Spanish enclaves in Morocco - Melilla and Ceuta - attract those who want to get to Europe. Here Africa is separated from the European state only by a wire fence. Taken by photographer José Palazon of the migrant rights group Pro.De, a golfer in Melilla watches migrants try to climb over a fence. Nearby, a policeman climbs a ladder up to them. The photographer calls this moment symbolic.
4. Photographer John Stenmeyer met a group of migrants in Djibouti who were trying to pick up a weak mobile signal on the shores of the Gulf of Aden. Migrants buy SIM cards for mobile phones on black markets in Somalia to save money. “It is a universal symbol of communication for all of us,” says the photographer. “Humanity is constantly at crossroads and asking questions: where are we going, what does it mean to be human?” Stenmeier won the World Press Photo award in 2014 for this image.
5. To get to the Mediterranean, most migrants have to make grueling land travel. This dusty area on the Syrian-Turkish border is usually filled with families with crying children, as Reuters photographer Murad Sezer has repeatedly seen. But one day he arrived here and did not see a single person at all. Only baby bed. “It was some kind of symbol of hopelessness. If these people had any hope left, they probably would not have left this bed here, ”the photographer later said.
6. This photo was taken in 2014 by Massimo Sestini aboard an Italian Coast Guard helicopter. But it's actually a nearly identical replica of a photo taken a year earlier under similar circumstances. In the photo, refugees from Libya are trying to swim on a small ship to Italy - several hundred people who look up in the hope of help. The photo won the World Press Photo award earlier in 2015.
7. In April of this year, a wooden ship carrying refugees from Syria and Eritrea crashed on reefs off the coast of the Greek island of Rhodes. Greek army sergeant Antonis Deligiorgis, who was resting at that moment on the embankment, jumped into the water and rescued 20 of the 93 people on board the ship. One of the rescued was pregnant and soon gave birth to a child whom she promised to name in honor of her savior.
8. Syrian Lait Majid, hugging his daughter and son, could have died getting from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos: the inflatable boat in which they sailed almost sank. “The face of the father of two in this photo expresses the pain of the Syrian people,” wrote one New York Times magazine reader @MaryFitzger. German photographer Daniel Etter says that being able to show the world these moments and these people is exactly why he does what he does.
9. When Macedonia declared a state of emergency in August due to the influx of migrants and closed the border, several thousand refugees were forced to spend the night on no man's land. Photographer Darko Vojnovic took this picture of a father holding a baby. The next morning they tried to break through the border, but the police used stun grenades and began to drive them away with batons.
10. This photo went viral on the Internet a week ago. It shows Palestinian refugee Abdul Halim Attar selling pens in the Lebanese capital to somehow feed his family. Gissur Simonarson, a resident of Iceland, posted this picture on Twitter. And on the Internet, fundraising began for the Attar family, the fund, as reported, already has more than 180 thousand dollars. Attar's goal is to create an educational fund for Syrian children and return home when possible.
Keywords: Refugees | Migrants | Illegal immigrants