2015. Lesvos. Greece. A wooden boat carryng Syrians, including women and children, approaches the shore near Molyvos on the Greek island of Lesvos.

The Island

According to UNHCR, approximately 850,000 refugees and migrants, including children, arrived in Greece by sea in 2015. Of these, just over 500,000 landed on Lesbos, a Greek island around eight nautical miles from the Turkish ...
2015. Lesvos. Greece. A Syrian who swam to shore after the boat he was on began to leak off shore. His condition was critical, but fortunately, around an hour later, a local doctor came and managed to assist, saving his life.

Lesbos

According to UNHCR, approximately 850,000 refugees and migrants, including children, arrived in Greece by sea in 2015. Of these, just over 500,000 landed on Lesbos, a Greek island around eight nautical miles from the Turkish ...
2015. Greece. Kos. Syrians who have arrived on the Greek island of Kos burn their life jackets for warmth and to attract the attention of the police. This group of Syrians arrived on a corner of the island which is not very accessible and, not knowing what to do, try to use the fire to attract the attention of the coast guard.

Kos

According to UNHCR, approximately 850,000 refugees and migrants, including children, arrived in Greece by sea in 2015. Kos, a Greek island around four kilometres from the Turkish coast, was at the centre of the route for those ...
2015. Idomeni. Greece. A group of around 150 Syrians sets off to cross the Greek border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), with the hope of being able to apply for refugee status in countries such as Germany or Sweden. The Greek border with the FYROM is increasingly under the control of people-traffickers, and is becoming less safe each day, so migrants try to cross the border in large groups so they can defend themselves from any extortion. 6 June 2015.

The Balkan Route

In 2015, thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, including children, took up the long journey through the Balkans in the hope of finding safety in Europe. The Balkans route has put European political stability ...
2014. Calais, France. Migrants of different nationalities line up for food being distributed by the volunteer association “L'Auberge des migrants”, which hands out a hot meal almost every day. The queues of migrants waiting to be served can reach up to 250 metres in length and total around 900 people. For most of the migrants, this is the only full meal they will eat in a day. Migrants of different nationalities arrive in Calais after desperate journeys. The port city in the north of France is their last obstacle to arriving in England, and their attempts to reach the country are desperate, from trying to climb over the fences at the port, to sneaking onto trucks going towards the UK, even if it could cost them their lives. Most of them say that England is considered a nation that respects refugees’ rights more than countries on the European mainland, or that allows so-called economic migrants to find a position in the illegal job market without fear of being stopped in the street for identity checks.

Calais

Calais. The last European obstacle before the Promised Land: Great Britain. Around 2,500 migrants of different nationalities take shelter in old sheds, or in makeshift camps known as “jungles”, waiting for nightfall to try to ...
2012. Corinth. Greece. 17-year old Mohamed from Morocco and his friends hiding behind the rocks at the port during the night, waiting for the right moment to illegally board a ship to Italy. Many young migrants see other European countries as their only hope of a future, and attempt to leave Greece at the first possible moment, often in desperate ways, tolerating desperate conditions. In Greece, around 96% of requests for political asylum were refused in 2014, a modest improvement on 2012, when the refusal rate reached 99.5%. For this reason, young people must hide from the authorities, because having a Greek police record would mean the end of the dream of safe reception in Europe. According to European immigration regulations, if found by the Greek police, they must claim asylum in Greece, and they must not travel to or claim asylum in any other European country while their asylum application is being processed by Greece, which can take years. This is the story of young, unaccompanied migrants in Greece: young people who, every day, confront the difficulties of a country tormented by the economic crisis. Greece also refuses asylum requests more than any other country in Europe, reaching a 99.5% refusal rate in 2012. Many young migrants therefore see other European countries as their only hope of a future, and attempt to leave Greece at the first possible moment, often in desperate ways, tolerating desperate conditions.

Lost Generation

This is the story of young, often underage migrants fleeing their home countries, trying to enter the european union through Greece. Every day in Greece, these young people confront the difficulties of a country tormented ...
2014. Harmali refugee camp. Bulgaria. Two Syrian children looking out the window of the container where they live. Harmanli was one of the old Bulgarian military bases which was converted into a refugee camp during the emergency influx of refugees and asylum seekers in 2013, when Bulgaria became the prime passageway into the European Union for thousands of families fleeing the Syrian conflict. It is the biggest camp in Bulgaria and the one that received most criticism during the emergency. Since receiving funding from the European Union, the camp has been undergoing a restructure and expansion to increase its capacity to around 3600 (its current capacity is around 1900). Owing to its size, its proximity to the Bulgarian border and its location at the edge of the city of Harmanli, the camp risks becoming a ghetto.

Refugees in Bulgaria part II

In 2013, due principally to the war in Syria, Bulgaria found itself in the middle of international migration flows like never before. Caught completely unprepared for the around 11,000 refugees and asylumseekers it suddenly found ...
2013. Harmanli. Bulgaria. A young girl from Syria cooking inside the Harmanli camp. The biggest of Bulgaria’s “emergency centres” for refugees is in the town of Harmanli, about 30 kilometres away from the Turkish border, where around 1,000 asylum-seekers are being detained on a former military base, housed in tents, containers and a dilapidated building. People living in tents have no access to sanitation facilities. Although there are four toilets in a building at the entrance of the centre, they are frequently blocked and hardly adequate for hundreds of people. The tents are not heated and the residents sleep either on thin mattresses or on old foldable beds.

Refugees in Bulgaria

A European Union member state since 2007, Bulgaria has been hit hard by the economic crisis and consequently by heightened political instability. Today, the country finds itself confronting one of the most critical moments in its recent ...
2011. Palazzo San Gervasio, Basilicata, Italy. Portrait of seasonal worker Yousuf Bande from Burkina Faso. Yousuf is employed illegally in the agricultural sector. Throughout Italy, and particularly in the south of the Italian peninsula, migrants move around according to the seasonal work available, trying to earn enough money to survive. The project describes and documents the social and human working conditions of migrant people employed irregularly in Italy in the agricultural field, mainly as seasonal workers during the harvesting season. They follow each part of the harvest of agricultural products such as melons, tomatoes, grapes, olives and oranges in several regions, such as Basilicata, Calabria and Puglia. During the season, that lasts six or even seven months every year, they move for miles from East to West and from South to North of Italy in a sort of pilgrimage. These irregular migrant workers live or, better, survive in empty houses without electricity and water and in extreme poverty conditions. They don't have any rights, any form of assistance, any voice, any other chance to find a work. And they work even 12 hours per day for only 25 euros. They are often referred to as the new slaves, at the mercy of corporals, mostly Italians, appointed to control not only their jobs but above all their life. According to the Caritas, in Italy there are almost 4.900.000 migrants; at least, 700.000 of them are employed irregularly. The statistics provided by Inea - the National Institute of Agricultural Economics - refer of 102.000 people employed as workers in the agricultural field, but the "irregulars" are not included in the official count. The vegetables that they collect are exported to almost all of europe The images just want to show where these illegal immigrants live and work. As for it, they reveal us our cruelty, our collective responsibilities stretched in not knowing, not understanding, not neither imagining. Why we are always wondering to ourselves : " So how many immigrants there would be in Italy?". Instead of asking ourselves: "Who are they? How we make them live because of our laws? where DO they come from and why did they want or had to leave their country?".

Migrant Workers

The project “Migrant Workers Journey” describes and documents the social and human working conditions of migrants employed illegally in Italy in the agricultural sector, mainly as seasonal worker during the harvesting season. It’s a journey ...
2015. Pozzallo. Sicily, Italy. Young asylum seekers sit in the sun coming through the skylights of the CPSA (Centro di primo soccorso ed accoglienza – first reception centre) in Pozzallo. While they wait for their position as asylum seekers to be ascertained, they must stay inside this room, and they miss the open space. MSF operates inside the CPSA in Pozzallo, responding to the medical and humanitarian needs of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

Pozzallo -CPSA-

According to UNHCR, of the more than around 150,000 people who arrived in Italy by sea in 2015, over 16,000 landed at the port of Pozzallo. Most of those arriving there were from Eritrea, and ...
Spain, Melilla, November 9, 2012. The border fence that divides the Moroccan city of Nador from the Spanish enclave of Melilla, in Northern Africa. The security fence which runs the full length of the border has heavy security, including a 19-foot-tall double fence with watchtowers, and is as a popular crossing for sub-Saharan migrants hoping to illegally reach Spain.

Melilla

COMING SOON The border fence that divides the Moroccan city of Nador from the Spanish enclave of Melilla, in Northern Africa. The security fence which runs the full length of the border has heavy security, ...
Safi, Malta, December 28. Migrants of different nationalities inside the Safi Barracks Detention Center in the Maltese village of Safi, off the coast of Italy. The island of Malta covers just 316 sq km in land area. Once the immigrants have arrived at the island, they are arrested for illegal migrants and then transferred to closed detention centres where they may remain for up to 18 months. During that period of time the Maltese authorities carry out the same interrogations over and over again to come to know the country of origin of the immigrants.

Big Prison – Malta

COMING SOON The island of Malta covers just 316 sq km in land area. Once the immigrants have arrived at the island, they are arrested for illegal migrants and then transferred to closed detention centres ...