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by.milene

I'm in Venice now. It is the end of the Silk Road

I'm in Venice now. It is the end of the Silk Road and a city that thanks it's beauty to years of migration. Migration of goods like silk & spices, migration of culture & architecture and migration of people.

What we called a trade then is called a crisis now. Merchants from distant lands are now unwanted immigrants.

What we lack to understand is that there would be no economic wealth in Europe without the help of people from beyond our borders. The cities we love wouldn't be as beautiful without influence from other cultures and our food wouldn't be so delicious if it weren't for regions more exotic than our own.

Whether a person comes to trade, to find safety or a job. The reason for arriving in Europe should not matter. What matters is how a person comes to Europe. On a sinking boat, on bare feet, or in the darkness of a truck? It's up to us.

There are safer ways to arrive in Europe. If only we opened our borders. If only we could welcome not only the people but also the cultures that enriched our continent for centuries now. Like we once did.

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#migration #refugees #immigrants #silkroad #italy #venice #refugeeswelcome #leavenoonebehind #culture #food #europe #influence #marcopolo #beyondourborders #merchants #refugeecrisis #refugeestories #refugeeswelcome #migrants #migrantswelcome #migrantworkers #migrationisbeautiful

Most 10 year olds want the same things: to learn,

Most 10 year olds want the same things: to learn, to play, to feel safe. But for millions of children growing up in Syria, these simple joys have been stolen by a decade of war.

Syria reaches this grim milestone last month. The acute humanitarian emergency that has defined the country since 2011 continues to devolve as the endless conflict grinds on. The 6.7 million internally displaced people include an estimated 2.5 million children who have witnessed unimaginable horrors.

They have had their lives turned upside down, and have seen everything that was familiar to them change in an instant—often many times over.

Syrian children have missed years of schooling. Education provides a sense of stability and predictability, builds resilience, and of course, provides the foundation for success.

"I want to become a doctor so I can help the people suffering in my city", "I want to become a famous football player", “I dream of living a beautiful and happy life with no shelling, no killing and no war.”

Like every mother, Asma wants the very best for her children. “I wish them all success and good jobs and to be happy in their lives and achieve everything we couldn’t achieve.”

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#Syria #Syrianwar #Refugees #Refugeecrisis #Refugeestories #children #kids #childrenrefugees #kidsrefugees #vluchtelingen #vluchtelingencrisis #refugeewelcome #syrian

Sweet little Jude, You always face the worries of

Sweet little Jude,

You always face the worries of the day
You turn each problem into play
You don't worry, you don't fear
Nothing can ever get you down
You never find a reason to frown
The whole world smiles with you
As you go your merry way
Nothings gonna get you down
Not politics, nor a camp
Not injustice, not even a fence to keep you in

Sweet little Jude, please stay this way.
As a sunny sunny day
No grown-up thoughts
To lead our hearts astray
Take life easy, so nice and joyful
So happy and so carefree

Sweet little Jude ❤️

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#HeyJude #Message #Child #Love #Family #Friends #Forever #HumanRights #ChildrenRights #AMessage #refugee #vluchteling #migration #migrate #migrant #lesvos #greece #girl #girlfriend

As you all know I'm on my way to China. I will be

As you all know I'm on my way to China. I will be travelling the ancient trade route, cause yeah; migration at some point was as normal as tourism is today. Only then every person could trade goods and migrate. Now, apparently migrating or crossing borders is only accessible for some people. People like me: white skin & red passport.

💖 I do this to document migration 750 years after Marco Polo migrated from Venice to Mongolia. I do this to see the differences between me crossing borders and people seeking refuge crossing borders. It's as well an education for me as a photo reportage.

The differences so far between me and someone from Syria are as follows:

👍 I get a thumbs up when I drive past. My friends from Syria get beaten.

🌏 When they see my passport no questions are asked. My friends from Syria are questionned even before they can show a passport.

🧕 No one pays attention to my looks or religious beliefs. My friends from Syria are discriminated just by their looks.

🗺 I cross borders via the road, in a very striking van and no one stops me. My friends from Syria have to go an incredible dangerous journeys with their children to cross borders in the night and even then they are stopped from continuing.

⛔️ People welcome me with open arms (and open wallets). My friends from Syria are pushed back and treated as filth.

🤔 A couple of differences are also: education, wealth, open-mindedness, religion etc. People often think that people fleeing are poor, uneducated, close-minded and very religious. They often think that people must have stolen iPhones cause how can they pay for them if they have to flee? They think that people fleeing their countries will take our jobs and our homes. Little do we understand that we actually need people from other countries to maintain our economies, to maintain the Western Industrialised Nations and keep them as they are (which in my opinion isn't good anyway).

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#Refugees #Refugee #RefugeeCrisis #NoMoreMoria #SOSMoria #Leavenoonebehind #vluchtelingen #vluchtelingenwelkom #Refugeeswelcome #bordercrossing #FromHollandtoChina #Photography #Reportage #Documentary #documentaryphotography #Photo #Travels

Today is World Health Day. A very interesting day

Today is World Health Day. A very interesting day to look at the health spread in the world. Like money, also health is unequally divided. Some people are able to live healthier lives and have better access to health services than others - entirely due to the conditions in which they are born, grow, live, work and age.

All over the world, some groups struggle to make ends meet with little daily income, have poorer housing conditions and education, fewer employment opportunities, experience greater gender inequality, and have little or no access to safe environments, clean water and air, food security and health services. And imagine living in a camp, an abandoned house, in a tent in the forest...

This inequality of health leads to unnecessary suffering, avoidable illness, and premature death. And it harms our societies and economies.

This is not only unfair: it is preventable.

COVID-19 has hit all countries hard, but its impact has been harshest on those communities which were already vulnerable, who are more exposed to the disease, less likely to have access to quality health care services and more likely to experience adverse consequences as a result of measures implemented to contain the pandemic.

Let's share this message today and urge our leaders to monitor health inequities, and to ensure that all people are able to access quality health services when and where they need them.

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#WHO #WorldHealthOrganisation #WorldHealthDay #RefugeeHealth #HealthIssues #Inequality #People #Humanity #EqualWorld #World #Europe #Equality #HumanRights #HumanRightsActivist #Photography #SOSBihac #RedCross

What would you do? 👇 You wait at home for the

What would you do? 👇

You wait at home for the police to come to torture you for weeks, months, years even or they make you fight your friends or family.

or

You leave everything behind, even your family, and you take incredibly dangerous routes in the hope you find safety somewhere.

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#Refugee #Syria #RefugeeStories #RefugeeDilemmas #DilemmaopDinsdag #DilemmaonTuesday #TuesdayDilemma #Dilemma #vluchtelingen #refugees #migrant #EU #europe #dangerous #journey #travel #migration #oppression #torture #displacedpeople #seekingrefuge #asylumseekers #asylum

Remember Vahid? He made it to Germany! 🥳 I met

Remember Vahid? He made it to Germany! 🥳

I met him in Bosnia-Herzegovina when he was separated from his family. Vahid was trying almost 50 times to cross the border into Croatia, but they always caught him and pushed him back.

⛔️ Push backs are illegal!! But still they are happening very frequently.

I walked a little part of the journey with Vahid, which was incredibly inspiring. Vahid is a very inspiring person, he know so much, has been through too much but is always positive, and always looks at the bright side of things.

So, you can imagine how happy I was learning that Vahid finally made it into Croatia. Here he had to stay in quarantaine. And for some reason from that moment on his travels went smoothly. He got reunited with his family, walked to Italy, continued to travel to France and not so long ago ended up in Germany where they are going to request asylum.

💥 Vahid has travelled from Afghanistan to Germany in a way you and I cannot imagine. He did it to find safety, to find security, to find freedom. He has been through highs and lows, stayed in camps and abandoned houses, travelled on foot and in the back of a truck, paid smugglers and got help from friendly locals, learned many languages and met people from different cultures.

The journey of Vahid is one that should never have been forced onto him. But, as Vahid himself says: if it wasn't for me and my family running away from oppression I would never have met so many wonderful people, I wouldn't have seen these great countries and learned so much of life already.

And that is why I'm sure this young man is going to do great great things in his life. Vahid, I wish you everything you wish for, I wish you the best and most incredible future in Germany or wherever your heart takes you. I know you are going to inspire many more peopl, I know you are going to do great things in life, cause you already did. 💖

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#refugeecamp #refugee #displacement #photojournalism #reportage #onassignment #photography #storytelling #refugeestories #messagesfromrefugees #humanrights #humanrightsactivist #humanitarianphotography #photographer #quote

Due to a long history of trade and travel between

Due to a long history of trade and travel between Venezuela and the Dutch islands, many Venezuelan mainlanders have friends and relatives on the islands who can provide housing and job connections.

There are about 16.000 Venezuelans living on Curaçao, which is home to about 162.000 people. Refugees on Curaçao are illegal, thus NGO's aren't allowed to help out, neither are the people allowed to live in houses and are actually caught and put into jail. They are not allowed to work, not allowed to go to school, not allowed to live.

Migrating to the islands is getting harder. Authorities are scrutinizing Venezuelans who enter legally and expelling those who overstay their travel permits, according to Refugees International. All this has fueled illegal migration.

Clandestine boats that attempt the crossing sometimes encounter storms and massive waves or run out of gas. To avoid getting caught by authorities on shore, smugglers often force their passengers to swim the final few hundred yards to the beach.

Some people can't swim, it also happened that boats disappear.

This is happening within the borders of the Kingdom of The Netherlands! The problems of inhumanity isn’t only at the home countries of people on the run, it’s at the countries they flee through and to as well. Being Dutch I feel so ashamed for how my country is treating these people. Treating them this way whereas we know what it is to have the need to flee 😢

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#leavenoonebehind #discrimination #supportrefugees #contribute #unhcr #humanitarianaid #solidarity #peopleinneed #refugeeswelcome #refugeestories #refugeecamp #refugee #displacement #photojournalism #reportage #onassignment #europe #curacao #thenetherlands #unhcr #refugees #humanrights #humanitarian #photography #storytelling

She tells me how they got squeezed aboard a small

She tells me how they got squeezed aboard a small boat and packed with other migrants bound for Curaçao, a Dutch island located 40 miles off the Venezuelan coast.

She tells me how she was afraid they would drown, how the smugglers just told them the direction, pushed them and wished them good luck.

She tells me how they sailed for hours and hours in the dark. They saw nothing, felt cold and heard only the waves crushing against the tiny boat.

She tells me how she knew if they would miss the island they would be in open water.

She tells another person on the boat that she can't swim, that her child is already on the island and that she wishes to see him again.

😢 Then the tears come.

She tells me how the waves got bigger and how the boat got heavier and ended up sinking. The man she had been talking too threw her something to hold on too. He told her to hold on very tightly and not let go, whatever happens. He told her she will be safe, he will get her to safety.

She tells me, he was one of 17 people who drowned that night. In the morning she and the 14 peopl who survived arrived at the beach of Curacao where they got detained immediately. They put her in jail with other inmates; criminals & refugees together. Violent people and people who escaped violence together.

She tells me how a pregnant woman went into labour way to early no one did anything. No help came for the lady, no ambulance taking her to a hospital to give birth safely, nothing. The lady lost a lot of blood, and her child 😢

She tells me how the police officers forced her and other people to take a plane back to Venezuela. She went back to Venezuela where her violent husband was waiting for her.

She tells me how he beaten her and that she couldn't do anything because he is a police officer.

She tells me how she got into a boat to Curaçao again. This time she managed to arrive on the island and stay out of prison.

She tells me that she misses her family tremendously and her tears continue to flow.

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#refugees #refugeesoncuracao #curacao #thenetherlands #dutchcaribbean #dutchislands #leavenoonebehind #humanrights #humanrightsviolation #refugeestories #vluchtelingen #mensenrechten

Have you ever heard of people fleeing Venezuela to

Have you ever heard of people fleeing Venezuela to seek refuges on the Dutch Caribbean? Probably not too much. So, let's change that 👇

🇻🇪 Since the mass movement of people fleeing the crisis in Venezuela intensified in 2017, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have grappled with ways to meet the needs of this growing population.

❤ Countries like Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, which host the largest numbers of Venezuelans, have put in place temporary residence schemes that allow beneficiaries to remain in the country legally and access employment.

🤯 In displacement crises, the quality of services and assistance typically varies from one host country to another, but the fate of Venezuelans seeking refuge on the small island of Curaçao, only 40 miles from the coast of Venezuela, could very well be the worst in the Americas.

I went to Curaçao in November last year to check the situation. The island is Dutch and most people have no idea about the crisis happening on Curaçao. Well, people, the island is more than white beaches and clear water:

💥There are about 16.000 refugees on the island, could be more because no one is counting.
💥Most of the refugees are detained within in the prison because they are not seen as refugees but as illegal people. The people (and children) live in jail, next to criminals.

Not only has the government of Curaçao failed to put in place a protection scheme for this population, it has enforced an “active removal strategy” by arresting, detaining, and deporting Venezuelans with irregular status. Curaçao is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and as such is bound by several international human rights treaties and conventions, including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). For Venezuelans in Curaçao, however, these rights are inaccessible.

Did you know this was happening? Want to know more? Let me know!

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#Refugees #TheNetherlands #Kingdom #RefugeesintheNetherlands #RefugeesWelcome #people #humanity #helpeachother #nocriminals #leavenoonebehind #vluchtelingen #refugeesarepeopletoo #migrants

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