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by.milene

Today is Juneteenth. It’s the day the last ensla

Today is Juneteenth. It’s the day the last enslaved people of the USA were freed. But to be honest it’s not yet a day to celebrate cause still many people in the world are enslaved.

Girls being promised a good job in the city but end up in brothels where the money earned goes to the pimp. Migrant women offered good jobs in foreign countries but ending up working 20 hours a day not receiving any of the promised money. People working for many hours a day, even sleeping there, in clothing factories for salaries from which they can hardly buy themselves food.

Modern slavery is all around us, but often just out of sight. People can become entrapped making our clothes, serving our food, picking our crops, working in factories, or working in houses as cooks, cleaners or nannies.

This is the reason why I stopped buying products like Nutella or clothes from H&M. That’s why I buy Fairtrade coffee, slave free chocolate and preferably local products.

Yeah this boy on the photo is not enslaved. He is a young boy tending the sheep and goats of his family while he actually should be in school. Many of these kids in South Turkey either take care of their families animals or migrate to the Black Sea region to pick hazelnuts on a farm. They work 13 to 14 hours a day on slopes so steep that it's easy to lose your footing. These hazelnuts are used by Nutella 😠

Let’s make today and all the days after today a day on which we all check what products we buy, if there were enslaved people involved and STOP buying them! It’s not that hard. Let’s free enslaved people everywhere on earth, let’s fight for their freedom and let’s educate each other on this subject.

As long as there are enslaved people, we are all enslaved.

#freedom #calloutforfreedom #freepeople #enslaved #childlabour #slave #juneteenth

Last year five surfers found their death in the wa

Last year five surfers found their death in the waves that crash the beach of my city every day. One of them wasn’t found. He was drifting somewhere and I remember the horror filling my body. I remember feeling the pain that a lost soul was still drifting in that dangerous and harsh sea. That parents couldn’t burry their son. That his friends couldn’t say goodbye. That he was there, somewhere in that big sea that seemed endless. But the coastguard never stopped searching, neither did the community and the newspapers were all over it. Everyone was looking out for him. When he was found I felt relieve. He came back home to be buried and said goodbye to in a proper manner.

Last week the body of a young child was found. Not where he drowned, near the English coast, but many kilometers away. He was found in Norway, many months later. No community, not even the coastguard looked for him very long. I didn’t read much about it in the newspaper and as months passed by so did the news move on. Again I felt the horror inside my body. That little boy. So tiny, so young. He didn’t go surfing with his friends. He took a dangerous route with his parents to find safety. Instead he found death.

Both these boys had a whole life in front of them. Both died way too young. However, this small child died at the hands of Europe, not at the hands of the sea. It’s both so tragic, but at least one innocent soul could’ve been spared.

It breaks my heart thinking about his parents who didn’t know where there son was, who couldn’t say goodbye, who probably feel so much guilt.

Six years ago an image of a young boy drowned and washed ashore shock the world. Six years later another boy finds the same death. Nothing changed. We are shocked, and move on with our lives.

Is this the way we want the future to look back at us? Is this the way we want to be remembered? From news items where little boys wash ashore and the world is shockingly watching and then moving on... turning the page of their newspapers.

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#migrants #migration #refugees #drowning

I feel I’m in two different worlds, I live two d

I feel I’m in two different worlds, I live two different lives.

One is the privileged Dutch life. The life in which I have it all, take what I can and explore the boundaries of this privilege. The other life is the one in which I talk with people on the run, where I collect money so I can help them and take photos to tell their stories. These two lives are so different from one another that I sometimes feel like an actress, an artist maybe juggling two lives. How can I enjoy my travels eastwards in a van when on the other hand I’m talking with people who are blocked at borders and violently pushed back? How can I listen to the stories of refugees and be emotional when the next minute I’m having a beer watching the sunset over a lake.

I’m as free as I can be, still I feel trapped within these lives. I want to let go of one of them but both are dear to me. Can these life’s coexist? Can one be free and caged at the same time? Is it alright to live the perfect life while others cannot? Can you fight for others’ freedom while you roam the world freely at the same time?

While I sip my coffee and watch the sun shining at the salt lake in Turkey with my other hand I’m texting people stuck in camps in the same country. The freedom I enjoy right now is taken away from people living not far from me. I can come, share in their fear and hopeless times but then I’m on the road again. Using the freedom that is given to me because of the place I was born.

Should I, if I really care, give away my freedom and use all the time, energy and passion I have to fight for the freedom of others? Giving up on my privileges and instead cross the dangerous borders together with those who aren’t privileged? To show that we are still not treated equally in 2021.

Am I humanitarian enough to give up my own freedom and privilege for another?

I’m in limbo, living two lives at the moment. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’m ready to give up my privilege. But I also won’t give up fighting for equality so everyone can enjoy the same privilege as me.

#fromtheheart

“Since I arrived here I’m in pain. My belly sc

“Since I arrived here I’m in pain. My belly screams for food, my mind for rest and my heart for love.”

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#refugees #refugeeswelcome #refugee #humanrights #migrants #immigration #withrefugees #migration #refugeestories #asylumseekers #humanity #love #immigrants #charity #humanitarian #refugeecrisis #peace #education #unhcr #refugeecamp #help #refugeechildren #photography #refugiados #greece #europe #migrant #everydayrefugees #humanitarianaid #freedom

“Chinese people can migrate, Chinatown can be fo

“Chinese people can migrate, Chinatown can be found in every big city. Little Italy as well. You have no problem with people from the USA or Germany migrating and you yourself has migrated. But when it comes to people fleeing from war, persecution and dictatorship it’s not allowed to migrate. Europe’s double standards.”

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#migrating #migrantswelcome #chinashop #chinatown #littleitaly #migration #migrants #migrant #refugee #refugees #refugeestories #refugeequotes #letthemtelltheirstory #shop #vluchtelingen #migranten #refugeeswelcome #humanrights

“You only get into the back of a dark truck wher

“You only get into the back of a dark truck where you almost suffocate because there is no air for four hours with your children because your home is not safe, because there is no home anymore. You will not take this dangerous route with your kids if there is another way.”

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#voicesofrefugees #refugees #refugeestories #leavenoonebehind #love #family #quotes #photography #humanrights #humanitarianphotographer #photographs #humanitarian

“You [Europe] welcome our food, but not our cook

“You [Europe] welcome our food, but not our cooks.”

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#migration #immigration #migrants #refugee #cooking #food #syrianfood #integration #leavenoonebehind #sosmoria #oneplanet #onepeople #openborders #refugeequotes #refugeestories #love #makefoodnotwar #eattogether #atthedinertable

“We look to the sea together but what we see is

“We look to the sea together but what we see is not the same. You see a beautiful crystal clear ocean in which you can swim with turtles and play with dolphins. What I see a dark liquid danger that tries to kill me when I seek safety.”

Many Venezuelan refugees take the dangerous sea crossing to Bonaire, Curacao and Trinidad & Tobego. Many of those people do not reach the other shore...

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#refugees #refugeeswelcome #refugee #humanrights #migrants #immigration #withrefugees #migration #refugeestories #asylumseekers #humanity #love #immigrants #charity #humanitarian #refugeecrisis #peace #education #unhcr #refugeecamp #help #refugeechildren #photography #refugiados #greece #europe #migrant #everydayrefugees #humanitarianaid #freedom

“We do what anyone would do.” When your hous

“We do what anyone would do.”

When your house is on fire, you don’t stay.
When your boat is sinking, you don’t stay.
When the volcano is erupting, you don’t stay.
When the town is flooded, you don’t stay.
When your country is in war, you don’t stay.
When your president is a dictator who kills and tortures people and tells you you’re next, you don’t stay.

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#refugees #refugeeswelcome #refugee #humanrights #migrants #immigration #withrefugees #migration #refugeestories #asylumseekers #humanity #love #immigrants #charity #humanitarian #refugeecrisis #peace #education #unhcr #refugeecamp #help #refugeechildren #photography #refugiados #greece #europe #migrant #everydayrefugees #humanitarianaid #freedom

"Milene, I hope to see you on the other side. If n

"Milene, I hope to see you on the other side. If not, we will either be pushed back by the police or killed by a mine."

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#refugees #refugeeswelcome #vluchtelingen #refugeestories #migration #migrating #migrants #migrantswelcome #oneworld #equality #justice #love #lovenothate #makelovenotwar #peace #leavenoonebehind

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