Women spend their days taking care of their households inside Pedion Areos Park.
Afghan migrants play at night inside Pedion Areos Park after a warm day in Athens. The summer is the best season of the year to cross the Mediterranean from Turkey to the Greek islands.
A Syrian migrant plays music on a computer inside Janeiro Bar. Janeiro Bar is a popular place in Omonia Square for Syrian immigrants because its owner has prepared the place with menus written in Arabic, and offers free wifi and affordable food.
A syrian migrant walks with her son in Piraeus port after their arrival by ferry from Mytilene, one of the islands where immigrants arrive after crossing by boat from Turkey.
A group of Syrian migrants waits in Piraeus metro station to go to Omonia square, a popular place for Syrians who arrive in Athens for the first time.
People hang their clothes between tents in Pedion Areos Park. Afghan migrants try to move on with daily life while waiting for the right moment to try to move to northern European countries.
Afghan children play in the Pedion Areos park, an improvised refugee camp in central Athens. Almost 60% of the population are children. Everyday approximately 100 people come and go, and around 400 people live here in 75 tents.
A Syrian child travels with a group of Syrians in the Athens metro from Piraeus port to Omonia Square, the most common place where migrants gather when they first arrive in Athens.
Janeiro Bar, located in Omonia Square in the center of Athens, provides Syrian immigrants menus written in Arabic, free wifi and affordable food.
Syrians who are already established in Athens help migrants catch the bus to Thessaloniki from Omonia Square. Thessaloniki is a city close to the Macedonian border. At that point, smugglers ask for money to guide migrants through an illegal border crossing by foot.
Syrian Children play in Omonia Square in central Athens, while their relatives prepare the bus trip to Thessaloniki.
Greek civilians and non-profit organisations provide tents to those who arrive without a place to sleep when they get into the Pedion Areos Park in Athens.
Survival guides handed out by the Greek Council of Refugees litter the ground in Pedion Areos Park.
Panagiotis Andronikidis is an Athenian who spends hours every day helping Afghans and entertaining children in Pedion Areos Park.
A women tries to cool her son who has fever inside a tent in the improvised refugee camp in Pedion Areos Park.
A young Afghan prays behind the tents in the improvised refugee camp of Pedion Areos Park.
Afghan teenagers plays with water while they wash their body and clothes in the improvised refugee camp inside Pedion Areos Park.
An 18 month-old Afghan baby sleeps on a carpet in Pedion Areos Park in Athens, Greece.
The greek government provides an identification document that allows a 30 days stay for Afghans and six months for Syrians. However, this document doesn't permit migrants to cross borders, so those people remain unrecognized.
An Afghan woman browses on the internet with her smartphone while her baby sleeps in the improvised refugee camp on Pedion Areos Park in Athens.
Members of the Afghan community in Athens leave the Pedion Areos Park after making donations to their countrymen. Many Afghans who lives in Greece help these migrants to reach more prosperous countries in the EU like Germany and France.
An Afghan family leaves Pedion Areos Park in the middle of the night to catch a bus to Thessaloniki for cross the border to Macedonia in their way to Germany.
An Afghan family checks their bus tickets to Thessaloniki, a 7-hour trip to the city nearest the Macedonian border.
Afghan comrades says goodbye to immigrants who take the bus to Thessaloniki and the beginning of their journey to northern Europe.
June 20 is World Refugee Day.
In 2014, global refugee numbers were higher than they have ever been since World War II. In 2015, the problem has only gotten worse.
There are currently over 50 million refugees in the world and more than %50 of them are children. Approximately half of the world's refugees are from just three countries: Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia.
The response to this massive international crisis has been limited, with most refugee aid programs desperately underfunded. Amnesty International has called the lack of robust international response "A Conspiracy of Neglect." With little help on the way, the future of the world's displaced remains uncertain.
Majd Bayoush is a 22-year-old who fled his hometown of Kafranbel in north Syria with the aim of smuggling himself into Europe. After a perilous and complicated journey that lasted for nearly three months, he reached Germany, where he is waiting for the final procedures before he is granted political asylum.
The following is his story as told to Transterra Media.
I arrived to the port city of Izmir, Turkey on September 22, 2014. On the same day, I took an inflatable boat with 47 other migrants and sailed to the Greek island of Samos. We reached our destination after 2.5 hours. The boat deflated and sank after it hit the rocky shore.
We had agreed with the smuggler Abu Abdu, a Syrian man nicknamed ‘the Tiger’, to surrender to the Greek police once we reach the island. Before leaving Turkey, I deposited 8,000 euros at a money transfer office called ‘al-Saeed’ controlled by the smuggling gang. [This transfer company has offices in other countries.] Abu Abdu took 2,500 euros out of that sum.
We climbed a mountain on the island of Samos and reached a police station, where policemen confiscated all our possessions, including our mobile phones, and detained us for three days. On Sept. 25, the police authorities placed us below the deck in a cruise boat, which headed to an island near Samos. I do not know its name. There was a camp that held other captured illegal migrants who were Afghans, Asians and Palestinians. However, most of them were Syrians.
FULL TEXT IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Kathmandu residents displaced by the earthquake spend time in temporary shelters in a park in Kathmandu, Nepal on April 30, 2015. On April 25, 2015, Nepal suffered a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killing over 5,000 people and injuring thousands more.
Majd and other migrants at the ferry boat dock before the voyage to Athens after being released from a detention camp near Samos, Greece.
Majd Bayoush is a 22-year-old who fled his hometown of Kafranbel in north Syria with the aim of smuggling himself into Europe. After a perilous and complicated journey that lasted for nearly three months, he reached Germany, where he is waiting for the final procedures before he is granted political asylum.
SHOTLIST
Shot of migrants on climbing a mountain after reaching the Greek island of Samos
OFF CAMERA
00:09 – 00:16
“This is the boat after UNINTELLIGIBLE."
Shot of the migrants on the boat to Athens
NAT Sound
01:01 – 01:03
“Film where we were staying.”
01:08 – 01:11
“Film the mountain there.”
Shot of the migrants walking along railroad tracks from Greece to Macedonia
OFF CAMERA
01:31 – 01:32
“The road to Macedonia.”
Shot of migrant encampment near the Greek-Macedonian border
NAT Sound
01:52- 01:56
“I hope you have not filmed me.”
02:07 – 02:10
“We need light bulb and electricity.”
Shot of a Macedonian soldier overseeing the migrant’s tents on the border after burning them
OFF CAMERA
02:25 – 02:31
“The Macedonian army. The Greek-Macedonian border.”
02:39 - 02:43
“All you do is film.”
Shot of burnt tents near the Greek-Macedonian border
Shot of migrants around a fire in Gevgilija, Macedonia
OFF CAMERA
03:16 -03:24
“The Macedonian-Greek border. Syrian and Iraqi refugee.”
Shot of migrants in the outdoors in an unnamed area near the Macedonian-Serbian border
Shot of migrants walking railroad tracks near the Greek-Macedonian border
OFF CAMERA
03:54 – 03:56
“The Macedonian border.”
Shot inside the central prison in Gazi Baba, Skpoje
OFF CAMERA
04:30 – 05:14
“This is the bathroom. This is where we wash. Even animals are washed in a better place. Animals are washed in a place that is better than this. These are the sinks. We are in Skopje.[SHOWING A WATER HEATER] They have cut the wires so that we do not shower with hot water. This is the toilet.”
Shot of migrants arriving to a house owned by a Pakistani smuggler who called himself Ahmad.
OFF CAMERA
05:18
“The Macedonian-Serbian border.”
05:34
“The Macedonian-Serbian border.”
Shot of the courtyard of a house owned by a Pakistani smuggler who called himself Ahmad
Shot of migrants walking at night in the outdoors in Serbia
NAT Sound
05:57
“-Are you filming?
-Yes.”
Shot of migrants being transported by tractor in Serbia
Shot of migrants walking at night in the outdoors in Serbia
Exterior shot of the house in which Majd lives in the village of Tönning near Hamburg
06:38
OFF CAMERA
“This is the house to which I was moved in Hamburg. They gave me this house until my residency permit is issued. This is a village called Tunning to the north of Hamburg.”
Traveling shot of a street in Tönning, near Hamburg
Heriika S., 25, apologizes to her boyfriend. He helped her flee a rival favela after drug gangs made threats on her life. The women were joking about a rumor that there are rich Japanese businessmen wanting to marry for money.
Lenice, 53, speaking about her life. She's a nursing technician and used to make a decent wage but had troubles with depression after both her parents died in her care. She can't get a job because she doesn't have a fixed address and is behind on her union dues.
A good samaritan only known as Felipe (not pictured, refused to be identified) learned that it was David's (center) 1st birthday and bought him a cake. In a rare moment of joy, the homeless organized a makeshift birthday party for him. David was given to his grandmother, Vera Lucia, 65, (also not pictured) after his mother had no way of supporting him. David is not related to anyone else there.
Gracie, 25, began smoking cigarettes at age 11 after her grandmother would ask her to light hers on the stove for her. She smokes 3 packs a day when she can afford it. She never made it past the 3rd grade in school.
Kaue, 2, cries for his mother. His dad, Claudio "CG", 24, used to work selling drinks at favela funk parties. He claims to have been earning well over $3,000 USD a month; he owned multiple stands. He was living a comfortable middle class until police came in and shut the parties down. Now he's struggling to pay his $130 month rent.
A pregnant woman gives a friend a back massage at 2:00 AM as other sleep and rotate shifts. As some sleep, others stay awake to watch for police.
Andressa (alias), 20, posing for a portrait. Andressa spoke about leaving her boyfriend that day after he hit her. Despite this, they were seen cuddling 20 minutes later.
"I don't sleep ever." She said at 4:30 AM, embracing her boyfriend.
Hiogo, 23, (center) emaciated. Food was scarce in the camp and usually consisted of stale crackers obtained from the homeless shelter or pasta made at a friends house and brought over. Hiogo is a day laborer working construction and in recent months has struggled to find work.
Homeless women play cards to pass the time as they sit on their signs. Residents of a favela live effectively in a dictatorship run by drug gangs. The idea of using free speech to demand their rights is new to many of them.
Stephany B., 24, (right) does nails as they talk about politics. Stephany said she wants a house with a yard so she can do nails and earn a living from home.