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Adolescents in migration by Simone Peyronel

 

 

Simone is an Italian photographer focused on migrations and travels. He will join the INCROYABLE along the Turkish coast. 


"My interest in photography brought me to Lisbon where I achieved a diploma in photojournalism at RESTART “Istituto de creatividade, artes e novas tecnologias de Lisbon”. I lived one year in the city of Gaziantep, Turkey, where I was volunteering in a project aimed to increase the school enrollment of Syrian refugees children in Turkey and where I focused my pictures on the life of this city situated at the border with Syria. Having grown interest on migrations, I travelled along the “Balkan Route” to understand the difficulties that the migrants are facing on their way to Europe, documenting through photography their life. I am currently living in Sri Lanka, working as an aid worker.
In my travels, I take my camera with me, because I believe in the power of this tool to narrate a Story and to convey a different point of view through the images.

 

I am looking forward for this project to start and to be part of it. I will be focusing on the perils and difficulties that young male migrants are facing on their travel. Because of their age (14-20), they are often stigmatized believing that despite their age they are already adults, and when they turn 18, more problems comes for them."

Many refugees are underage, in their travel they face several difficulties due to their age, especially the lack of proper education having lost years of school.

According to UNHCR data, children make up 10 percent of those arriving in Italy by sea, and 26 percent of arrivals in Greece, in their travel they face many difficulties due to their age, starting from the loss of proper school education.

 

Since my first visit on a refugee camp, the number of underage kids and teenager who were forced to live in such difficult situation impressed me. Surprisingly, the attitude these kids have towards their situation is of absolute resilience, they manage to keep a happy spirit in face of the hard conditions they live in. In the informal refugee camp of Suruç, Turkey, just across the border from Kobane, kids were playful and full of creativity, they created games with the few material they have, rubber tires, wood and carton.

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In the nearby city of Gaziantep, Syrian children often end up working in small factories for a low salary. As the income of the family is not sufficient for their needs. In theory, the school should be guaranteed to them, but they do not have the space and the teacher to deal with the big number.

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Syrian kids in a refugee camp near Suruç, playing with a bike tire. Despite having to leave their hometown, they managed to find a way to play and create games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Turkey, education is guaranteed only in the Turkish province where refugees first entered. Plus school often do not have the capacity or teachers to organize special class for Syrians.

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In the Belgrade informal camp, situated in the heart of the capital, migrants were living in the barracks. Here also thanks to volunteers, they managed to organize cricket, football and volleyball games during an exceptionally cold winter, waiting the good season to try again their luck on the way to central Europe. In this case, many were adolescents who spent several months travelling without family (in some case even a year), trying to turn their life for the better.

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They are particularly at risk, because they are often considered adults, and this consideration is too often used to their disadvantage: almost no NGO have programs targeted to this group, police treats them as adults, and criminal organization find fertile terrain to enroll them for illegal activities, promising money and better lifestyle.

 

The closing of borders and lack of a proper plan from the EU means that many refugees are stuck in bad conditions: this pushes them to abandon the asylum system, making them more vulnerable and creates more opportunities for criminal organizations.

The outcome of this tragic situation will be evident in the following years, when the lack of proper education end the trauma of migration will emerge strongly. Producing a generation “in the middle”, with less rights and lower education hence highly at risk.

 

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Many children are working, and in many case their salary is the only income for the family.

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In these pictures, a shoe factory, owned by a Syrian man who fled the war, moving the production across the border to Gaziantep, most of the workers here were working for him in Syria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The shoes produced here are sold in Turkish bazaars and some are sold in the rebel held areas of Syria controlled by Turkey.

 

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Izmir is situated in one of the region where refugees and migrants try to cross the Aegean sea. The city has become a last stop before taking the risky sea route through Greece.
It is such a big phenomenon that almost every shop in the city sells life vest, often fake ones, made of polystyrene.

 

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In the urban areas there are many unaccompanied minors, they face dangerous situation, relying on smugglers that can use them to export drugs across the sea to Greek islands.

 

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In the city of Belgrade the situation for minors changes, they sometimes have a guaranteed accommodation in the governmental camps, but there they are more controlled and there is almost no chance to go to their final destinations, France, Belgium, Germany, UK. Because of this many prefer to sleep in the Barracks, the old railway station buildings that were occupied by migrants and serve them as shelter from the cold Serbian winter.

 

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A young man shaving in front of the building he lives in.

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The railway is often used a compass by the migrants. They follow it north, knowing it will take them to Hungary or Croatia.

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Many friendships are born during the months of travel from Afghanistan or Pakistan, is common between them to create groups to support and help each other, but sometimes this bonds are broken by bad luck, some were stopped by border patrols in Iran, Turkey or Bulgaria. Sometimes happens to meet again in a new Country, with more difficulties to face, meeting again a lost friend is one of the best moments to witness.

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HUMANISEA

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