Witness the Resilience of Thousands of Refugees on Their Way to Europe
Witness the Resilience of Thousands of Refugees on Their Way to Europe
2 minute read
Volunteers wave goodbye to migrants at the railway station in Szeged, Hungary.
Hungarian authorities have used passenger trains to transport incoming migrants from the border region to registration centers in other parts of Hungary, Aug. 30, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
From the end of August through mid-September, as he followed the migrant trail from Turkey through Greece, the Balkans and Hungary, what struck Yuri Kozyrev the most about the thousands of asylum seekers he saw through the lens of his camera was their resilience in the face of demeaning hardship. They never seemed to give in to despair. They tried hard to look dignified – mending and washing their clothes, shaving and tending to make-up—even as they walked for days on end through blistering heat on their way to Western Europe.
“You might expect to see these people broken by this point,” Kozyrev, a contract photographer for TIME, told me as we watched hundreds of them pass in an unending stream across the border from Serbia to Hungary—and into the European Union—after traveling for more than a thousand miles by land and sea to get there. “But they are smiling,” he said. “They are happy.”
It is in some ways a testament to the hopelessness they left behind in the war zones of Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan that they endure the long journey to Europe with such hopeful looks on their faces. Even as they confronted the razor-wire fences and the detention camps where they are forced to wait for registration, they held their heads high.
In his photographs, Kozyrev doesn’t just capture the moments of terror and exhaustion that the migrants endure – although these are, of course, abundant along the road they take. He also shows the poignant displays of integrity and self-respect, as when they pray at a mosque they built out of plastic netting or stop to preen in front of a traffic mirror on a highway. The resulting picture is not of shattered lives but ones in the midst of a grueling transition, looking ahead to the process of laying down roots in a place where they can feel safe. “That’s what drives them,” says Kozyrev. “Hope.”
Yuri Kozyrev is a TIME contract photographer represented by Noor.
Alice Gabriner and Mikko Takkunen, who edited this photo essay, are TIME’s International Photo Editor and TIME.com Associate Photo Editor, respectively.
Simon Shuster is a correspondent for TIME magazine.
A boat full of migrants, lit by the flashlights from the Greek coast guard, is rescued from the waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 5, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA Syrian migrant aboard a flimsy rubber motorboat hands his 1-month-old baby to Greek coast guardsmen, who have arrived to rescue the boat full of migrants from dangerous waters near the border between Greece and Turkey. Sept. 7, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMESyrian migrants are taken to Leros, Greece, at daybreak, aboard a Greek coast guard vessel after it rescued them from waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Center-left, a refugee couple from Damascus, Syria is on their honeymoon. The groom, Muhdi Salem, 29, is wearing a black shirt; and the bride, Sanaa Salem, 29, is sleeping with her head in his lap. Sept. 7, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEVolunteers from Western Europe help a boat full of migrants from Syria and Afghanistan come ashore on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 4, 2015.
Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA man holding a child comes ashore near the village of Skala Sikamineas, on the northern tip of Lesbos, after navigating the 6-mile crossing from Turkey on an inflatable raft. The next destination from migrants arriving from Turkey is a 34-mile walk to Mytilini, the capital of Lesbos. Sept. 18, 2015.
Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERefugees are helped by volunteers and tourists in Skala Sikamineas on the northern tip of Lesbos, Greece. Thousands of migrants have come ashore this summer on the Greek island of Lesbos, a popular tourist destination. Sept. 18, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA beach on the Greek island of Lesbos is festooned with orange life jackets and deflated rafts abandoned by migrants who are coming ashore near the village of Skala Sikamineas after navigating the 6-mile crossing from Turkey on inflatable rafts. Between 2,000 and 3,500 migrants now reach the island daily, riding on about 100 inflatable rafts. Sept. 15, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMigrants form a camp to rest on the roadside on the island of Lesbos, Greece, after coming ashore from Turkey on overcrowded rubber boats. Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 4, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEAn Afghan migrant shaves with the help of a traffic mirror on the side of a highway on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 5, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMigrants from Afghanistan dance at a hastily built camp for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 4, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA group of Pakistani men wait at a park next to the bus station in Bodrum, waiting to make the journey to Greece on a dinghy. Bodrum, Turkey, Sept. 16, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMigrants pray at the makeshift mosque they have built inside a detention and processing camp for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos, Sept. 4, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMigrants rest aboard a cruise ship that the Greek government chartered to transport them to Athens from Lesbos. The regular ferry service traveling this route was unable to cope with the unprecedented influx of migrants going through Greece to Western Europe from various conflict zones across the Muslim world. Sept. 5, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA migrant takes a selfie aboard a cruise ship that the Greek government chartered to transport them to Athens from the Greek island of Lesbos, Sept. 5, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMigrants come aboard a cruise ship that the Greek government chartered to transport them to Athens from the Greek island of Lesbos. Sept. 5, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEGhafek Aiad Alsaho, a Syrian migrant, looks through the window of a police bus after border guards caught him crossing illegally from Serbia into Hungary on his way into the European Union.
Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015.
Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA group of migrants walks toward a Hungarian detention center for migrants arriving in the European Union, Aug. 31, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA group of migrants from Afghanistan takes a rest before crossing into the European Union through the border between Serbia and Hungary.
Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 31, 2015.
Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA group of migrants from Syria prepares to cross into the European Union through the border between Serbia and Hungary. Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015.
Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMigrants wait behind a police line for Hungarian authorities to register their arrival in the European Union.
Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015.
Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA Syrian family prepares to turn themselves into a Hungarian detention facility for migrants arriving in the European Union.
Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA group of migrants takes a rest before crossing into the European Union through the border between Serbia and Hungary.
Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 30, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA group of migrants waits at a makeshift detention camp for Hungarian authorities to register their arrival in the European Union.
Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMigrants protest for the right to travel to Germany and claim asylum at the Keleti train station in Budapest which was temporarily closed. Sept. 1, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEThousands of migrants stranded at the Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, blocked from traveling to Austria, Germany and destinations in northern Europe where they hope to seek asylum. Sept. 2, 2015.
Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEVolunteers wave goodbye to migrants at the railway station in Szeged, Hungary.
Hungarian authorities have used passenger trains to transport incoming migrants from the border region to registration centers in other parts of Hungary, Aug. 30, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
