Tent City
1 2016-04-30T15:03:37-07:00 Nathan Carr 04fec861688fff0990a65075e2f4025dac477f0a 8178 1 Idomeni camp plain 2016-04-30T15:03:37-07:00 Idomeni Idomeni - Gevgelija border cross Central Macedonia GRC Greece © UNHCR/Achilleas Zavallis View of the makeshift camp, near the Idomeni transit station, where Nisrine stays with her five children while waiting to cross the Greek border in to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. According to UNHCR women and children make up almost 60% of the total number of migrants and refugees arriving in Greece. Idomeni is currently running at 5 times its intended capacity. ; Following new border restrictions aimed at stemming the flow of people into Northern Europe, more than 12000 refugees find themselves waiting in Greece near the village of Idomeni to cross the border into the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. At the Idomeni transit station which is currently running at five times its capacity food, water, shelter and medicine are running out as Greek authorities are struggling to cope. Conditions are especially hard for women and children who make up almost 60% of the total number of people currently at Idomeni. 20160308 Greece. More than 12000 refugees find themselves in Greece unable to continue their journey towards Northern Europe as the Western Balkan route to Northern Europe shuts down. Nathan Carr 04fec861688fff0990a65075e2f4025dac477f0aThis page is referenced by:
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2016-04-30T15:09:04-07:00
Nathan Carr: Introduction
7
Purpose of the Project
plain
2016-05-09T10:45:29-07:00
Any discussion about a continuing crisis that effects millions of people and stretches thousands of miles across numerous cultures and borderlines is inevitably restrained by generalizations, uncertainties, and a multiplicity of different perspectives. My approach to this situation is to do my best to inform the generalizations, to expose some of the uncertainties, and to tell the story from the perspective of one particular Syrian refugee. This individual is Nisrine Shiko, a single mother of five.
I have chosen her story over the hundreds of others that have been documented because I believe she represents the statistical fact that, according to the UNHCR, approximately 60-75% of Syrian refugees are women and children. While her womanhood and motherhood potentially pose a host of distinct complications in her displacement, her story also takes us through some of the locations and problems of migration that are common to the crisis.
Nisrine and her children are among millions that have fled Syria through Turkey to follow the Balkan route into Europe. The course I have plotted includes some of the intermediary points along this path, but it is important to note that the map intentionally does not include an ultimate destination. Many refugees have no fixed destination, but even if they do, a multitude of obstacles are sure to get in their way. Migration in this crisis is seldom, if ever, a simple linear trajectory from point A to point B, especially as borders are reinforced and vulnerable refugees detained and / or deported. As seen in the video above, Nisrine, like thousands of others, finds herself stuck in between places, in the border spaces, unsure of what is to come.
(image credit: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)