The sea, the sea: photographing the journeys of refugees

Europe is facing the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. Almost 44,000 people have risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean so far this year. Of the 68.5 million displaced people worldwide, 25.4 million are refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. 
 
In the wake of Refugee Week 2018, we choose five images that define the crisis.

Objects of Flight

Cigarettes, nail clippers, a deck of cards, a chocolate bar: these fragments were left behind in boats bringing refugees to Europe and collected by artist Thomas Kilpper and Massimo Ricciardo. Against the enormity of war, sometimes the smallest things carry the greatest pathos.
 
Thomas Kilpper and Massimo Ricciardo: Objects of Flight – An Inventory of Migration | Vitrine 2. Exhibited at The Sea is the Limit, York Art Gallery, 4 May–2 September 2018

On the wing

 
This image was taken by photographer Wolf James at Birmingham’s Initial Accommodation Centre for newly arrived families.
 
‘With few materials available, just some feathers and face paint was all it took to transform a room of kids into flying birds and butterflies. And, more importantly, back into children.’
 
© Wolf James. For more info, see nextgenlondon.com/migrate or @MigrateOfficial on Instagram

Going back is death

 
This little girl is one of more than 50,000 refugees stranded in Greece. Having fled the violence of the Middle East, they are pinned between the violence behind them and Europe’s bolted doors.
 
Photo by Paul Hill and Maria Falconer, currently on display as part of ANON, at the Photo Space, Shropshire, 23 June–28 July 2018

Land at last

 
An exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal, in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh.
 
This photograph will appear alongside other examples of Reuters’ award-winning photojournalism at the first-ever international Photo North Festival, taking place in Harrogate from 9-11 November 2018.
 
Image credit: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Port in a storm

Photographer Giovanna Del Sarto is devoted to the dignity maintained by refugees throughout their harrowing journeys. This is Mahbub, who has travelled from Afghanistan to Athens.
 
‘The portraits I took are very similar to family portraits, conveying a relaxed and carefree attitude that only scratches the surface of the refugees’ lives,’ she says.
 
Mahbub in Athens, Greece, 2016, from Giovanna Del Sarto's A Polaroid for a Refugee project, on display at the Migration Museum at The Workshop until 1 July 2018 © Giovanna Del Sarto