Humans of New York: Migrant Crisis

As the U.N. General Assembly opens with a strong focus on Syria and the refugee crisis, and Europe and the United States continue to address the ever-growing number of refugees, it’s important to remember the human side of the story behind all the politics. And there are few better photographers for presenting the human side of any story than Humans of New York's Brandon Stanton. 

Humans of New York (HONY) was started by the Georgia native when after being fired from his job as a bond trader, he "thought it would be really cool to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants, so [he]…set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map" but then his project "began to take on a much different character." Stanton started collecting quotes and short stories when he was taking the photographs, and after a lot of hard work and time spent on NYC city streets (he says that he'll "pass 1,000 people before I take a photograph"), his blog took off.

Millions of Different Hardships

With over fifteen million likes on Facebook and a New York Times bestselling book, HONY is one of the most popular street photography sites today. And now Stanton is bringing his unique focus to the refugee crisis gripping the Middle East, North Arica, and Europe. Noting that these migrants “are part of one of the largest population movements in modern history,” Stanton will be documenting their stories and the “millions of different hardships that refugees face as they search for a new home.”

The first story he shares is of Muhammad, who he first met last year in Iraqi Kurdistan. At the time, Muhammad had just fled the war in Syria and was working as a clerk in a hotel when he agreed to work as Stanton’s interpreter. Afterwards Muhammad had planned to travel to the United Kingdom with fake papers, but his plans did not work out. After one family tragedy after another, he makes a harrowing journey and finally ends up in Austria.

Muhammad says:    

The first day I was there, I walked into a bakery and met a man named Fritz Hummel. He told me that forty years ago he had visited Syria and he’d been treated well. So he gave me clothes, food, everything. He became like a father to me. He took me to the Rotary Club and introduced me to the entire group. He told them my story and asked: ‘How can we help him?’ I found a church, and they gave me a place to live. Right away I committed myself to learning the language. I practiced German for 17 hours a day. I read children’s stories all day long. I watched television. I tried to meet as many Austrians as possible. After seven months, it was time to meet with a judge to determine my status. I could speak so well at this point, that I asked the judge if we could conduct the interview in German. He couldn’t believe it. He was so impressed that I’d already learned German, that he interviewed me for only ten minutes. Then he pointed at my Syrian ID card and said: ‘Muhammad, you will never need this again. You are now an Austrian!’

New stories are being added every day.

Where the Children Sleep

Along with HONY, Swedish photographer Magnus Wennman is also currently documenting the refugee crisis with a strong focus on the individual stories of the people involved. In “Where the Children Sleep,” Wennman focuses on the migrant children sleeping on streets and in forests. He notes that “two million children are fleeing the war, within and outside of the country borders. They have left their friends, their homes, and their beds behind. A few of these children offered to show where they sleep now, when everything that once was no longer exists.”

The Syrian Migrant Crisis

The horrific images of the drowned Syrian boy, three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, as well as images of refugees stranded in the Budapest train station and other tragic news reports including the seventy-one migrants who suffocated to death in a refrigerated truck in Austria, all have led to renewed calls for more action to be taken on behalf of approximately four million displaced Syrians.

“The migrant crisis in Europe is essentially self-inflicted,” Lina Khatib, a research associate at the University of London and former head of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said in the New York Times. “Had European countries sought serious solutions to political conflicts like the one in Syria, and dedicated enough time and resources to humanitarian assistance abroad, Europe would not be in this position today.”

Europe, Iceland, St. Louis, and the Pope Offer Help

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany is investing six billion euros ($6.7 billion) to cope with the migrant crisis, France has committed to receiving 24,000 migrants, and Britain has announced a plan to accommodate 20,000 Syrian migrants.

In addition to these actions by major European nations, one of the first countries to offer increased help came from Iceland, whose population is just over 300,000. After the government pledged to assist just fifty Syrians, author and professor Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir asked Icelanders on Facebook to speak out if they wanted the government to do more. More than 12,000 people responded to her Facebook group, “Syria is calling,” to sign an open letter to their welfare minister, Eygló Harðar. “I think people have had enough of seeing news stories from the Mediterranean and refugee camps of dying people and they want something done now,” she said to Iceland’s RÚV television. Icelanders offered to house refugees and provide clothes, assist in job training, and give language lessons.

Demonstrating how strongly the plight of Syrian migrants have affected people all over, another grass roots offer to help has come from St. Louis. Greg Johnson, a Presbyterian pastor, said that St. Louis should welcome at least 60,000 migrants, citing the city’s “track record of welcoming Muslims into our city and trusting them with our communities.” Johnson pointed out that when St. Louis previously accepted 60,000 Bosnian refugees, the city hugely benefited. “Entire neighborhoods saw revitalization, new businesses were started, and the city’s decades-long decline in population slowed. Our region is better for their having joined us.”

Pope Francis has also called on every European parish, religious community, monastery, and sanctuary to take in one refugee family.

What Is the US Doing?

Despite a prescient call by senators earlier this year urging President Obama to allow at least 65,000 displaced Syrians to resettle in the US—a move which was derided by some at the time—there is only likely to be a slight increase in the quota of Syrian migrants, unless changes are made.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, who signed the letter urging Mr. Obama to accept more Syrian refugees, said in the New York Times: “We knew of the mounting problem for the humanitarian issues, the moral issues.” And in BuzzFeed she said: “Europe should clearly take the lead because they are close in proximity, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take part, and doesn’t mean some countries in the Mideast like Saudi Arabia shouldn’t take some refugees as well.”

Eric P. Schwartz, a former assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, and now dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, said presidential action is needed for any changes to come about. “The folks who lead our humanitarian work in the government are the best in the world, but you need the president of the United States and the secretary of state, but the president in particular, to speak out about our responsibilities here and to define the challenge,” he said in the New York Times. Increasing the number of Syrians granted asylum to 50,000 on an emergency basis would also send “an extremely powerful signal to Europe and to the world.”

UPDATE: 9/11/2015. President Obama announced plans yesterday for the United States to take in at least 10,000 displaced Syrians over the next fiscal year. This comes after mounting criticism that the US is not doing enough to assist the approximately four million displaced Syrians. Responding to this announcement in Buzzfeed, Paul O’Brien, Oxfam’s vice president for police and campaigns, said: "The White House’s pledge is a start but it just scratches the surface...The U.S. can and must do more to help ensure that thousands of Syrians fleeing violence have the safety and security they need."
 

Reuters' The Wider Image: "Isle Landers"

The worsening migrant crisis in Europe has led to increased attention paid to the thousands of refugees and migrants making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. For the past decade, Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi has been documenting their journeys to Malta, which receives the greatest percentage of migrants per population than other country in Europe:

When I started covering this story, most people arrived on boats carrying about 30 people. The trend has changed in recent years to larger vessels and dinghies, carrying anything between 100 and 400 migrants: men, women - many of them pregnant - and children. I’m amazed at the contrasts between people on different boats. Some arrive in a relatively good state of health, the men clean-shaven, indicating that they’ve possibly only been at sea for a couple of days at most. Others can barely stand on their own two feet, and have to be lifted ashore, often to waiting ambulances. When a boat has been at sea for several days, the debris left behind once the immigrants have disembarked is a nauseating sight: old water bottles, food packaging, empty fuel tanks, torn clothing, shoes, excrement, vomit.

His photos show capsized boats, sunburnt and damaged faces, and one woman who gave birth shortly after being rescued at sea. '''I was cold. Everybody was afraid. After some time, people started suffering hallucinations. Our skin was peeling away with the fuel and sea water. I was very sick…I kept thinking of my unborn child,'" she said. Another photo essays documents life for Afghan, Iranian, and Sudanese migrants living off food scraps and with no electricity in two abandoned factories in the economically-depressed port of Patras, Greece, as they try to find a way to Italy and the rest of Europe. One is twenty-six-year-old Azam from South Sudan, who has already had multiple failed attempts to stow away on ferries, but said: "'I want to go to northern Europe and find a decent job and live a good life...I'll never give up.'"