Story of Baraa
We are two photographers who went to the refugee camp in Calais. We slept, ate and spoke with the refugees. While we were there we talked a lot about everyone’s experiences during their travel and listened to the most dramatic stories. Many refugees come to Calais to cross the English border. A refugee won’t be sent back once England is reached. This situation stems from the current immigration law, therefore England is known as a safe haven. We noticed that the news about the refugees in the Netherlands was highly focused on the refugees as one group or problem whom came to France and try to go to England. With this information we think that we can’t come close to really understand what these people are going through. In our opinion it is important to realise what these people have experienced and are experiencing right now. To understand who these people are we think that we have to talk and listen to these people, for that reason we gathered the personal stories from the refugees. Every one of the sixty million refugees has a different story to tell. While we where talking with the refugees we asked them if they want to share their story with the people in the Netherlands. Some of them were quite eager to tell everything what they have experienced, others would rather talk about their dreams and what they expect from the people in Europe. Our goal isn’t about getting the truth of what the refugees have been going through, but about how the refugees have experienced their need to leave their homes. For that reason we don’t see the point of fulfilling to the journalistic norms and values. We think the power of 1OutOf60Million is that we write their story as they told us. With this stories we hope that every one realises that those refugees are just people like you and me, with the difference that they have experienced something that the most of us luckily will never experience. After they told their story we asked them if we could make a portrait photograph of them to give their story a more personal touch and more understandability. Together with the portrait and their story we would like to attend the people in the Netherlands for the help they need. For that reason we will post one story every week, so the message will connect the Dutch people with the refugees in a constant matter. We hope the stories will inspire you!