This portrait of the Red Cross refugee center in Nonceveux, Belgium is a documentary of the life of refugees treated with decency and compassion. After documenting the deplorable conditions and the humiliation in which refugees found themselves in the refugee camp in Calais and Grand Synthe, I thought it was important to show the possibilities of dealing with the influx of refugees if there was only the social and political will. The ideal scenario would encompass political maneuvering to stop the calamities that force these people to move from their homes into an uncertain destiny, left to face the humiliation and the degradation of the unwelcome of the society that in some ways contributes to cause their ill fortune. Ideal would be that weapons stop being sold to warring governments and that warlords cease to receive the blessing and the connivance of our leaders but unfortunately that is a utopia as things stand. Refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and Iraq flee the brunt of war only to receive second class treatment in the countries where they seek refuge, with sluggish asylum seeking procedures and the nearly complete apathy of the societies they seek to integrate to begin a new life.
© Daniel Botelho
