"Shelley Cheung, filmmaker and director of She Is Syria, stands in front of the growing life jacket dump on Lesvos. Her father, who swam to Hong Kong in order to flee Communist China, came to the United States as a refugee in 1977."
Katie Salisbury
“Azula, an Iraqi Kurd, she had been in Berlin for just 20 days. She had the hopeful sheen of a new arrival and was upbeat about discovering the life ahead of her. Here, she dreams of becoming a hair stylist; in Iraq she wasn’t allowed to work as a woman.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Sabah, 35, is a mother of four and elementary school teacher fleeing Damascus, Syria to join her husband in Germany. Sabah preferred not to have her face photographed but poses here in shadow with several other mothers and their children by their tent at Moria camp, Lesvos.”
Katie Salisbury
3 of 15
“A group of Yemeni women look down from their room at Hotel Balasca in Athens, where their clothes hang dry from the balcony. The UN has placed them and their families at the hotel until their asylum assignments in the EU come through.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Hamida and her husband Mohammadi are refugees from Afghanistan who arrived in Berlin several months ago. They have two young children, an 8-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl who is very sick.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Nadia, a 37-year-old from Syria. Divorced and without children, she was traveling with her mother and her younger brother who would have been conscripted into the Syrian army had he stayed behind.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Aphrodite Vati Mariola is a mother, teacher, and the owner of Hotel Aphrodite, a family-run business in Molivos, Lesvos. She is an exemplar of Greek hospitality. When the first boat of refugees landed on her beach in April 2015, she mobilized her staff to help them safely disembark.”
Katie Salisbury
7 of 15
“Aveen, 37, is the kind of matriarch you trust implicitly. Friendly and open, she invited me to sit down next to the wood-burning stove their group was huddled around. Remembering her home, she says, “I was happy in my house, in my country.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Victoria Square, where I met this Afghani woman, is one of the main areas in Athens where refugees and migrants pass through on their way to other EU countries. She and her siblings were enjoying the winter sunshine in the park, horsing around and killing time until their 6 o’clock train to Macedonia.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Christiane Beckmann is the coordinator at Moabit Hilft, a local citizens group that provides clothing, toiletries, diapers, and a warm cup of chai to the refugees at Haus D in LAGeSo, Berlin’s main refugee center.”
Katie Salisbury
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“I crossed paths with the Hosseinis from Afghanistan in the back room of an Indian restaurant near Athen’s Victoria Square. They were waiting there, along with 5 or 6 other families, to board a train later that evening. Nilufa, 8, was sweet and sat quietly reading a paperback book imprinted with the title “How to Make a Better Life.” Assal, 2, was clearly the mischievous little sister who at one point had the whole family cracking up over her antics.”
Katie Salisbury
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“I met Abir, 14, and her mother, Aveen, outside the official Moria camp on Lesvos, Greece (the barbed-wire fences you see in the background behind her). Abir was sweet and soft-spoken and never far from her mother’s side.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Zahra, a refugee from Iraq, embraces her 9-month-old girl. She came to Germany alone with her two children, while pregnant with her third child.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Feriel, 37, is a mother of six from Syria. Here she stands with her sons Omar and Abdullah.”
Katie Salisbury
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“Asima Mohamed, 43, and her 17-year-old daughter are from Mosul, Iraq. When ISIS destroyed their home in 2009, their family of 10 moved to Kurdistan. ”
Katie Salisbury
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“Over the course of two days, I got to know her daughters Bayan, 9, and Reem, 11. The pair was always dressed in matching pink outfits and could have easily been mistaken for twins.”
Katie Salisbury
