John Domokos, Journalist

Yasmin, in Harmanli refugee camp. Photo by J. Domokos/2013.

Yasmin was not one of the many refugees who approached me to tell me their story when I entered Harmanli refugee camp in Bulgaria – I had to go and find her. I’d heard she was heavily pregnant, here with her four year old son, but without her husband who was stuck in Turkey.

I found her in the tiny portakabin she was sharing with two other families, with a small electric heater and a few blankets for warmth. But despite her situation and the hardship she had endured, she spent most of the time I was with her smiling and laughing, and was reluctant to complain. “I have to be strong for my son, and my baby,” she told me.

Tariq Abdul Rahim, in Istanbul. Photo by J. Domokos/2014.

Her only regret was that her husband, Tariq, had told her to flee their village in northern Syria before him. He was recovering from a broken jaw, and would follow her to reunite in a few weeks. Several months later, and Tariq was still in Istanbul having failed to make it over the Bulgaria-Turkey border.

I decided to go to Istanbul to find Tariq. Unlike Yasmin, he was unable to hide the toll the strain had taken on him. He told me he’d been stopped three times trying to cross the border, and that he’d die trying, rather than give up. The intensity of his stare, and his words, have stayed with me ever since, and I can find no words to describe what he must have been feeling – the pictures tell it best. Here was a family ripped apart, not only by war, but by bureaucracy and borders.

By John Domokos, Journalist for The Guardian

To watch more about Syrian refugees, go to http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/jan/13/fortress-europe-syria-refugee-crisis-video

(The Guardian/2004, Jan 13)