The war that ruptured through Syria made millions of fellow human beings lose their homes and lives. A beautiful diverse spectrum of human expression, from academic professors and doctors to skilled artists and craftsmen, suddenly lost not only their way of making a living, but their way of contributing to humanity. And with that, their way of giving meaning to life.
While initially they sought refuge in neighboring countries (Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey), matters took a different course in 2015, when Germany announced to welcome a million refugees from Syria. A massive pilgrimage of refugees from Turkey and neighboring countries ensued, towards a new home and a new future in Europe.
Yet it only took a few months for the European states to slide from its seemingly generous humanitarian gesture into a self-preserving fear and panic mode. Behind means of political disguise, starting in Hungary, spreading across the Balkan, border after border became shut down, cutting off the travel routes of the refugees. Hundreds of thousands of refugees who had planned for and counted on a journey to Europe lasting a couple of days, were now suddenly stranded for months in no man’s land across the Balkan.