Award of Excellence

"refugees in europe"

A family of refugees crawls under the controversial border fence being built by Hungary on its border with Serbia. The little girl's hair gets caught in the barbed wire, and precious seconds are lost untangling her. The man lifting the wire does not make it across before the Hungarian border guards arrive, but he takes the risk again later and succeeds.

While the fence is under construction, it is in fact possible for refugees and migrants to enter Hungary from Serbia walking down a railroad track, but they are confronted by police as soon as they cross the border via this route. Some are not aware of this possibility, others consciously choose to scale the fence in order to avoid the police, the registration and the fingerprinting, which in principle force them to seek asylum in Hungary.

On Monday September 14, the fence was completed, effectively closing the Hungarian-Serbian border to refugees and migrants. Röszke, Hungary, 08.27.2015.