‘We recreate borders in people’s minds’

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Afghan refugee fleeing Syria on the train between Orestiada and Alexandroupolis. Greece, 2012. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

Palavan, an Afghan refugee, flies on his "flying carpet" in the abandoned warehouses of the port of Trieste. Italy, 2013. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

Refugees who used to live in the depots at the port of Trieste are welcomed in the Prosecco Scout camp. Trieste, Italy, 2013. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

Yuba, an Algerian refugee of Berber origin. In the background, the hills of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Banja Koviljača, Serbia, 2014. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

Abdul, a Sudanese refugee received in the centre of Tutin, looks at the portrait of Josip Broz Tito, President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Tutin, Serbia, 2014. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

Samir is a Palestinian refugee who defected from the Syrian army. After getting stuck in Greece, he reached Switzerland on foot through the Balkans. Bellinzona, 2013. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

A Syrian refugee shows a picture of his handcuffed hand which he took during a document check by the Greek police. Alexandroupolis, Greece, 2012. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

This Canadian coin symbolises the dream destination of this Algerian migrant. Obrenovac, Serbia, 2014. Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

Gulchì is a three-year-old Afghan refugee staying in the centre for asylum seekers in Banja Koviljača. Serbia, 2014. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

A cordage of solidaritz at the Col de l'Échelle, organised to draw attention to the dangers faced by migrants when crossing the Alpine border between Italy and France during the winter. Briançon, France, 2017. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

S. Stoyanov, head of border police for southern Bulgaria, on a hill near Lesovo on the Turkish-Bulgarian border. Lesovo. Bulgaria, 2014. Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

Mahdi, 20, is Nigerian. He is stuck in the Sjenica refugee centre because he has no money to continue his journey. He would just like to go home, but cannot do so because of lack of resources. Sjenica, Serbia, 2014. (Alberto Campi) ‘Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

Asylum seekers queuing for a meal in the park of Como station after the closure of the Italian-Swiss border. Como, Italy, 2016. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

A Sudanese refugee cleans the mud that accumulated under his feet when he crossed the Evros River, which marks the border between Turkey and Greece. Nea Vyssa, Greece, 2012. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

The refugees follow the railway to cross Macedonia on foot to Serbia. Between 2014 and 2015, dozens of refugees died crushed by trains travelling along this line. Gevgelija, Republic of Northern Macedonia, 2015. (Alberto Campi) Alberto Campi, We Report 2018

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The photographer Alberto Campi roamed the migrant trails to meet the people who have come to Europe seeking shelter. An exhibition highlights his work and challenges the notion of frontiers.

Palavan has one of those uplifting smiles that can brighten the greyest of days. On his improvised swing, which looks much like a flying carpet, the Afghan refugee soars over abandoned warehouses in the Italian port of Trieste. A moment of hope on the often tortuous paths of migration, captured by the Geneva-based photographer.  

“We could draw a curve of hope,” notes Campi. The photographer recounts the intense stress of migrants at each border crossing, the hope for a better life that is reborn upon arrival in a new country. Then, this glimmer of hope  is gone, crushed by the obstacles along the waz.

The winner of the 2012 Swiss Photo Award travelled across Europe from 2012 to 2017, immortalizing the situation of migrants. Her work includes an exhibition entitled “Beyond Borders: Migration and Differences” organised by the NGO Alliance Sud. At the heart of it: the notion of border, both the geographical markers and the mental divides that keep people separate.

Growing up on the border

Alberto Campi was born in 1982 in Italy, a few kilometres from Switzerland. “I am a person who grew up on the border in the good old days of the European Union,” he says. For him, preventing people from freely passing through is absurd. In 2012, at the beginning of the Syrian crisis, he spent three months in Greece. “I was shocked by the violence against migrants by the authorities, by the police,” he recalls.

His route then led him to the Balkans. In Serbia, he discovered “the magnificent relationship between the population and refugees”. 

“For me, it was an example of the humane treatment of migrants. They were well received, without victimisation,” continues Campi.

Through his lens, the photographer observes the boundaries but the changes he sees frighten him. “Everything is closed. We are recreating borders in people’s minds,” he says. 

He no longer believes there is a will to offer a life to migrants who have arrived in Europe. He no longer believes in it to the point of wanting to stop working on migration, with this exhibition as the final point. Will he succeed in doing so?

For the time being, her images will be used to meet children, since next year, after being presented at the Alliance Sud offices in Lausanne, they will travel to schools. 

“It makes more sense than presenting an exhibition in a gallery. You have to go and get the audience where they were born,” says the photographer.