A humanitarian tragedy has unfolded on the Greek islands in the past few months. It extends form war-stricken Syria to European countries, has a lot of faces, all of them painful.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees have arrived on Greece's shores this year, hoping to make their way from there to other countries in Europe. According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 500 people have died while trying to make the crossing across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the Greek islands this year.
Photography has proven a powerful tool to capture the depths of the humanitarian crisis. The images below, taken on the island of Lesbos by Aris Messinis, chief photographer for Agence France Presse in Athens, were published as news broke that cemeteries on the island were running out of space to bury the refugees.
Messinis zoomed in on the graves of a man and a little child who drowned while crossing. Two pieces of marble placed on the graves read “Unknown” and “Unidentified little child.” Below, the placards list the dates when the bodies were found. Nobody knows who they were.
This story was originally published on HuffPost Greece and was translated into English.
Read more on the refugee crisis in Greece:
- The Artist Telling Greeks' Stories Through Playmobil
- Greek Islander: It's Hard To Live With Death Every Day
- 7 Volunteers Whose Lives Were Changed By Refugees