By Asmita Sarkar:
We have only been a mute audience to the spectacle of the refugee crisis unfolding some 10,000 km away from India. This was until 3 year old, Aylan Kurdi’s, little body washed up on a beach in Turkey, the crisis in the Arab world was seen as their and Europe’s problem alone. The image of the child, who could easily be mistaken as peacefully asleep, has woken the world up to the horrifying reality that some 24 million refugees in that part of the world are facing.
While countries in EU are temporarily withdrawing from the Schengen visa system, Hungary closed off its border with Serbia. Even as these strict regulations came into force on September 14th, hundreds made a mad dash to the Hungary-Serbia border, Horgos II, in a bid to make way into the rest of EU with only few managing to succeed.
What must a painstaking journey like this be for the refugees who are fleeing their crisis-ridden homeland that they love?
In an ongoing video series Vice News’s correspondent boarded a train from Budapest, Hungary with some refugees, who wanted to travel into Germany, Sweden, Holland, etc. instead of being sent to Hungary’s refugee camps. The series documents their struggle, their journey and talks about the sense of community that people from various conflict ridden seem to form.
Video Courtesy: Vice News