LIMBO
152km of barbed wire, electrified railings, watchtowers, armed guards and thermal cameras lie along Hungary's southern border.
A clear and conspicuous dividing line between an undefined us that declares itself under attack and those who want to enter. We the Christians, we the cradle of civilization and the land of well-being, we who are ageing and who, no matter our political alignment, do not tolerate change. They are many, but they are not one and the same, even if they are generally marked by the colour of their skin. They run, often frightened, sometimes aggressive, almost all young and male. Over time they have become entities rather than people. Migrants in the Mediterranean, Turkey, the Balkans, and Mexico, they are everywhere. And they often come to a point where their journey stops, turning into a stasis that can last for years. A sort of limbo anchors them to borders where the natives start to hate them and television makes simulacra of them.
These images are just a small cross-section of one of these indefinite realities. Since the construction of the wall, many try to get around it passing through Romania, then try to cross the entire Hungarian plain to arrive in Austria. They call it the "game", the irony of desperation. They get up in the middle of the night, rucksacks and plastic bags with a few supplies and set off towards the "triple frontier". They wait for the guard change and start running. 9 times out of 10 they are caught and sent back. They are often beaten or even stripped, sometimes their cell phones confiscated. They are rarely arrested, nobody wants to keep them. They then rest for a few days and try again. They try again and again, some seem to do it by inertia after 52 times. To give meaning to life and leave that limbo.
Text by journalist, Sabato Angieri.
Reportage realized in collaboration with L’Atlante editorial.
Assistant photographer Filippo Marfè.
Csaba Rusen
CAPTAIN OF THE CIVIL GUARD
Újszentiván, Hungary
“
After retirement, I started volunteering in the civil guard since I was a border guard before and had experience. I am now the head of the local group. We go out at night to patrol the area, we have drones, jeeps, thermal binoculars…migrants better stay outside the village because we don’t want them.
If they are really running away from the war, how come they all have a better cell phone than mine and branded clothes?”
BASHIR
SYRIAN MIGRANT
MAIDAN, SERBIA
“
My name is Bashir, I come from Aleppo, I left Syria when I was 16 after the bombings that destroyed my city, and now I have been moving from one place to another for 5 years.
My family is in Egypt but I can’t join them because I don’t have a passport. I was in Athens for 2 years and they arrested me there; 27 days in prison. Then they gave me 6 months to get out of the Greek territory so I fled to Albania, and then to Kosovo to get here.
Once, while I was trying to pass through Romania, the police found me and they beat me violently. In Serbia then they arrested me again, but I managed to return here to the border.
In Syria, before escaping, I went to school. Now I would love to go to Austria or Germany to work or study at university.”
FARMER
MAIDAN, SERBIA
“The whole village has been destroyed, they even fight with each other.
The solution in my opinion is that the government has to give us some money so we get out of here. Also because now it is impossible to sell the houses. You can no longer live like this.
We have never seen violence directly but we are afraid. My 6 year old daughter is terrified of them and people and she never leaves the house anymore. We want to go away. ”
farmer
MAIDAN, SERBIA
“I ask the Lord Jesus Christ, who rules both sky and earth, to stop the wars in the world. I ask Him to help people who are suffering all over the world.
Every day, I continuously pray, I ask to share wisdom with earthly authorities. To find a solution to the migrant problem, to live a quiet, peaceful, and righteous life in this sinful world.
To give wisdom to the earthly authorities to find a solution to the migrant problem. I ask him to rebuild our villages that were destroyed because of the migrants.”
It’s hard to describe all of the feelings that I experienced on that journey. A sense of guilt, sadness and hope came together in a strong need to create something that could help to know these people better, those that are frequently depicted as different. Behind them were the skies of Magritte and Michelangelo, and with a renaissance like composition and commercial photography lighting, I tried to bring them closer, albeit just symbolically, to an aesthetic considered part of our culture. But they are travellers, they walk for long distances, they have dreams to realise, and we have so much to learn from them.
They sometimes appear in my dreams to quickly disappear, these images are helping me to never forget them.
Gianmaria
