33 days of the journey

Photographer Sergey Stroyelev drove with refugees from Turkey to Germany

In 2015, hundreds of thousands of migrants went through the Mediterranean Sea to the European Union. Most go to Germany: as expected, by the end of the year, Germany will accept at least a million refugees. The path to Germany for migrants lies through Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and Austria - and far from all these countries, refugees can count on the assistance of the authorities and the benevolent attitude of local residents. The photographer Sergey Stroyelev drove along with refugees from the Turkish vigor to German Munich. The path took him 33 days. "Medusa" publishes his photos and the story of the journey.

1. Türkiye. Bodrum

About 200 refugees from Pakistan live in the covered market building near the bus station in Bodrum. Mostly, men: When leaving for earnings to Europe, they leave their families at home, but there are women with children here. The Bodrumsky market is a transshipment point, from here you can get to Greece by boat. The boat costs money, and there are no guarantees that it will be possible to leave the first time. People sleep on cardboard, but only those who spent many months in Turkey begged. Recently arrived with them usually have money accumulated on the road.

Not far from the market, the camp is set up - it is located on the hill and surrounded by barbed wire. People living here also hope to sail to Greece. However, swimming to the island of Kos is very risky: the boats die in a storm, and the inhabitants of the camp claim that the Turkish coast guard shoots at the courts with refugees.

The transportation of people, according to the inhabitants of the camp, is engaged in the "local mafia." For one place in the boat, they may require a thousand euros. Refugees who have already paid for swimming need to wait on the Patrol change embankment. The patrolmen are noticed.

According to the police, two or three boats are sent to the island of Kos from different areas of Bodrum. One comes to the island. In order not to take risks, refugees are trying to get to Greece by land: through Istanbul and Edirne.

2. Türkiye. Istanbul, Edirne

There is no bus message between Istanbul and Edirne-they canceled it due to the influx of refugees from Syria. About four thousand Syrians were stuck at the Esenler bus station. People were divided into two groups, even volunteers are not allowed to one of them. Volunteers are local residents who periodically bring refugees food and clothes. Refugees with the flags of the EU countries in their hands demand to let buses. When it becomes clear that this will not happen, they decide to go to Edirne on foot, but on the night before leaving the camp the police accelerate.

You can get to Edirne from Istanbul only by passport - not Syrian. The refugee camp here is located at the football stadium. Refugees - about five thousand, mainly from Syria. The border with Greece is closed. People are planted by buses and take the country into the country.

3. Greece. The island of Kos

The only way to get to Greece is by water. Boats with refugees come to the island by four in the morning. Plots of the beach are divided between local gangs: after the arrival of the boats, they remove expensive engines from them. Only by their cars can you roughly determine where the refugees will land. According to “Motors Hunters”, if in the summer 10-15 boats could be disassembled in a day, now on a rare day-one.

After arrival, refugees are sent to the central port, where a small camp is equipped: tents, food and water. In the camp, people from Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria. The local population helps refugees. The ones who got here believe that they overcame half of their path.

4. Greece. Lesbos Island

Lesbos is another Greek island on which refugees float. Only five miles are separated from the Turkish coast. Refugees flow into the area of ​​Mollyos: boats with people are constantly moaning to the beach. In the morning and afternoon, boats arrive in dozens, by night there are fewer.

From Mollyos, refugees go to Mitinini - the main port of Lesbos. Local residents, under threat of criminal liability, are prohibited from bringing refugees in their cars. The bus goes to Mitinini, but there are few places in it, and many go on foot. Ten kilometers from Mitinini, the camp is set up, there people are waiting for documents with which they can freely move around Greece. To get documents, you need to defend an eight -hour queue.

From Mitinini you can get to Athens ferry. It is difficult to get tickets, in sales offices from Syrians often require a double price. In Athens, refugees do not linger: when they arrived at the Piraeus port, they get to the city center on the metro, from where buses go to Serbia.

5. Serbia. Shid

The transition from Serbian Horgosh to Hungary after recent clashes of refugees with the police was closed, now people are heading to the town of Shid on the border with Croatia. Not far from the border is a camp of the help of “doctors without borders”. Buses with refugees arrive continuously. Croatian authorities organize transport further to Hungary, but you need to wait a few hours.

6. Hungary. Budapest

Having reached Budapest, people go to the Keleti station: from here, trains go to Vienna. Sometimes the train has to wait a few days. Local residents and volunteers (many people themselves from the Middle East) staged a small camp at the station, where refugees could get food and water, clothes, tents for an overnight stay. The camp repeatedly smashed the skinheads. Recently, attacks have ceased-including because of the presence of a large number of journalists in the camp.

There are about a thousand people in the camp at the Keleti station, but people have been rotting all the time: refugees are moving from Croatia to Austria in a continuous stream. The number of seats on trains is limited, the police control the landing, strictly controlling the stream and sharing families - those who did not have enough space remain to wait for the next train. Tickets for most refugees are not up to the vein, but to the Austrian border. The conductor on the train may demand to pay the rest of the path.

In the Vienna, numerous volunteers are met by applause, but here migrants do not linger for more than a day: at the first opportunity, they sit on the trains further - to Germany. Unlike the Keleti station, the Vienna station is not adapted for long -term waiting.

7. Germany. Munich

At the Munich railway station, the police are met with refugees. People are escorted to the camp where you can eat, relax and undergo a medical examination. The authorities organized round -the -clock buses that deliver refugees to temporary camps in Munich and throughout Germany, and returned to new ones who come from Vienna. Locals bring food to the station.

Until the end of the year, the number of refugees adopted by Germany will reach a million people.