Marc Sanye

The other border

Questo lavoro documentario a lungo termine racconta le difficoltà incontrate dalle persone che emigrano dai loro paesi, a causa di guerre o fame e vogliono raggiungere l’Europa, alla ricerca di un futuro migliore. Dal 2015, l’Europa non ha più lasciato le frontiere e ha intensificato la sorveglianza su di esse. Nel 2015, a Lesbo, in Grecia, migliaia di persone sono state costrette ad attraversare il Mar Egeo, in un viaggio molto pericoloso. Nel 2016 la Macedonia ha chiuso il suo confine, lasciando migliaia di persone a vivere per mesi in un campo tra il fango e i binari del treno che attraversano questo confine. A febbraio 2017 centinaia di migranti sono costretti a vivere per mesi nelle “caserme” della vecchia stazione centrale della capitale serba, con temperature sotto i -15 gradi. Nel 2018 e nel 2020, attraverso la Bosnia.

Dalle foreste, nascoste, molte famiglie rischiano la vita per attraversare questo confine, quando la polizia arresta queste persone, vengono picchiate e riportate al punto di partenza. Nel 2019 e nel 2021 le montagne delle Alpi, tra Italia e Francia, diventano un passaggio per i migranti che vogliono raggiungere il nord della Francia o l’Inghilterra. A causa delle pressioni della polizia di Ventimiglia in Italia, un passaggio un po’ più sicuro, i migranti sono costretti ad attraversare le montagne innevate delle Alpi. Nel 2021 viene aperta una nuova rotta per i migranti che da anni vivono poveramente a Calais. Si sono messi nelle mani dei trafficanti, per attraversare la Manica su piccole imbarcazioni. Una volta in mare, i trafficanti li lasciano a se stessi, per attraversare i 30 chilometri che separano i due Paesi. Finora sono stati contati 11 morti. Le montagne delle Alpi, tra Italia e Francia, diventano un passaggio per i migranti che vogliono raggiungere il nord della Francia o l’Inghilterra.

In September 2015, thousands of migrants crossed the 9 kilometers that separate Turkey from Greece, in the Aegean Sea, towards Lesbos, fleeing the war in Syria. In the photograph, an overloaded plastic boat crosses the Aegean Sea towards the north coast of the island of Lesbos. It is estimated that approximately 800,000 people have arrived on the island fleeing their countries, and 800 migrants have died..

An old woman hugs her daughter and granddaughter, after having crossed at night, from Turkey to Greece, on Lesbos. Human traffickers force to pay about 1,200 euros for each person who wants to make this dangerous journey. They organize groups of people who want to cross this route, and force them to get on plastic boats, overloaded, and with fake life jackets, which further increases the danger of crossing this Sea.

The father and his daughter mourn the death of his wife, due to hypothermia, on a beach in Lesbos, because the boat in which they crossed the Aegean Sea to reach Greece, remained for hours in the drift.

For more than three months, 14,000 people, including 4,000 minors, lived in tents on the tracks of the train that crosses the border between Greece and Macedonia, in Idomeni.

In the small town of Idomeni, in March 2016, 14,000 people were trapped in transit to Europe. Due to the closure of this border that the Macedonian government ordered, these people lived badly for months, without food, without electricity, with rains, on this border.

A family from Afghanistan watches from their store next to the train tracks that cross this border, as a freight train passes, towards Macedonia, Europe. Shortly after, the Greek government, evicted this makeshift camp, locking up all the people in militarized camps scattered throughout Greece.

A migrant from Afghanistan, inside the barracks of the old central station in Belgrade, waits for the right moment to get on the train that will take him to the border with Bosnia. Temperatures in Serbia in winter can drop to -15 degrees.

Row of people to get a food ration, in the barracks of the central station of Belgrade. Only one NGO, (No Name Kitchen), could give this food ration to the hundreds of migrants who spent months in these conditions.

Hundreds of migrants are living in the barracks of the old central station of Belgrade, on their way through this city, towards Bosnia, in their attempt to reach France, Germany or England. Without food, without electricity, without sanitary services, these people try to raise money to continue their journey. Many need months before resuming their route.

THE GAME, that is what migrants call the fact of crossing the border between Bosnia and Croatia. A border that over the years has been fortified with police, motion sensors, drones, etc., to prevent the entry into Europe of thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, among others. Many of these migrants have been trying to do GAME for months, but when they are intercepted by the police, they are often beaten and sent back to Bosnia. Alia and her son hike through a forest after crossing the Bosnian-Croatian border. After walking several kilometers, they have entered the humid forests of Craocia. They walk quietly, so as not to be discovered by the police, since most of the time, if they are intercepted by the police, they are beaten and sent back to Bosnia.

Malika and her children, housed in a tent in an abandoned house near the Croatian border, look at the map on their mobile phones to try to cross the Bosnian-Croatian border the next day.

Malika passes her 5-year-old daughter to her husband Mohammed over the fence, on the border between Bosnia and Croatia, in the small town of Velika Kladusa.

A migrant from Eritrea prays near the river that crosses Ventimiglia, in Italy, before crossing the mountains of this town to cross to Fracia, to Menton, but continue on his route to Paris. To cross this mountain, you must walk for 3 hours, and overcome a difference of 1200 positive meters.

A cross marks the place where in 2017, a migrant died of hypothermia was found when trying to cross these mountains, to enter France. Because of this fact, police pressure on the other side of the border increased, and the police now intercept people who cross this route.

Three migrants look through the mobile phone, the way to go, to be able to cross this border of the Alps, without being detected. Due to police pressure in southern Italy, where it is less dangerous to cross, people who want to reach Paris or England are forced to try the snow-capped mountains of the Alps.

Due to strong police pressure in southern Italy, people who want to reach France or England are forced to cross this much more dangerous route. The route of the Alps. A migrant tries to help his fallen friend down the steep side of these mountains in the Alps. The low temperatures and the snowy and irregular terrain make this route one of the most dangerous to be able to cross to reach the north of France or the United Kingdom.

French police intercept a group of migrants trying to cross this border. When people trying to cross this route are intercepted, the police arrest them, identify them and send them back to Italy. Most of the migrants have tried to cross several times, until they were successful.

A French police patrol searches for migrants hiding in the dunes of Wimeraux beach in Nord Pas de Calais. People who want to cross the channel, hide at night in these dunes, so when it dawns to be able to get on the boat to try to cross the English Channel by day and thus be less dangerous.

In recent months, this route has been opened, which consists of crossing the English Channel, in boats at the hands of “passeurs”, human traffickers. They organize groups of migrants who want to reach Ingletarra, stopping at night and paying 2,500 euros per person, they put them on a boat and leave them to their own devices. In the photograph, a group of about 80 migrants, get on one of these boats, to cross the channel.

In August of this year, more than 800 people crossed this route in a single day. To date, 11 people have been killed trying to cross the English Channel. This canal is the busiest in the world for cargo ships.

Barcellona, Spagna

Marc Sanye, Barcellona, 1977.

2003 – Studio PHOTO JOURNALISM presso l’IEFC (institut d’estudis fotogràfics de Catalunya).

2004 – Corso di reportage fotografico in zone di conflitto presso l’IEFC.

Tra il 2005 e il 2009 diversi corsi e workshop come INCONTRI DI FOTOGRAFIA E GIORNALISMO AD ALBARRACÍN, PHOTON a Valencia o GIORNALISMO UMANO a Madrid, si sono uniti al mio insegnamento.

Nel 2010 pubblico EL PESO DE LA POBREZA, un documentario sulle donne portatrici sulla recinzione di Melilla.

2011 – Inizio a lavorare come fotoreporter nel quotidiano EL9NOU, nel centro della Catalogna.

2013 – Pubblico HOLIES, un saggio fotografico sulla comunità ghanese in Spagna.

Dal 2015 ho concentrato il mio lavoro sulla documentazione delle migrazioni attraverso i diversi confini d’Europa.

Opera pubblicata per l’AP (Associated Press) e per l’AFP (Agence France Press).

2020, ho documentato la Pandemia COVID-19, in Spagna, per ELDIARIO.ES.

Nel 2021 ho pubblicato un lavoro di ricerca documentaria sulle aziende di macellazione di animali, per la OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION.