A 34-year-old pharmacist stands with the bag that holds all he has left from Syria, including a flash drive with family photos. “I had to leave behind my parents and sister in Turkey,” he told the IRC. “I thought, if I die on this boat, at least I will die with the photos of my family near me.”
Packed onto a rubber dinghy with 53 other people trying to make it to Greece, the pharmacist who owns this bag ended up in the water when the coast guard punctured their boat. He has only a handful of possessions left: A flash drive with family photos, phone chargers and headphones, money, and two phones, one which was ruined in the water.
Iqbal, age 17, escaped from Afghanistan through Iran and Turkey, and arrived in Greece with a single backpack and a few possessions, including face whitening cream. “I want my skin to be white and my hair to be spiked–I don’t want them to know I’m a refugee,” he says. “I think that someone will spot me and call the police because I’m illegal.”
Inside his backpack, a 17-year-old from Afghanistan has a single change of clothes, $100 dollars and 130 Turkish lira, SIM cards for Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey, a smartphone and backup cell phone, and a comb, nail clipper, and a few other toiletries.
Omran, age 6, is on his way to Germany with his family.
Six-year-old Omran, from Syria, is carrying a single shirt and pair of pants, along with marshmallows and sweet cream (his favorite foods), a few toiletries, and a couple of bandages for a rough journey.
This tiger backpack contains everything that Omran, a 6-year-old Syrian refugee, owns.
Aboessa, a 20-year-old mother, escaped from Syria with her husband and their 10-month-old daughter. On their way to Greece, Turkish police stopped their boat and took out the motor in an attempt to force them to turn around. Using makeshift paddles, they made it to Lesbos.
A 20-year-old mother is carrying supplies for her 10-month-old baby: a hat and socks, a yellow headband, a jar of baby food, napkins for diaper changes, some medicine, a wallet with an ID and money, the baby’s vaccination documents, sunscreen, toothpaste, and a cell phone charger.
“This is all I have,” says 25-year-old Hassan. “They told us we could only bring two things, one extra shirt and pants.”
Hassan, a 25-year-old from Syria, has two possessions: a single shirt and pair of pants. He doesn’t own a bag.
This family–seven women, four men, and 20 children–left Syria with one to two bags each. They now have one left; the rest were tossed overboard when their boat started to sink on the way to Greece.
After their boat started to sink, the 31 members of one Syrian family lost everything but one bag. Inside: One diaper, a shirt and pair of jeans, two small cartons of milk and some cookies, personal documents and money, and a few toiletries.
Nour, 20, is an artist and musician. He left Syria with two bags, but smugglers forced him to abandon one.
20-year-old Nour has one shirt, a cell phone, an ID, and several gifts from friends: A rosary, a watch, a Syrian flag, Palestinian charm, guitar picks, and silver and wooden bracelets.
When Iqbal, a 17-year-old, fled the fighting in Afghanistan, he took a single bag. One change of clothes, $100, some Turkish lira, and SIM cards for Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey. A comb, a few bandages. He also brought face whitening cream and hair gel.
“I want my skin to be white and my hair to be spiked–I don’t want them to know I’m a refugee,” he told a photographer from the International Rescue Committee (IRC). “I think that someone will spot me and call the police because I’m illegal.”
In a heartbreaking variation on the ubiquitous “what’s in your bag?” photos–the kind that usually feature a sampling of the excess of some celebrity’s life–the IRC asked refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos to share what they’d carried from their former lives.
Omran, age 6, is on his way to Germany with his family.
A 6-year-old boy from Damascus carried a pair of pants and a shirt, along with marshmallows–his favorite snack–a few toiletries, and bandages for scrapes as he and his family try to hike undetected through forests.
Subscribe to the Daily newsletter.Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you every day
A 34-year-old pharmacist carried a wet cell phone, ruined when the Greek Coast Guard punctured the rubber dinghy that he was clinging to as he traveled across the sea. A 20-year-old mother carried only supplies for her baby, like a hat, socks, and vaccination records. A family of 31 people–who each left Syria with one or two bags–were left with a single bag among all of them after their boat began to sink and they had to toss the other luggage overboard.
Six-year-old Omran, from Syria, is carrying a single shirt and pair of pants, along with marshmallows and sweet cream (his favorite foods), a few toiletries, and a couple of bandages for a rough journey.
“We wanted to bring out some personal stories, in an overall story that can be all about numbers,” says Juliette Delay, global communications officer for the International Rescue Committee. “Whenever it’s all about numbers, it kind of dehumanizes all the people that are going through this. I do think a lot of people who didn’t really care about this story can relate to it in a different way.”
The numbers are staggeringly hard to take in: When the IRC arrived in Lesbos a couple of months ago, about 200 people arrived each day. Now, on some days, 3,000 people arrive on the tiny island, one stop on a seemingly endless journey to places like Germany.
