They walked thousands of miles in someone else’s shoes.
Once they
returned home, Jones and Dlewati followed up with some of the refugees
they met on the road to see how they were settling in to their new homes
in Western Europe. One young man from Damascus decided to apply to a
university in Paris, and a nine-months-pregnant Syrian woman gave birth
to her first daughter in Germany, she said.
Journalists
Sophia Jones and Hiba Dlewati traveled thousands of miles with refugees
for three weeks in August across seven countries: Turkey, Greece,
Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Germany.
Jones,
the Middle East correspondent for the WorldPost, says she encountered
compassionate people dedicated to helping those on the risky trek to
safe haven in Western Europe, comprising a "modern-day Underground
Railroad." At times, these acts of kindness stood in stark contrast to
government inaction that has afflicted many countries amidst the worst
refugee crisis since World War II.
“At
times, it was difficult to maintain journalistic distance and make sure
our presence didn't harm the refugees with whom we traveled,” Jones
said to Yahoo News via email. “We made sure to back off when they met up
with smugglers, or when close to borders where authorities were looking
for refugees.”
She explained
that there is a fine line between traveling with a group of refugees
and helping them to smuggle themselves, becoming, in essence, a
smuggler.
“Even simple things, like telling them about a path we
heard other refugees were taking, could determine whether or not they
would make it in the end,” Jones said. “It was difficult to withhold
such potentially life-changing information.”
The results of their
journey from Turkey to Germany, which lasted 21 days, were published in
the Huffington Post early Tuesday morning as an immersive multimedia
project called “A Thousand Miles In Their Shoes: ‘We Have Stories Bigger Than The Sea.’”
For
weeks before the trip, Dlewati, a Syrian-American who was Jones's
translator, monitored social media and contacted Syrians planning to
travel to Western Europe. Their journey from Turkey to Germany lasted 21
days.
“We spent several
weeks beforehand researching, mapping out the route and reaching out to
refugees making the trip as well as volunteers helping out along the
way,” Jones said to Yahoo News via email.
She
said they met others along the way staying in refugee camps, waiting on
the side of the road and walking with their families.
“I
was constantly in awe at how resilient people were. These are people
who have left everything behind to risk death and humiliation to live in
a place they've only read about,” she said. “Many people left behind
entire families in hopes they would be granted asylum and bring over
spouses, children and parents. And yet, when in situations of extreme
duress, I often found people cracking jokes and focusing on the things
that really mattered — life and love.”
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