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Calais, Port of Hope and Despair

A migrant sticks his head out on the look out for guardians inside the port's truck parking lot. Calais, France, June 2014. For the last 20 years the French city of Calais, with links from the European continent to the United Kingdom through its port has become the last milestone for migrants fleeing wars, oppressive regimes and economic depressions around the world. The migrants, after years spent travelling from their home countries such as Mali, Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan Iran, and most recently Syria, smuggle themselves inside container trucks that from Calais will hopefully take them to the United Kingdom. Their dangerous journey is made even grimmer by the controls carried out by French authorities, which only contribute to worsen the migrants already precarious living conditions. With no sanitation facilities and only being fed once a day by volunteer organisations many fall in despair and commit suicide or opt for taking unnecessary risks eventually sustaining severe injuries or even disappearing without leaving any trace behind. (Photo by Salvador Banyo/NurPhoto)

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