A moving short photo-video from Francisco Elías Prada and Ángela Rodríguez Torres of LAB partner Ojos Ilegales, Venezuela. The photos convey haunting images of migrants from Central America as they cross Mexico in a desperate attempt to reach the USA.
The translation of the text is:
“Go back to your countries. You’re rubbish! You’re shit!” -That’s what they said to me.
Illegals
Travellers [Braseros]
No visa
No papers
Undocumented
Southerner [Sudaca]
Underground
Immigrant
Criminal
To migrate is a human right
Frontiers are invented by men
400,000 transmigrants cross Mexico every year
50 per cent of women transmigrants are raped on their transit through Mexico
Thousands of transmigrants die under the wheels of ‘La Bestia’ [‘The Beast’ – the train many hitch rides on]
Appoximately 70,000 migrants have disappeared crossing Mexico towards the US
Thousands of migrants are left by the roadside in a war conducted against them
Many never arrived in the United States and never returned to their home countries. They disappeared!
The mothers of the thousands of disappeared started to come to Mexico to look for them.
But despite the risks, the exodus continues.
High walls await them. Deportation awaits them!
The empire waits for them, repression waits for them…
Loneliness awaits, lethal injection awaits them…
Freedom knows no frontiers.
No human being is illegal.
Created by: Francisco Elías Prada
Transmigración en Movimiento [Transmigration on the Move]
Mexico/Venezuela 2017 Design and Screenplay: Angela Rodríguez Torres