HUMANS OF LAGESO
→ Please find more photos and the individual stories of the people portrayed here: Humans of Lageso Blog
Berlin, at the height of summer of 2015.
‘Lageso’ is short for “Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales”, located in Berlin-Moabit and the first contact point for newly arrived refugees to officially apply for asylum. Due to understaffing, people wait for days to get processed, mostly left to fend for themselves with no food, shelter or medical care provided. The privately organized initiative “Moabit hilft” stepped in and is providing the basic care people are lacking on the Lageso property.
Once they are in the system of immigration bureaucracy, they simply become a number. After learning about their individual stories, their hopes and dreams, I feel a responsibility to share these to raise awareness of the human condition around us.
Through this project I am trying to reflect on the millions of people who have been forced to leave their countries in search for a safe and better future–faces, names and voices of individual humans simply categorized as „refugees“ by the media.
The Lageso is a representation of all the other immigration offices in Germany which have often become tragic beacons of hope for the individuals and families striving for a safe and peaceful future.
Please find the German version for some of the stories here on Spiegel Online.