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The Syrian Nakba?

Interview: Emma Wallis and Neil KingMay 2, 2014

A British photo journalist has been documenting the plight of Syrian refugees. Bradley Secker came up with the idea of snapping people's hands holding the house keys from the homes they were forced to abandon or lost.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Bsoo

Bradley Secker has been photographing Syrian refugees along the Turkish-Syrian border since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. His photo project, called "Syrian Nakba," depicts refugees' hands holding their housekeys.

According to Secker, many refugees from Syria don't like having their faces photographed. Their homes back in Syria have often been destroyed or are uninhabitable due to the ongoing fighting, but they retain their keys as it gives them a feeling of home.

The word Nakba is associated with the 1948 Palestinian exodus, where some 700,000 Palestinians were forced to leave the area that is now Israel due to expulsion orders, persecution or fighting. Secker says that the use of the term in the title of this photo project is deliberately meant to provoke his audience.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, some 2.7 million Syrians have now sought refuge in neighbouring countries. The new Azraq refugee camp recently opened in Jordan, and has a capacity of 60,000 people.