This post is also available in: French

Since 2013, photojournalist Michaël Bunel has been following thousands of exiles fleeing wars and misery, looking for a future and a better life. From the Middle East to the Jungle of Calais, via the migratory routes of the Balkans to Paris sidewalks, his black-and-white images show the travel and hospitality conditions reserved for these populations. Today, after 6 years of work and broadcasting in the press, this documentary in 3 parts is the subject of a book, EXIL, published by CdP Editions in fall 2019.

In the spring of 2013, when he was trying to join the front line of Aleppo, Michaël Bunel found himself blocked on the Turkish-Syrian border. There, he crosses the way of Syrian civilians fleeing battles and discovered the reality of refugee camps in Syria for the first time. At this time, he didn’t know yet that this was the starting point of a work which would occupy him for the next 6 years. Little by little, following the migratory routes leading up to Western Europe, he photographed and gathered stories of those who were forced to abandon everything behind them.

The first part of the documentary, called ”At the end of your dreams”, retraces the perilous path of exiles fleeing Syria via Turkey, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Germany. Michaël Bunel tells there about long hours of walking, hunger, fear, journeys on crowded trains, and finally about waiting and idleness once arrived at destination.

For many, the goal is to reach the United Kingdom but asylum conditions are strict and little available there. Most of the refugees end up blocked in the gigantic slum of Calais, the Jungle, waiting to pass illegally or the acceptation of their asylum application. From October 2015 until the final dismantling in October 2016, Michaël Bunel spent ”A year in the Jungle”, the second part of his documentary showing, without any pretense, the living conditions of more than 9000 men, women and children.

Fall 2016. The dismantling of the Jungle didn’t make go away the thousands of refugees occupying this place. Now, the French government has to take measures to protect and decently welcome them. But the answers are slow in coming and it only takes a few weeks for new makeshift camps to be formed in the north of Paris. At the Poissonnière, la Chapelle or Jaurès, the issues of reception and care of these populations remain the same. In this last part, ”In the land of human rights”, Michaël Bunel urges us to question and look at what remains of our values today.

”After numerous publications in press and many exhibitions, I now feel the need to materialize these six years of work in another way. The book seems to me the best way to register this story in time and offers a new support to share these life stories. This book is a manifesto exhibiting the conditions of survival and reception of these exiled populations. I hope to contribute to raising an awareness from the part of our leaders and our fellow citizens concerning our responsibility towards those who suffer in the land of human rights.” – Michaël Bunel