FROM MIGRANTS TO REFUGEES:
THE NEW PLIGHT OF CENTRAL AMERICANS
Thousands of people flee violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala (known as the Northern Triangle) and end up seeking refuge in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica and the United States. Along the way, the migrant shelters that used to serve as pit stops for people seeking a better future up north have now become refugee camps, filled with men and women escaping death. This project was produced in 2017, at the peak of migration from the Northern Triangle. Below are two of the videos that are part of the larger multimedia project.
Role: producer, Cinematographer, photographer and editor
In limbo: the refugees who wait in Belize
With the most recent wave of violence in Central America, hundreds of families have arrived in Belize in search of asylum. The Belizean government has not granted asylum since the 1980s and says it is not prepared to do so. This family from El Salvador has waited for more than a year for the government and the local UNHCR office to offer a solution. Unable to work legally, they are desperate and thinking of fleeing to another country.
Thalía: the first transgender refugee
Thalía Ramírez is the first transgender woman to receive refugee status in Costa Rica. In 2017 the United Nations started to count the number of refugee cases of people from the LGBT community.