Eritrea Asmara
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WHY?
Sadly, the human rights situation in Eritrea is appalling. For journalists, it is a challenge to obtain a visa and visit; it took me over six months. Streets of the World is a photo project that focuses on positivity, that strives to show the strength of humanity around the world.
Finding that in a country with so many problems sometimes seems difficult. In 2016 alone, 3,434 Eritrean refugees arrived in the Netherlands: the third largest group that year.
WHAT?
Each time I visit these troubled countries I am again surprised by the perseverance of people that live in such challenging circumstances. This also goes for Eritrea, where I spent several days at this bus station talking to people waiting for their bus. They carefully made it clear that life was hard. But I wanted to show their resilience.
Street sellers try to push their products onto the waiting crowd. The salesman in the foreground was kidding around with the line (and me) hoping it would boost his sales, and with success. It made waiting a bit more bearable.