Bury Me, My Love (The Pixel Hunt, 2017) is the story of Dana’s refugee migration from Homs (Siria), documented by journalist Lucie Soullier for Le Monde (for privacy, her full identity has been protected).
The European migrant Crisis
The European migrant crisis (2015) was a period of intense geopolitical and humanitarian strain when more than 1.3 million people arrived in Europe to seek asylum (that was the highest number of refugees since World War II).
(the highest number of refugees entering the continent since World War II)
The vast majority of these individuals were fleeing brutal civil wars, extreme violence, and persecution in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The crisis permanently reshaped European politics, border control, and humanitarian policies.
The crisis pushed the European Union’s legal framework to its absolute breaking point:
Under EU law, the country where an asylum seeker first arrives is legally responsible for processing their claim. In 2015, this completely overwhelmed frontline border states like Greece and Italy, causing the system to collapse under the sheer volume of arrivals.
In August 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made the historic decision to temporarily suspend EU rules for Syrian refugees, declaring “Wir schaffen das” (We can do this). Germany opened its borders, ultimately welcoming over 800,000 refugees in that single year.
To halt the overwhelming flow of arrivals via the Balkan route, the EU signed a multi-billion euro agreement with Turkey (2016). In exchange for financial aid, Turkey agreed to heavily police its borders and take back migrants who illegally crossed into Greece, which effectively brought the 2015 peak of the crisis to an end.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded that over 3,700 people drowned or went missing in the Mediterranean Sea during 2015 alone, making it one of the deadliest maritime migration years in history.
The crisis triggered a wave of nationalism across Europe. Countries like Hungary, Austria, and Slovenia built hundreds of miles of razor-wire border fences to physically block refugees from entering their territories.
The sudden demographic shift and anxiety over integration caused a massive political polarization in Europe, directly fueling the growth of anti-immigration political parties across the continent.
The Syrian Civil War
The Syrian Civil War (2011-today) is one of the deadliest and most destructive conflicts of the 21st century, resulting in over 500,000 deaths and triggering the global refugee crisis.
In March 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, peaceful pro-democracy protests erupted in the Syrian city of Deraa. Citizens marched to demand an end to corruption, economic stagnation, and the authoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family had held power since 1971.
The Assad regime responded with extreme violence, deploying tanks, snipers, and secret police to crush the protests. In response, defectors from the Syrian military formed the Free Syrian Army (FSA), turning the popular uprising into an armed rebellion.
The conflict transformed from a civil war into a proxy war between global and regional superpowers, dividing the country into shifting zones of control:
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The Syrian Government (Assad Regime): backed by Russia and Iran
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The Syrian Opposition: a fragmented coalition of rebel groups (moderate secular, hardline Islamists…), backed by Turkey, Gulf Arab states, and initially the United States
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The Kurdish Forces (SDF): operating in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces focused on defending their autonomous territory and became the primary ground ally of the United States and Western coalitions.
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Extremist Groups (ISIS): Exploiting the absolute chaos of the war, the terrorist group ISIS surged to power in 2014, capturing massive swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq, declaring a “caliphate” before being militarily defeated years later by a combination of international forces.
Throughout her entire journey, Dana’s mobile phone was her most vital tool for survival. She stayed in contact with a WhatsApp group containing her mother, her sisters, and her brother. She used the app to send live GPS location, text real-time updates and send voice notes.
Dana made her way to Izmir (Turkey) where she paid human smugglers to board a tiny, overcrowded plastic dinghy bound for Greece. In the middle of the night, the boat’s engine died in the Aegean Sea.
Dana pinned her GPS coordinates in the WhatsApp chat so her family could alert the coast guard. Fortunately, the currents drifted the dinghy onto the shores of the island of Lesbos (Greece), and she survived.
After crossing Greece and moving up the grueling “Balkan Route” through Macedonia and Serbia, Dana reached Hungary. To cross into Austria, she and a small group of refugees paid a smuggler to lock them inside the back of a completely sealed cargo truck. This was the most psychologically terrifying moment of her journey: just weeks prior, 71 refugees had tragically suffocated to death in a identical truck on an Austrian highway. Dana spent the journey texting her family in total darkness, praying for air.
She safely crossed the border, received legal asylum, and built a new life. Once her legal residency was approved, she successfully brought her family to Germany via legal flights, completely bypassing the smugglers.