NEWSROOM

• "This is Hell on Hearth" on TIME Magazine

  

  "Santi Palacios, an independent Spanish photojournalist on assignment for the Associated Press, was embedded with Proactiva Open Arms, a Spanish rescue group begun by volunteer lifeguards who responded to the historic influx of asylum-seekers on the shores of Greece two years ago. With rough seas early on July 25, Palacios thought it could be a quiet day. But close to 11 a.m., a call came in about a dire situation 12 miles away. The vessel, named Open Arms, dispatched two speed boats that raced to the scene.

  “We could very easily see that something was wrong, that something was not normal,” Palacios told TIME in the hours after the scene unfolded. The rescuers attempted to bring calm and distributed life jackets before disembarkation could begin. “It wasn’t until we took these four kids with us on our speed boat—and one woman to take care of them—that we really started hearing there were bodies inside.”

  Full article here

• New Story: Left behind - Migrant belongings

  

  The migrants arrive by the hundreds on the beaches of the Greek island of Lesbos. And in their eagerness to move on, they leave behind belongings they carried on their backs.

  The people fleeing war and poverty, mostly from Syria but also from Afghanistan, Iraq or Pakistan, turn up from the Turkish coasts after crossing rough seas on precarious rubber dinghies. This northeastern Greek island has become one the main entry points to Europe for refugees this year. More than 1,000 people arrive every day to the beaches on the north of the island, by now a dramatic routine.

  The beach arrivals always chaotic, especially in bad weather. Children and adults jump off the dinghies as they approach the shore, desperate to reach land as soon as possible. On their backs, they carry the few personal belongings they managed to take on the journey. Some of them end up on the beach.

  Link to the story in AP's blog

• New Coverage: Migrants rescue mission off the Libyan coast

  

  New Coverage: aboard Golfo Azzurro, the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescue ship, during migrants rescue mission off the Libyan coast.

  15 days, 7 operations, 825 people rescued and landed in safe harbor.

  Part of the coverage was commissioned by the Associated Press.
  You can check a one day rescue mission edit here.

• World Press Photo 2017

  

  World Press Photo Awards 2017, General News, 2nd prize singles.

  A 11-year-old girl from Nigeria, (left), who said her mother died in Libya, cries next to her 10-year-old brother aboard a rescue boat of the Spanish ngo Proactiva Open Arms, after sailing for hours on an overcrowded rubber boat with other refugees and migrants, during a rescue operation on the Mediterranean Sea, about 23 kilometers (14 miles) north of Sabratha, Libya, on Thursday, July 28, 2016. (© Santi Palacios)