In Europe, the Polish government has deployed thousands more soldiers and riot police to its eastern border with Belarus as it intensifies its violent crackdown on migrants and refugees — mostly from the Middle East and Africa — who are fleeing violence, poverty and the impacts of the climate catastrophe. One Kurdish refugee from Syria who gained asylum in Austria traveled to the border to help his parents try to cross into Poland from Belarus.

Gordi: “First of all, I am not helping just any old person. I’m helping my parents. I think in the laws of all countries, of all religions, it is not forbidden for a person to help their parents. Second of all, the people there, aside from my parents, they’re also human beings. They need help.”