MIGRATION
El Paso, Texas | 2022
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In downtown El Paso, holiday lights adorn trees and Christmas carols fill the air. But just blocks from the main city square, the festive season is more tempered.
After making the perilous journey and crossing the US border, crowds of newly-arrived migrants gather on the streets near the Greyhound bus station hoping to find a way out of the border town to start a life in the US.
Surviving the arduous journey is cause for celebration, but for many the holidays have brought a longing for the homes and family they left behind.
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Filmed and edited in 24 hours by Alexandra Ostasiewicz on assignment for BBC News.
Winner of the 2023 News Story Award of Excellence for digital storytelling from the White House News Photographers Association.
This video also ran as a package on BBC World News on Christmas Eve. It was produced and reported with writer Bernd Debusmann Jr.
Photography and reporting from this trip also appeared in a text story written by Bernd Debusmann Jr.
For El Paso migrants, an epic journey is followed by a long wait
To reach the US border, Wilmary Camacho had to cross thousands of miles of mountains and jungles, battling diseases and facing violent robberies - all while traveling with her four-month-old baby and three-year-old daughter.
+ Click to read the full story on the BBC News site.
Inside America’s child migrant centers | 2021
The US has a vast system of closed-off camps holding more than 20,000 migrant children sent across the US border alone.
In a special investigation, the BBC spoke with three girls about their experiences inside the centres and allegations of cold temperatures, sickness, and neglect.
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