Iris Collell

What eight weeks at NGO Atina taught me

My interest in human trafficking started with a Pilates class.

In a European transit camp, women and girls explain why they feel safer sleeping out in the cold.

"We never sleep [at the same time]. One of us always stays awake. We've heard too many stories of women who have been robbed," says 38-year-old Samaher from Baghdad. She has a soft voice and sad, dark eyes. 

Three weeks ago she fled Iraq with her baby boy and two female friends.  

Now she is at the transit camp of Vinojug on the Macedonian-Greek border, waiting for the train to Serbia.