Baladk 2016

Jordan has absorbed more refugees than almost any other county. With almost 3 million from Palestine, 1.4 million from Syria and 200,000 from Iraq, over half the country's population is from a refugee background.

The first wave of refugees in the country were Palestinian who fled their homeland during the creation of Israel in 1948. Most of the Palestinian's in Jordan are now permanently settled and are allowed access to public services and healthcare, as a result, the areas that were once refugee camps have been transformed into urbanized neighborhoods surrounding the nation's cities.

This wall, painted in one of these predominantly Palestinian neighbourhoods, is a portrait of a young girl who escaped Syria with her three brothers. The brothers and sisters are currently in the 'unaccompanied minors' section of a refugee camp, a small orphanage for children who arrived with no parents or other family. This girl was the most outgoing of all the girls there, leaving the private girls-only section everyday to play football, socialize and speak to her brothers. I was surprised by how many people I met in the camp had rejected resettlement in other countries as they felt that if they left the camp their homeland would be lost for them, choosing instead to wait out the war in the hope that they could return to their homes. Almost everyone I met dreamed of returning to Syria over anything else.

The portrait shows the young girl in limbo, torn between two worlds. Here image in the

foreground is looking outwards towards an uncertain future, her background reflection looking back, towards the world she left behind.

Fintan Magee