Devastated towns are homes for refugees and displaced people

Photograph by Sebastiao Salgado

            The Wars between the Serbs and Croats and some Muslims in the early 1900s destroyed many villages, left hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people, and even more refugees.  These pictures depict the homes where many children from the war have been left to survive.  The areas where these towns have been destroyed to the north of Yugoslavia (at that time), had to suffer very severe winters and refugees would survive by putting plastic sheeting on blown out windows and holes to keep warm.  The city was heavily mine and incidentally many refugees lost limbs and worse due to the tripping of these mines (Salgado).

 

            This map to the side helps us picture the mass amounts of refugees that left Yugoslavia in the early 90’s and many of these refugees are slowly making their way back to their country. However, even more than those who left Yugoslavia were internally displaced and most of over 2 million to this day have yet to see their homes (Wikipedia).  

Works

"Refugees and displaced people from the former Yugoslavia since 1991." Map. UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library. 2003. UNEP/GRID-Arendal. Web. 25 Feb 2010.

Salgado, Sebastião. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. 119. Print. 25 Feb 2010.

Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. Print.

"Yugoslav Wars". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia. 22 Feb 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.