Reunited refugee families: So good luck

Four years ago, the 26-year-old Abdulrazzak Kadri fled from war-torn Syria with his younger brother Abdullah. Now he can finally hug his siblings and mother again. 54-year-old Thanaa and her son cry with happiness and hug each other intimately.

The pictures of the Dutch photographer Selma van der Bijl show the pure joy of the refugee families exactly at the moments when parents, children, brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren see each other again - often after many years of separation.

The families all come from conflict areas such as Syria, Eritrea, Iraq or Yemen. They had to leave their homes because they were starving or their lives were becoming too dangerous. After a dangerous escape by boat, bus, train or on foot, they have arrived in Europe.

Well, when she sees each other all grief and suffering seems to be gone. For a moment there is no longer any uncertainty, no danger. There are short times of peace when everything is fine. They hug each other again, fall to the ground with happiness, are relieved and can no longer hold back their tears. "Every reunification is special," says van der Bijl.

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For her diploma project at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam, the photographer met refugee families at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for about a year to capture such situations. For this purpose, she contacted the Dutch Refugee Council VluchtelingenWerk, which published an inquiry on its website. Interested parties could volunteer to take part in the project.

Because it was never clear beforehand when family reunification would be approved, van der Bijl was sometimes in contact with families or social workers for months. Some have long been uncertain whether they will ever see their relatives again. Fathers had never seen their children because they were born in their absence.

The photographer often waited a long time with the families on site. It happened that relatives were not on the agreed plane, nobody had information about them - nerve-wracking hours. However, the actual moment of reunification often only lasted about a minute, which is why van der Bijl had to concentrate completely on capturing it.

"With my project, I want to show that refugees are people - not just numbers or a problem that has to go," says van der Bijl. "Behind every statistic there are human fates that are worth sharing."