Nicoló Filippo Rosso, Italy

Largely unnoticed by the global public, people have been fleeing from the crisis state of Venezuela to neighboring Colombia since 2016: from political insecurity and violence, from hunger and a health system in a state of collapse. According to UNICEF estimates, the number of refugees has grown to 1.7 million, including over 430,000 children and young people.

Colombian organizations provide a kind of first aid at the border, distributing food, drinking water and medicines. The majority of the refugees, however, try to reach the capital Bogotá, or to continue on to Ecuador. They embark on adventurous journeys on foot, some manage to travel on top of trucks.

Italian photographer Nicoló Filippo Rosso, who currently lives in Colombia, has captured one such scene: children transported in a truck that normally carries coal.

Photographer: Nicoló Filippo Rosso, Italy

Nicoló Filippo Rosso, born 1985, studied literature at the University of Turin. He started to develop an interest in photography while living in an indigenous community in the Amazon region in 2011. Rosso now lives in Colombia. As a freelance photographer, he also works for aid organizations; his photo series have appeared in newspapers and magazines such as the ‘Washington Post’, ‘Der Spiegel’ and ‘Vice’. He has participated and won awards in exhibitions in the USA and Canada, in Russia, India and several times in Colombia.