INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Few would equate human life with battery life, but for many migrants escaping war or famine, a single percentage point of battery can mean
getting the right information at the right time & or not surviving at all.
Smartphones today have become an integral part of a forced
From navigating mountains in Central Asia using Google Maps to staying connected with family back home via WhatsApp, smartphones have
transformed the migrant experience & though not always for the better.
No electron spared
In Eastern Europe, many migrants pushed back from
Hungary stay along the border on the Serbian side in abandoned buildings
Volunteers visit these sites to bring supplies, including repurposed car batteries that migrants use to charge their phones.
At one
abandoned building less than a mile from the Hungarian border, migrants huddle around one car battery to charge their phones, and theyall
agree about the importance of battery life to them
Many asked for a power bank to enable them to charge their phone when outlets are not available
Between each other, they constantly compare notes on what apps use up the most battery power, and remind each other to close apps when not
in use.
Nashid, a migrant from Pakistan taking shelter in this building, says one of his primary needs at this remote outpost is for a way
With no regular access to electricity, he depends on the visits of volunteers to be able to charge his battery, concocting all sorts of ways
to keep it alive until their next visit
Some of his strategies include making sure his phone is turned off when he sleeps at night or if he naps during the day, as well as using
the lowest brightness level possible
He swears that taking out a dead battery and shaking it repeatedly provides him with a few extra minutes of phone use.
For many migrants
traversing Eastern Europe to get to Western Europe, the Hungarian-Serbian border presents the final frontier
Once in Hungary, migrants will have entered the Schengen Area, the 26 EU-member zone with no border controls, making their destination
countries in Western Europe significantly easier to reach
Increased security though has made this border crossing significantly harder & with many migrants being beaten and pushed back into Serbia
dozens of times before they eventually make it across.
Nashid has been trying to cross into Hungary from Serbia for the past eight months
He left his family, including a wife and two kids, back in Pakistan before setting out to Europe
He says he uses WhatsApp to keep in touch with them and to stay connected to his cousin in Paris & his ultimate destination
He admits, battery constraints aside, that his phone also provides him with a reprieve from long hours spent idly waiting every day
He tries to sneak a song or two, or watch a couple of Urdu-language videos on YouTube.
One journey, a million apps
Over the last few years,
Serbia has taken on the role of a major transit point for migrants trying to make it to Western Europe
The Refugee Aid Miksalište Center in the Serbian capital Belgrade, a drop-in center open 24 hours a day, is staffed by NGOs that provide
services to migrants in transit
As soon as you enter the Center, you again see migrants gathered around extension cords, charging their phones and using the Center free
Wi-Fi to access their social media and Skype with friends and family back home.
Migrants in Serbia huddle around a power strip to charge
their smartphones (Photo by Ziad Reslan)
The same scene seems to repeat wherever migrants congregate
The nearly 70 million forced migrants across the world today have had to travel thousands of miles to get to a place of refuge
More than half of these migrants come from just three countries: Syria, Afghanistan, and South Sudan
Syrians, the single largest forcibly displaced population, have to traverse on average more than 1,400 miles just to get to Serbia border
with Hungary on their long trek from Aleppo to Western Europe.
From getting directions, to learning languages, to simply accessing
entertainment, smartphones have become vital for migrants on these grueling journeys that can last for months & if at the very least to get
some emotional support by talking to loved ones they leave behind.
At the height of the European refugee crisis in the summer of 2015, when
nearly a million Syrian refugees crossed into Europe to escape a brutal civil war, Facebook and WhatsApp chat groups sprung up to let
migrants know of real-time developments on the road, which smugglers to trust, and what rates to negotiate
Dropped GPS pins and Google Maps turn directions into practical routes migrants can take
In some cases, migrants on sinking boats in the Mediterranean have helped coast guards find them by sending GPS signals from their
smartphones.
Migrants download German, French, English, and other language learning apps on their phones to aid them in acculturating to
their eventual destination while they&re still on the move
They use Google Translate to understand road signs in Bulgarian, Serbian, and Hungarian
And with migrant journeys breaking up families, smartphones have become migrants& only way to stay connected.
In recognition of the
importance of connectivity to forcibly-displaced migrants, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) & launched &Connectivity for Refugees&
The initiative advocates for migrants& right to connectivity; enables access through negotiated data rates for refugees, subsidized device
prices, and internet access centers; and provides training to ensure migrants are able to fully take advantage of their smartphones
Two years in, the UNHCR plans to increase the initiative staffing and roll out connectivity programs beyond the current pilot countries of
Jordan, Greece, Chad, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Startups, for their part, have also been ramping up efforts to help migrants
Two Columbia architecture students, Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta, cofounded LuminAid
A startup that makes the PackLite Max 2-in-1 Phone Charger, a solar-powered phone charger and light source that the cofounders have given
away to displaced migrants
With the UNHCR estimating that up to a third of a forced migrant income is spent on connectivity, Phone Credit for Refugees has taken on
providing migrants with free data access
Others, like GeeCycle, have instead focused on collecting used smartphones from around the world and distributing them to refugees fleeing
conflict.
The challenge of misinformation
NGOs like Save the Children Serbia operate out of the Refugee Aid Miksalište, a drop in center
with free WIFi and available plugs
(Photo by Ziad Reslan)
For all of their benefits though, smartphones have not always improved the journeys of forced migrants
The reliance on anonymous sources on social media to navigate routes has left migrants vulnerable to smugglers and traffickers looking to
take advantage of their misfortune
Even information obtained from relatives can turn out to be erroneous & with heart-wrenching consequences.
Jelena Besedic, an Advocacy
Manager for Save the Children Serbia, says that the spread of misinformation has been part of the reason for the rise of unaccompanied
children traversing the Balkans from Afghanistan
Parents of kids as young as eight now stuck in Serbia were falsely told that, if their kids arrive safely in Western Europe, they&re
entitled to bring their parents.
Misinformation of this sort about the ease of the asylum process can lead migrants to take on increasingly
dangerous journeys, only to be disappointed with the reality once they reach their destination countries
This misinformation has led organizations, like the International Organization for Migration, to start information campaigns at source
countries to better educate would be migrants about the dangers of setting out west
In addition, increasingly nationalist governments, like Hungary and Italy, have started campaigns targeting the smartphones of migrants with
text messages and online ads to dissuade them from coming to their countries in the first place.
Familial pressure on migrants may have
always been a reality, but access to smartphones has made that pressure incessant and instantaneous
Stuck at the border between Serbia and Hungary, Nashid says he would never have made the trek if he knew what he would have to face on his
more than 4,000-mile journey from Pakistan to France
But while he was still in Pakistan, he had received messages non-stop from his cousin in Paris telling him how easy it was for him to get
there and how plentiful jobs are in France
Once Nashid left Pakistan, messages from his wife and two kids constantly asking whether he&d arrived in Paris have made the idea of going
back home impossible.
Nashid ends our conversation by asking me to confirm arumor he heard on WhatsApp
Is it true, he asks, that there are nowpersonal battery banks that one can charge like a phone that extend asmartphone battery life by up to
100 hours A charger like that, he stresses, would make a world of a difference to him out here miles away from the nearest plug.
