Hungary is building a wall on its border with Serbia to stem the flow of refugees seeking to enter Europe. A wall whose sole purpose is to shut our eyes and blind our consciences.
One of the main countries generating debate over political choices — and one lying directly on the route refugees use to reach northern Europe — is Hungary. Among the measures decided by Viktor Orbán's government is the construction of a wall along the border with Serbia to stem the flow of people entering the country illegally, which, according to internal sources, is pushing welfare costs and reception expenses to breaking point. Once completed, the wall will be 175 kilometres long and four metres high, comprising barbed wire, metal fencing and brick. Hungary has announced that 900 people are working on its construction, a combination of military personnel and detainees.
These photographs convey powerfully what hundreds of articles have expressed in words. One of them, in particular, seems to belong to another era — it could be mistaken for a still from one of the most celebrated films of our time, The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont. And yet it was taken on 11 September 2015, and one day it may be remembered as one of those photographs that defy understanding — how could it have been taken in a historical period when the European Union had abolished its internal borders and the internet was dissolving international ones? When it was "impossible to be an island of prosperity in a sea of suffering".
Instead, everyone must be made aware that this is a photograph of today; everyone must be made aware of what is happening in Hungary and within the borders of the European Union right now. We must not give in to a sense of "seen it all before" or "nothing ever changes anyway." Natalie Nougayrède, columnist for the Guardian and former editor of the French daily Le Monde, has written that "to prevent Europe from fragmenting over the refugee question, battles of opinion will matter as much as negotiations between governments."
That is why, instead of walls, we need physical bridges — the equal and opposite counterpart to the wall being built in Hungary. Moral bridges capable of tearing down the barriers of populism, so that we do not lose the gains won with such difficulty after the end of the Second World War.