This award-winning photo perfectly sums up the ongoing refugee crisis
The challenges of the past year, and their potential impact, was perfectly summarized in a single photo from Warren Richardson, who won the World Press Photo of the Year 2015 and also the first prize in the contest's Spot News category.
The photo depicts refugees trying to cross the border from Serbia into Hungary. The night photograph focuses on a man passing his child under a Hungarian security fence which was still under construction.
Warren Richardson/World Press Photo Contest
Richardson depended entirely upon the moonlight for the illumination of the photo, as any flash could have drawn the attention of the police that were trying to halt any cross-border refugees.
"It was around three o'clock in the morning and you can't use a flash while the police are trying to find these people, because I would just give them away. So I had to use the moonlight alone," Richardson told World Press Photo.
Having spent five days camping with the refugees in Serbia on the border before taking the picture, Richardson also gained insight into how the people were trying to cross into Hungary. Of the approximately 200 refugees in the group, women and children were given the first attempts to pass into Hungary.
After them, fathers and elderly men were the next group to attempt to make the crossing.
In 2015, an estimated total of 1.5 million refugees entered into the EU. About a third of these refugees were Syrian, with the remainder being from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and sub-Saharan Africa.
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