Refugees' Stories Told Through Their Smartphones

Google Maps to escape an unsafe home, and photos to remember it.

For many of the 65 million refugees worldwide displaced by war or persecution, a cellphone is a lifeline. A smartphone provides a means of staying in touch with loved ones, of keeping up with the news, or navigating their way to safety. It carries pictures of those they've left behind, those they've lost, and those they hope to find. And each is as unique as the person carrying it.

Grey Hutton discovered this photographing more than three dozen refugees and their phones at a refugee center in Berlin for VICE Germany. "I wanted to allow others to connect with some of the difficult stories refugees share, but through this everyday item that they can hopefully relate to," Hutton says.

The idea for the project came to him after reading complaints about refugees carrying smartphones. "It’s very narrow minded," he says of such criticism. Hutton and an Arabic translator spent three days at LaGeSo refugee center in Berlin in August, 2015. Authorities did not allow him to photograph faces, but Hutton was more interested in the phones. He asked people to hold it out and share the story behind their homescreen.

The refugees were from throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Many considered smartphones instrumental in their journey to safety. Google Maps helped them navigate across the Mediterranean Sea. Vocabulary apps provided a rudimentary understanding of German. WhatsApp and Viber allowed them to chat with loved ones back home. And almost everyone carried photos, and used them as homescreen wallpapers---a young daughter still in Syria, a memorable day spent fishing with a friend, a relative killed by ISIS. “They’re sharing stories about how they call their young children back home every morning and every evening,” Hutton says. “It’s deeply personal.”

The refugees often wait weeks to register and apply for asylum, spending all day at LaGeSo before busing back to hostels across the city. Some hope to build a new life in Berlin; others hope to return to their country when it's safe again. But if they ever get homesick, they only have to gaze at the screen in their hand.