HANDLE WITH CARE – Human Inside! Fragile!
(2022)
In this project, I address the invisible tragedies hidden within the vehicles of illegal migration. Handle With Care – Human Inside! Fragile! is a visual installation that brings together low-resolution thermal X-ray images - originally captured at border crossings - to reveal how human bodies are transported under inhumane conditions inside freight trucks.
I rephotographed these images from digital sources and enlarged them, not only to emphasize their ghostly aesthetics but to draw attention to the erasure of identity: bodies reduced to silhouettes, people turned into numbers. I wanted to show how borders don’t just divide nations - they disfigure lives.
The visuals are printed seamlessly on photoboard and displayed without frames, allowing the viewer to experience them as one continuous narrative. Alongside the images, I placed real fragments of messages: final texts sent by migrants trapped inside lorries, testimonies from survivors, and chilling words spoken in courtrooms. These sentences serve as voices of those who could no longer speak for themselves. By pairing these final words with the faces of those hidden inside the trucks - some silenced forever, others who survived - I aim to restore their humanity, to make them seen, heard, and remembered beyond the numbers they were reduced to.
With this work, I aim to humanize those who are dehumanized by policies, borders, and media narratives. This is not only about loss - it is also about remembrance. As I express in the project’s final words:
“Containers turn into coffins. Names are erased. Lives reduced to numbers. All for a human life worth living.”
Testimonies from Inside the Truck
Real voices, real stories. Fragments of breath from the edge of life.
“I am sorry mum. My path to abroad doesn’t succeed. Mum I love you so much! I am dying because I can’t breathe. I am sorry, mum.”
— Pham Thi Tra My, Vietnam
✝︎ One of the 39 victims found in a refrigerated truck in Essex, UK, 2019.“When you first got into the back of that lorry you are very hopeful... This is where I started seeing death, smelling death, looking at the eyes of the other people who were in the back of that container...”
— Ahmad Al Rashid, Syria
☑︎ Survived the journey. Now works supporting refugees in the UK.“Sometimes I have bad dreams. Inside the lorry I cannot breathe. Then people are trying to get help. But then they can’t because their phones do not work.”
— Ahmad Amiri, Afghanistan
☑︎ A child refugee who made it to the UK and now shares his story publicly.“The thing that struck me most were the bloody handprints on the container door.”
— Belgian Prosecutor
🧾 Statement from the trial of smugglers after the discovery of 39 deceased migrants.“After an hour I heard people crying and asking for water... That’s when I lost consciousness.”
— Adan Lara Vega, Mexico
☑︎ Survivor of a deadly truck crossing into the U.S., where 10 others died.“I’m sorry. I cannot take care of you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I cannot breathe… I want to come back to my family. Have a good life… I can’t breathe… It’s all my fault.”
— Nguyen Tho Tuan, Vietnam
✝︎ Victim of the same truck tragedy in Essex, 2019. Final text to family.“We don’t see anything. We are inside a tank truck. God we don’t have oxygen. Help!”
— Anonymous Caller, Mexico–USA border
📞 911 call from within a sealed tanker, one of the few recorded pleas for help.