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  • AFP / Luis Robayo
  • AFP / Luis Robayo
  • AFP / Luis Robayo
  • AFP / Luis Robayo
  • AFP / Luis Robayo
  • AFP / Luis Robayo

Fleeing home in time of peace

Luis Robayo Wednesday 26 September 2018

"Covering the Venezuelan refugee crisis has been extremely personal for me," writes Luis Robayo, a photographer based in Colombia.

"I am from Cucuta, a Colombian city right on the border, so my life has always been a back and forth between the two countries. I would go to Venezuela to visit friends, or to take a walk, to eat good food, to enjoy its Caribbean shoreline. So this story has really felt like my own."

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  • AFP / Prakash Mathema
  • AFP / Roberto Schmidt
  • AFP / Roberto Schmidt
  • AFP / Roberto Schmidt
  • AFP / Prakash Mathema

A scam on the roof of the world

Annabel Symington Tuesday 18 September 2018

"It started with rumours and numbers that didn’t add up," writes Annabel Symington, Nepal bureau chief on how she began work that eventually led to uncovering a massive helicopter rescue scam in the lucrative tourist industry in the Himalayas.

"It led to hours scanning reviews on TripAdvisor and weeks hiking around Mount Everest. But when I started looking into insurance fraud linked to helicopter rescues in Nepal, I didn’t think it would end with a government probe and an ultimatum from global insurers that could be a death knell for the Himalayan nation’s vital tourism industry."

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AFP / Rodrigo Buendia

“Arigato gozaimasu, Brazil”

Sebastian Smith Friday 7 September 2018

"This is the story of how, in order to grasp what makes Brazilians tick, I first had to learn Japanese," writes journalist Sebastian Smith at the end of a three-year posting to Brazil.

"And how in the process I broke a toe, dislocated a finger, sprained most things, bruised the others, made friends, and still ended up with questions about this enchanting, confounding country."

"But then things are never simple in Brazil."

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AFP / Fred Dufour

The year of living desperately

Nick Perry Tuesday 4 September 2018

"It started with one man sobbing, then another choked up, then another. Soon, the whole hillside was shuddering in a unified, haunting cry -- hundreds of Rohingya refugees, their palms upturned to the monsoon sky in prayer, wailing for their dead and mourning a homeland they may never see again," writes Nick Perry, a journalist based in New Delhi. "The sudden outpouring of grief caught me completely off guard, and my eyes quickly stung."

"After twelve months covering the Rohingya crisis from the refugee frontline, I couldn’t help but quietly cheer along as these beleaguered people -- so hated in Myanmar, and unwanted in Bangladesh -- clawed back some dignity."

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