To date, 1 in 5 Iraqis have left their homes. Two million have left the country, and another 2½ million are internally displaced. After the 2003 bombing of the Shiite

shrine in Samarra unleashed a wave of sectarian clashes, those with the means to do so began fleeing in droves. Mohamed had been living like most of them. Unable to work legally in Syria, he relied on the meager savings his parents could send him from Iraq. Over the course of one year, he moved 16 times to a

series of filthy, roach-infested, overpriced apartments.

My work as videojournalist has brought me to the Middle East a number of times. I first crossed paths with Mohamed in January of 2007 in Jordan, where I interviewed him for a news piece on Iraqi refugees. I was immediately struck by how much adversity he’d faced by the age of 24.

The more I got to know him, the more I wanted to document his life. — alternet.org