In summer 2015, over a relatively short amount of time, the flux of migrants from Africa and the Middle East to Europe grew to almost biblical proportions, making immigration one of the most pressing issues of contemporary societies.

The Greek holiday island Kos became a bott­len­eck of this glo­bal refu­gee stream. The tourists and migrants were directly confronting each other, and co-existing, on the island’s beaches and capital.

Every morning hundreds of Syri­ans, Iraqis and Afghans landed on the island’s beaches where just hours later Ger­mans, Bri­tish and Swe­des would relax in the sun.

—Jörg Brüggemann