TITLE: The refugrants

In October I happened to be lucky enough to be able to do something that could take about 2 years to get authorized. I boarded a Portuguese navy vessel for a month to provide full coverage of the Frontex - Triton mission. Today, despite having learned so much, I know less than I thought I knew before I went; now I miss the difference between refugees and migrants. I have witnessed humanity and inhumanity. The expressions in their faces, made me know that saving people is the only thing that matters, even when their fate is uncertain.
The "refugrants" - the word does not exist yet, but perhaps we can begin to think of a new word that can describe the uncertain ones adrift.
Are they refugees or illegal migrants? The concept begins to dilute in the waters of the central Mediterranean Sea, when they appear in small makeshift wooden boats, with no much food, no much water, no much luck, but only hope.
For a month, this military ship patrolled the Mediterranean Sea. Took more than half a thousand hours to do 5000 nautical miles in the area of operations, between Lampedusa and Tunisia, in search of these people who go to sea usually at dawn and sail for hours if they have the good fortune to hit the course, or days, if they lose the north.
The shock of the military grey with the warm human reception, sketches traces of tranquility and demilitarises an action that has everything to be fearful at the beginning.
They feel saved, in the end, they feel saved.
From the beginning of 2017 until the end of October, more than 100 thousand migrants have been rescued.
Frontex confirms a number of deaths exceeding 240, this year.

AUTHOR: Rui Caria (Portugal)

Rui Caria was born in Nazaré in 1972. His career in the image area began in 1990, making small commercial movies. In 1993, he became correspondent for a national television channel, TVI, where he remained as a camera news reporter and editor until 2003. In 2005, he moved to Terceira Island in the Azores, where he began teaching media courses in Professional School of Praia da Vitória. He’s a reporter and correspondent image editor in the Azores region for a main national TV channel, SIC, since 2006. He collaborates as a photojournalist with several national and international newspapers. His photographic work is internationally recognized by the editors of major photo sites such as National Geographic, 500px, 1x, Leica Fotografie International, Getty Images, among others. He was interviewed by National Geographic and other several sites and prints concerning photography thoughts and winner of three Leica photography contests; several pictures have been marks of excellence in those contests. It was in 2014, third place in the Photo District News contest and finalist in various international competitions of photography. His photos are published in various international photography books. It has several photos published in the national press and international publications such as the Telegraph, Daily Mail , Metro New York and Metro Luxembourg, among others. Rui Caria is a Getty Images contributor. In 2016, Rui won the silver camera in photojournalism, by FEP - Federation of European Photographers, in the european photographer of the year 2016 competition.