Bức ảnh gây rúng động trên mạng những ngày gần đây. Ảnh: Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters
Bức ảnh người phụ nữ nhập cư ở thành phố Tijuana, Mexico cầm tay kéo hai đứa con đang đi chân đất của mình khỏi khói cay đã nhận được sự chú ý của cộng đồng mạng sau khi được Reuters đăng tải.
"Khi hơi cay bắt đầu lan tràn, một số người đã gào thét và mọi người bắt đầu tháo chạy", Kim Kyung-hoon, tác giả bức ảnh nói với NCB News. "Tôi thấy một người phụ nữ cùng hai đứa con chạy trốn. Một trong số chúng đã đi chân đất từ đâu. Đứa còn lại đi một đôi dép lê nhưng sau đó đã mất trong khi chạy trốn".
NBC News cũng đã tìm ra người phụ nữ trong bức ảnh. Cô Maria Mssa, 39 tuổi tới từ Honduras cho hay. "Tôi chỉ biết tóm lấy hai đứa con và chạy trốn", cô nói về hai đứa con gái 5 tuổi sinh đôi của mình, Saira và Sheilly.
Cô nói rằng James, con trai 3 tuổi của cô, người không xuất hiện trong bức ảnh, cũng ở tại hiện trường và đã bị ngất vì hít phải quá nhiều hơi cay.
"Một trong số chúng có thể đã chết", cô nói.
Kim nói rằng cô Mesa "di chuyển cùng với 5 người con".
"Cha của chúng sống tại Louisiana và họ đang cố gắng để tới đoàn tụ với ông ấy", Kim nói.
Kim Kyung-hoon trong lần tác nghiệp ở thành phố Minamisoma, cách khu hạt nhân Fukushima 20km hồi tháng 4/2018. Ảnh: Reuters
Bức ảnh của Kim, xuất hiện trên trang NBC News và nhiều trang bìa của các tờ báo khác đã gây nên làn sóng phẫn nộ của cộng đồng quốc tế, khiến nhiều người hoài nghi tuyên bố của ông Trump về việc những người nhập cư "đều là tội phạm và xã hội đen" là sai lệch.
Kim được phân phó nhiệm vụ chụp ảnh những người nhập cư từ hôm 14/11 khi tới thành phố Mexico City và đi theo đoàn xe người nhập cư tới từ Trung Mỹ.
Hôm Chủ Nhật vừa qua, nhóm người mà ông đi theo đã tới biên giới El Chaparral sát với nước Mỹ.
"Họ đã bị cảnh sát Mexico chặn lại tại một điểm", nhiếp ảnh gia này cho biết. "Sau đó họ trèo xuống sát bờ sông. Hàng rào thép có thể được thấy ngay trong tầm mắt, cách họ chỉ khoảng 20m".
Bức ảnh đoàn xe người dân nhập cư gây ấn tượng của Kim Kyung-hoon. Ảnh: Reuters
Kim nói rằng anh đã chú ý tới gia đình của chị Mesa ngay khi họ tiếp cận bờ sông. Anh đã bị phân tâm một chút khi có hai người đàn ông đã băng được qua sông và bắt đầu dùng một cái xô để đào đất nhằm chui qua hàng rào.
Bỗng nhiên, không khí tràn ngập khí gas.
"Một quả bom cay đã rơi xuống ngay gần gia đình này và họ bắt đầu chạy", Kim nói khi mô tả lại tình hình.
Kim nói rằng anh có thể nghe hai đứa trẻ ho và khóc, và anh nhanh chóng cầm máy lên chụp. Anh đã đi theo họ về tận trại tị nạn.
"Công việc của tôi là ghi lại những gì đã diễn ra", anh nói. "Tôi cố gắng không để cảm xúc của mình làm ảnh hưởng tới công việc".
Hoàng Việt (Theo NBC News)
Maria Lila Meza Castro, a 39-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, runs from tear gas with her twin daughters in front of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, in Tijuana, on Nov. 25. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)
The woman grips both her daughters, one with each hand, as they run away. One child is barefoot; the other is about to fall. Both wear only T-shirts and diapers.
The woman looks back at the smoke from the tear gas they’re trying to escape. Behind them is wire fencing, a partial wall separating them from the United States, and dozens of other migrants, many of them children, also running.
Standing just a few feet away with a mask on, Reuters photojournalist Kim Kyung-Hoon spots the woman, who is hard to miss in her bright purple and blue-green blouse bearing characters from the movie “Frozen.” He snaps a picture, capturing the look on her face as she frantically tries to drag her two small children away from the gas as it spreads.
The powerful image, which appeared on the websites and front pages of American news organizations, including The Washington Post, has provoked outrage on social media. The picture contradicts the image of violent migrants that President Trump had conjured on Twitter and at campaign rallies ahead of the midterm elections.
The smoke from the tear-gas canister, the children in diapers, the look of anguish, the wall in the background, that “Frozen” T-shirt ― all encapsulated the chaos of that day, and for Kim, the truth about Central American migrants, whom he had been following for nearly two weeks as they made their way across Mexico and toward the United States to seek asylum.
[U.S. closes major crossing as caravan migrants mass at border in Mexico]
“I think my picture tells the story of what’s happening now,” he said.
Kim has been following the migrants since he arrived in Mexico City on Nov. 14. He captured images of migrant children sitting inside a bus as they waited for some food in Culiacan, Mexico. He followed migrants at a gas station in Navojoa, Mexico, where they bathed and waited in line for food. And in Mexicali, Mexico, migrants piled like sardines on top of trucks as they traveled east to Tijuana.
The migrants arrived in Tijuana several days ago and had been camped out at a sports complex not far from the U.S. border.
On Sunday morning, some of them began to march toward the San Ysidro border crossing. They carried flags from their country, and banners that said “TRUMP WE HATE YOU NOT” and “MR TRUMP HELP US PLEASE.” Kim followed the group, spotting several children and people carrying strollers.
A majority of the group gathered near the border peacefully, while thousands of others did not march and stayed at the sports complex. But a scuffle broke out between Mexican police in riot gear and a couple of dozen protesters, with some running across a dry canal and others trying to cross through different entry points.
[Why tear gas, lobbed at migrants on the southern border, is banned in warfare]
Kim recalled seeing two men try to dismantle the wire fence. U.S. officials say some threw rocks and bottles at border officers, who then fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Then Kim saw the woman as she started running from the smoke, holding her 5-year-old twin daughters with both hands. Her teenage son was running next to her, Kim said. A Reuters spokeswoman confirmed that the woman had traveled from Honduras to Mexico with all of her five children.
Kim followed the family as they rushed back toward Tijuana, crossing a river and climbing up a concrete barrier. When they got to the top, one of the twins began crying, her tiny face full of anguish as she held on to what looks like a small plastic ball. Kim said the girl was pointing toward her bare feet. She had just lost her slippers.
Maria Lila Meza Castro, a 39-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, runs from tear gas with her twin daughters in front of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, in Tijuana, on Nov. 25. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)
The woman grips both her daughters, one with each hand, as they run away. One child is barefoot; the other is about to fall. Both wear only T-shirts and diapers.
The woman looks back at the smoke from the tear gas they’re trying to escape. Behind them is wire fencing, a partial wall separating them from the United States, and dozens of other migrants, many of them children, also running.
Standing just a few feet away with a mask on, Reuters photojournalist Kim Kyung-Hoon spots the woman, who is hard to miss in her bright purple and blue-green blouse bearing characters from the movie “Frozen.” He snaps a picture, capturing the look on her face as she frantically tries to drag her two small children away from the gas as it spreads.
The powerful image, which appeared on the websites and front pages of American news organizations, including The Washington Post, has provoked outrage on social media. The picture contradicts the image of violent migrants that President Trump had conjured on Twitter and at campaign rallies ahead of the midterm elections.
The smoke from the tear-gas canister, the children in diapers, the look of anguish, the wall in the background, that “Frozen” T-shirt ― all encapsulated the chaos of that day, and for Kim, the truth about Central American migrants, whom he had been following for nearly two weeks as they made their way across Mexico and toward the United States to seek asylum.
[U.S. closes major crossing as caravan migrants mass at border in Mexico]
“I think my picture tells the story of what’s happening now,” he said.
Kim has been following the migrants since he arrived in Mexico City on Nov. 14. He captured images of migrant children sitting inside a bus as they waited for some food in Culiacan, Mexico. He followed migrants at a gas station in Navojoa, Mexico, where they bathed and waited in line for food. And in Mexicali, Mexico, migrants piled like sardines on top of trucks as they traveled east to Tijuana.
The migrants arrived in Tijuana several days ago and had been camped out at a sports complex not far from the U.S. border.
On Sunday morning, some of them began to march toward the San Ysidro border crossing. They carried flags from their country, and banners that said “TRUMP WE HATE YOU NOT” and “MR TRUMP HELP US PLEASE.” Kim followed the group, spotting several children and people carrying strollers.
A majority of the group gathered near the border peacefully, while thousands of others did not march and stayed at the sports complex. But a scuffle broke out between Mexican police in riot gear and a couple of dozen protesters, with some running across a dry canal and others trying to cross through different entry points.
[Why tear gas, lobbed at migrants on the southern border, is banned in warfare]
Kim recalled seeing two men try to dismantle the wire fence. U.S. officials say some threw rocks and bottles at border officers, who then fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Then Kim saw the woman as she started running from the smoke, holding her 5-year-old twin daughters with both hands. Her teenage son was running next to her, Kim said. A Reuters spokeswoman confirmed that the woman had traveled from Honduras to Mexico with all of her five children.
Kim followed the family as they rushed back toward Tijuana, crossing a river and climbing up a concrete barrier. When they got to the top, one of the twins began crying, her tiny face full of anguish as she held on to what looks like a small plastic ball. Kim said the girl was pointing toward her bare feet. She had just lost her slippers.
