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Tom Rollins is a freelance journalist based in Cairo and Alexandria writing about refugee rights, migration and the Mediterranean. On Twitter: @TomWRollins
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![An Islamic State flag is seen near a barricade, which serves as protection from snipers of forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Yarmouk Street, the main street of Yarmouk camp, April 10, 2015. A bout of fighting between militants over control of the Yarmouk refugee camp on the edge of Damascus has only compounded the misery of residents already suffering from acute shortages of food, clean water and power. Picture taken April 10, 2015. REUTERS/Moayad Zaghmout - RTR4XFKQ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2016/04/RTR4XFKQ.jpg/RTR4XFKQ.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=lmy3RSD0)
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Tom Rollins
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Tom Rollins
![An exhausted Syrian refugee is seen moments after arriving by a raft at a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos October 25, 2015. According to United Nations over half a million refugees and migrants have arrived by sea in Greece this year and the rate of arrivals is rising, in a rush to beat the onset of freezing winter. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis - RTX1T45I](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/10/RTX1T45I.jpg/RTX1T45I.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=ZFz9r_7D)
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Tom Rollins
![A man fishes from his boat as a group of migrants gather on the seawall at the Saint Ludovic border crossing on the Mediterranean Sea between Vintimille, Italy and Menton, France, June 14, 2015. On Saturday, some 200 migrants, principally from Eritrea and Sudan who attempted to cross the border, were blocked by Italian police and French gendarmes. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX1GFZS](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/07/RTX1GFZS.jpg/RTX1GFZS.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=x0TaZNN0)
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Tom Rollins
![A working tunnel, which is used to smuggle people from Egypt to Gaza, is seen in the Egyptian border city of Rafah, May 13, 2013. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTXZLC7](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/05/RTXZLC7.jpg/RTXZLC7.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=kvkbH8h7)
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Tom Rollins
![Migrants receive assistance after disembarking from the Sierra Leone-flagged vessel Ezadeen at the Corigliano Calabro harbor, southern Italy January 3, 2015. The ship carrying hundreds of migrants arrived in the southern Italian port of Corigliano Calabro on the evening of January 2 after being abandoned by its crew in rough seas in the Mediterranean off Italy's south coast in the second such incident in three days. REUTERS/Antonino Condorelli (ITALY - Tags: SOCIETY IMMIGRATION CRIME LAW POLITICS MARITIM](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/02/RTR4JXN7.jpg/RTR4JXN7.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=rYOrpRT_)
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Tom Rollins
![Palestinians throw roses in the Mediterranean sea off the coast of Gaza City on September 18, 2014 in mourning over the loss of fellow Palestinians who had boarded a boat to Europe that sank off Malta last week. In one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks on record, the boat, with 500 people on board, was intentionally capsized by traffickers as it made its way from Egypt to Italy. Only 10 people are known to have survived, among them four Palestinians from the 100 Gazans believed to have been on board. AFP](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/09/455648184.jpg/455648184.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=dLWq9fNt)
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Tom Rollins
![Palestinians displaced from refugee camps in Syria shout slogans against the Palestinian ambassador in Egypt as they rally outside the Palestinian diplomatic mission during a demonstration demanding recognition of their needs by the Egyptian authorities on April 23, 2013 in Cairo. Palestinians, who are able to, have left their homes in Syria, fleeing to Egypt, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and other countries where refugee camps have been established following the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 and foll](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/08/167260993.jpg/167260993.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=WAcKtn_-)
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Tom Rollins
![A man carries pictures of Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser (R) as Egyptians gather in Tahrir square to celebrate al-Sisi's victory in presidential vote in Cairo, June 3, 2014. Sisi won 96.91 percent in a presidential vote last week, the election commission said on Tuesday, confirming interim results that had given him a landslide victory.REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3S24G](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/08/RTR3S24G.jpg/RTR3S24G.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=oS9Cz9DS)
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Tom Rollins
![Syrian refugees pass the time outside a refugee centre in Spain's north African enclave Melilla December 6, 2013. Melilla is a small Spanish enclave on Morocco's Mediterranean coast. Armed guards and razor wire lining the 12-km (7.5-mile) frontier around the town have long discouraged Africans fleeing poverty and conflict from seeing Melilla as a gateway to Europe, 180 km (110 miles) away across open water. But desperation has driven many migrants to fetch up at the gates, turning the port town of 80,000 in](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTX16PNM.jpg/RTX16PNM.jpg?h=e92c5d5c&itok=O6o80LfD)
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Tom Rollins
![A child living in the shanty area of al-Dweiqa walks past smouldering rubbish as he makes his way home from school in Cairo October 4, 2012. Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has won grudging respect from detractors in his first 100 days by sending the army back to barracks faster than anyone expected and raising Egypt's international profile in several newsmaking visits abroad. Yet his political fortunes and those of the Muslim Brotherhood which propelled him to power may well depend on his delivering on mo](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR38W7E.jpg/RTR38W7E.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=uZ5g0AaO)
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Tom Rollins