Travelling

This child wedged himself in the baggage space of the bus, away from his parents who were sitting in the seats behind although he occasionally spoke with them in a language I didn't recognise - possibly Romanian?
They were well dressed and didn't appear to be experiencing hardship but the father was peering anxiously ahead as if looking for a landmark or a point at which they should get off. I left the bus  before they did.

The boy looked serious, pensive, bored or tired. There was no sense that he was experiencing the journey with any pleasure. Watching him made me think of the many, many refugees, migrants and exiles travelling the world today and the impact upon the children of the attendant fear, stress, insecurity, loss and uncertainty. In particular I've been horrified in recent days to read the Nauru files, an exposee of the conditions under which asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia are being held in offshore detention centres. Details have emerged of the exploitation and brutalisation of children incarcerated there. It makes grim reading but it is something of which we should be aware, that such things are happening in a peaceful, prosperous 'first world' country that is in no way over-populated. 

I trust this boy and his parents reached their destination safely and it is a good one.