Igis: “My time in Belgium fundamentally changed me.” 

“I was sixteen when they saw me talking to a girl. In a place like Shkodër, that’s dangerous. My parents were attacked. If I didn’t marry her, they would kill me. I fled to Belgium, but I was not granted asylum. No one believed my story. I learned Dutch, made a lot of friends and trained as a cook in Antwerp. A whole new world was opening up for me, until Covid ruined everything. And yet. Belgium has changed me: I’ve learnt what freedom is, and that you are defined by what you do, not by what you own.” 

Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer travelled on assignment for Fedasil to Albania, among other places, where he captured how returnees such as Igis start over once they are back home. Texts by Catherine Vuylsteke.

Discover all the photos from the exhibition Re\𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 until November 23 at the Winter Circus in Ghent.