Batoor
هزارگی

Exhibitions

Searching for Sanctuary: A journey of survival

Keith Murdoch Gallery, State Library Victoria, Melbourne

1 June 2024 to 30 January 2025

Opened as part of RISING 2024 and extended twice. More than 170 photographs and the footage he shot on the boat, tracing the passage from Afghanistan through Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to Australia.

From Seeking Asylum, 2012

  1. A man in a hooded top watches a small wooden boat cross a wide brown river at the Thailand to Malaysia border, 2012.

    It was a desperate decision to leave everything behind. I flew to Thailand and waited for four days to be taken to Malaysia. With three other men seeking asylum, I crossed at the border by boat and was picked up on the other side by Malaysian smugglers. We traveled for five and a half hours by car to Kuala Lumpur, with our heads kept between our knees the whole time to be avoid being seen. I paid $1000 US for this leg of the trip.

  2. Asylum seekers sitting on the floor of a bare room in Kuala Lumpur, palms turned upward in prayer, 2012.

    In Kuala Lumpur we were kept under house arrest for three nights. We couldn’t even look out of the window. Here my fellow asylum seekers pray not to drown or be arrested.

  3. Men resting on a mat in a dark timber house in Sumatra, banknotes on the floor between them, 2012.

    Next we were taken to Sumatra, Indonesia, where we rested for a few hours in this house before being crammed into a car for a 21-hour nonstop ride with the windows kept locked. We were taken to an airport, where one of our smugglers had arranged boarding passes for us to get to Jakarta. The total cost of the trip from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta was $2500.

  4. A man tries on a yellow life jacket in a crowded room while another adjusts the straps, Indonesia, 2012.

    It’s common for smugglers to make false promises, about how clean and spacious the boats are, how there’s bottled water and great life jackets. So asylum seekers that eventually make it will call back home to warn their friends and family: Be prepared, because there’s nothing on the boat. In anticipation, my friend Ali paid $120 for an upgraded life jacket. I bought one too.

  5. Two young men on a mattress in the villa at Bogor, one awake and one asleep, 2012.

    In Bogor, a town outside Jakarta, we stayed in a villa friendly to asylum seekers, where I met Jafar, pictured here with me, sleeping. About a week into my stay, he and my other two roommates (one of whom took this picture) were preparing to leave on their voyage, and they asked if I wanted to leave early and join them. I almost went, but decided to wait. It was my fate: Their boat sank, and only Jafar lived. I was shocked and terrified about what would happen to me.

  6. Silhouettes of people boarding a small boat at night, lit only by a distant orange glow, 2012.

    The night we got the call that our boat was ready, we were shepherded onto a small speed boat that was to take us to a larger fishing boat anchored at sea. We got lost, it took more than an hour to find the fishing boat, which was already crowded. The other 92 passengers and I hoped we would make it to Christmas Island, Australia, where we would wait to have our refugee status assessed. The cost to get there was $6000.

  7. Men look up through an open hatch from below the deck of a wooden fishing boat at sea, others standing above, 2012.

    The boat was tiny for how many of us there were. We had to hide below deck to avoid being seen and take shifts to get fresh air. Underneath the deck, the all-male passengers were mostly praying. I didn’t have time to pray, I just took photos.

All photographs © Barat Ali Batoor. See all 19 photographs

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