Jean, a 14-year-old refugee from Congo-Brazzaville, hurries in from the cold after a group-home field trip to the local bowling alley.
When war erupts, when families disband, when poverty drains, they leave home.
The United Nations refugee agency calls them unaccompanied or separated children (UASC) because they are minors applying for asylum without their parents or a guardian.
The country of Sweden is experiencing a continued increase in the arrival of UASC; 1510 in 2008 alone. Their circumstances differ, but they all arrive in Sweden alone, without a parent or guardian. Many have navigated a dangerous network of human smugglers in the hopes of being granted asylum in Sweden. Upon their arrival, minors from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Democratic Republic of the Congo are placed in group homes throughout the country.
Part of an on-going project, the following photographs are from several group-homes in the small northern town of Härnösand, Sweden.


Linda Thompson is a photographer and artist based in Missoula, Montana.
From an early age, Linda has been surrounded by a love of photography and storytelling. She learned the basics of photography at her high school darkroom before attending the University of Montana. There she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with an emphasis in photojournalism. Born in Sweden, and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Linda is a photographer with feet planted firmly in two countries. In Sweden, she coordinated Dokument03 , an international photography and film festival. Linda found a love of teaching while an instructor of photography at Mid-Sweden University- home of the country’s first university program dedicated to photojournalism. While living in Northern Sweden she also completed a documentary photography studies program at Hola Folkhögskola, with a project titled "Nostalgia". Since moving back to Missoula she covers the happenings of Western Montana as a staff photographer for the Missoulian newspaper. Her work has appeared in local and regional publications as well as The Economist, The New York Times and USA Today. Linda returned to Sweden in the winter of 2009 to work on "No Place Like Home", a documentary project exploring the refugee situation in Sweden, which was shown in Missoula in March 2009.

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An audio slideshow of the project can be seen on my blog.



www.lindamthompson.com
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