Little Amal represents a fictional nine-year-old Syrian girl, embodying displaced children today. The giant puppet was created by the South Africa-based Handspring Puppet Company. "The Walk" tells Amal's life story, her search for her mother and flight to safety. Her journey begins in Turkey.

"The Walk" highlights the plight of unaccompanied minors who have been forced flee. Little Amal's journey takes her to special places. Here, she is hugging Angels Unawares, a bronze statue by Timothy Schmalz. It was installed on St Peter's Square in the Vatican on the 105th World Migrant and Refugee Day in 2019.

Pope Francis welcomed Amal and a group of children on September 10, 2021, blessing them. Cardinal Michael Czerny, undersecretary of the Vatican's Migrants and Refugees Section, said refugee children are very vulnerable and in need of our help and hospitality.

Wherever Amal arrives, she is met by throngs of well-wishers. Some show their support by holding up signs, other gift her flowers. Here, she is exploring Rome on September 12, 2021. Four puppeteers are needed to mover the giant figure.

Claire Bejanin, who organized Amal's tour through several European countries, has called on "children from all over world to write letters for children like Amal and that we will bring to the European Parliament." The theater project plans to hand over 10,000 letters to the institution.

Often, theater performances involving Amal are staged once the giant puppet arrives in different European cities, like here in Milan. Incidentally: there is a man on stilts inside the puppet's frame, who controls her facial expressions with a complex system of strings.

In early October, Amal reached the German city of Cologne. Once again, she was welcomed by crowds. Some supporters, dressed in festive attire, even attempted to dance with the larger-than-life puppet. Amal's next stop will be Belgium before traveling on to her final destination in Manchester, England.

This baby was just a couple of months old when a Spanish police diver saved it from drowning. In May 2021, Morocco temporarily relaxed its control of the border with Ceuta. Thousands of people tried to enter the Spanish enclave by swimming along the North African coast. This photograph is seen as an iconic representation of the migration crisis in Ceuta.

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the world's most dangerous migration routes. Many African refugees who try and fail to cross the water to Europe get stuck in Libya. They are constantly fighting to survive, and often have to work in miserable conditions. These young men in Tripoli, many of them still minors, are waiting in the hope of picking up casual work.

Some 40% of refugees are children. In recent years, 1.1 million people from the Rohingya Muslim minority have fled violence by the Myanmar military and crossed into Bangladesh. The Cox's Bazar refugee camp is one of the largest in the world. SOS Children's Villages, an NGO, has warned that violence, drugs and human trafficking are a growing problem there, as are child labor and child marriage.

Recently, the civil war in the Ethiopian region of Tigray has triggered another major refugee movement. More than 90% of the Tigray population is currently dependent on humanitarian aid. Around 1.6 million people have fled to Sudan — 720,000 of whom are children. They are stuck in transit camps, facing an uncertain future.

The Greek islands are refugee hot spots, with people from Syria and Afghanistan regularly attempting to reach them from Turkey. Many refugees were housed in the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos — until it burned down last September. After that, this family came to Athens. But what happens next? The EU has been trying for years to agree on a communal strategy and refugee policy, without success.

There's no school for these Afghan children, who live in a refugee camp in Pakistan. The camp has existed ever since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979. Living conditions there are bad: The camp lacks both drinking water and proper accommodation.

Many Venezuelan families, seeing no future for themselves in their home country, have crossed into neighboring Colombia. There, they receive support from the Red Cross. The NGO provides medical and humanitarian aid, and has set up a transit camp in a school in the border town of Arauquita.

Many refugees hope for better future for their children in Germany. At the Lernfreunde Haus in Karlsruhe, refugee children are prepared for entry into the German school system. However, during the COVID pandemic they have missed out on this key element to help them integrate into the new society.