Faces of the disadvantaged (39 photos)

1 April 2011

Caution! The post contains shocking material. Make sure you really want to see it and you are over 18 years old.

For over a month now, refugees have been fleeing the brutality and uncertainty in Libya to neighboring Tunisia. The UN Refugee Commission reports that about 180,000 people have already left the country - that's about 2,000 a day. Many end up in transit camps, desperate to find their way home. Here are their faces

1. Sudanese refugee with a child in the village of Ras Jdir on the Tunisian border. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

2. Evacuated resident of Bangladesh in a bus on the border of Libya and Tunisia. (Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)

3. A young Tunisian is waiting for her father to cross the border into Tunisia at Ras Jdir. They fled from the bloody showdown in Libya, unfolding on the basis of protests against Muammar Gaddafi. About 30 thousand Tunisians lived in Libya, and the authorities fear that they may become victims, since Tunisia played no small role in the uprisings in the Arab world. Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in January. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

4. A refugee with a mattress goes to his tent in the UN camp in Ras Jdir. Tunisians were joined by tens of thousands of Egyptians, Bangladeshis and residents of other countries living in Libya. Tunisia is full. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

5. A young Sudanese on suitcases is waiting to cross the border with Tunisia. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

6. A huge line for food in a refugee camp on the border of Tunisia and Libya. About 20,000 refugees live in the Ras Jdir camp. (Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)

7. Egyptians flee the country by bus. (Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)

8. A worker from Bangladesh crosses the border with Tunisia in Ras Jdir. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

9. A resident of Bangladesh, who recently fled to Tunisia, brushes his teeth in a refugee camp. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

10. Sudanese refugees in the Choucha camp in Ras Jdir. Many refugees have returned to their homeland thanks to international support, but thousands remain in makeshift camps, surviving in appalling sanitary conditions. (Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)

11. A resident of Bangladesh in a blanket in a UN refugee camp. (Yannis Behra/Reuters)

12. Refugees are waiting for information about returning to their homeland in Ras Jdir. (Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)

13. Long lines mean lunch time at the camp in Ras Jdir. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

14. A refugee who has just crossed the border is waiting for friends. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

15. Shaving worker from Bangladesh. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

16. Meeting of two immigrants from Bangladesh in a refugee camp on the Tunisian-Libyan border. (Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press)

17. Men waiting for departure to the UN camp in Tunisia. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

18. A refugee takes shelter under a canopy while waiting to be sent to a transit camp in Ras Jdir. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

19. Quarrels and clashes often occur at the border, as everyone's nerves are on edge. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

20. Egyptian on the bus in the direction of the refugee camp after crossing the border with Tunisia. This is one of many workers from a construction site in the Libyan city of Zuara, 120 km west of the capital Tripoli. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

21. People are waiting to leave Libya for Tunisia. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

22. Natives of Ghana are waiting for news about returning to their homeland and about passports in the UN refugee camp. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

23. Egyptian woman with a child in the bus

a mustache in a camp near Ras Jdir. Residents of Tunisia and Egypt come to the border to help refugees from Libya, many host strangers at home. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

24. Migrant workers who recently left Libya demand to return to their homeland during a demonstration in a refugee camp in Ras Jdir. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

25. Recently arrived from Libya are trying to get their things on the bus to move to a transit camp. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

26. A woman was given food and drink after crossing the border between Libya and Tunisia. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

27. Refugees from Libya are watching a comedy performance in the UN camp. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

28. Fled from Libya, a native of Bangladesh with things waiting for news about when he can return home. (Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)

29. Bangladeshi boy with his family on a bus in a camp near the Tunisian-Libyan border. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

30. Foreign refugees in a refugee camp near the Tunisian-Libyan border. (Anis Mili/Reuters)

31. Ghana waiting for a bus during a sandstorm in a camp in Ras Jdir. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

32. Bangladeshi in a tent in a UN refugee camp. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

33. Somali women are waiting at the food distribution center in the camp. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

34. Washing refugees in the Choucha camp near the border of Libya and Tunisia. (Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images)

35. A worker from Bangladesh who fled from Libya after crossing the border. (Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)

36. Bangladeshi refugees are waiting for food in the camp. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

37. A refugee with bottles of water in the Ras Jdira camp. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

38. Vietnamese refugees in a barn waiting to move home from Ras Jdir. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

39. A young man who recently fled from Libya. The situation threatens to escalate into a humanitarian crisis as Tunisia is overwhelmed by migrant workers who have fled Libya. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed to fight to the end. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)