Migrants passing on “La Bestia”: the beast, a freight train that traverses Mexico from the southern to the northern borders of Mexico. The journey is fraught with danger least of all from simply falling off and being injured on the train, but the route it takes is littered with migration police, cartel and military all of who want to exploit those riding it.

Yamileth aka 'Siniestro' (sinister in English) is a 42-year-old ex-convict and ex-bandilla M18 member. A female gang member is known as a Jaina - similar word for hyena. Yamileth was rare in that she was accepted into the M18 gang even though she is a lesbian, which is usually not tolerated, and was initiated in highschool.She started to kill when she was 16 years old. She would nurse wounded M18 members and store weapons in her home. She quickly became a senior member of the M18 gang. She described in great detail the way in which they would hunt, torture and kill their adversaries the MS13 members or those who they deemed betrayers. She was convicted for first-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. When she was released she found that all the gang members she used to work with and know were dead. This was and is her opportunity to exit the M18 gang life: anonymity. She now lives a peaceful life and hopes to reunite with her children.

Eric is 35 years old. He is a 'coyote' or 'pollero'; meaning someone who transports or traffics people from Honduras to the United States illegally. He's done the trip 12 times and usually takes two or three people on each trip. He was kidnapped by the Zetas in 2007 for 7 days and by The MS13 in Mexico in 2004.His brother-in-law, Mauricio, was a coyote as well but quit his occupation when he witnessed the murder of a child by the cartel. He had tried to intervene but they beat him up and pushed their fingers into his eyes, blinding him for two days and that was when he escaped.

A group of refugees float on the Suchiate river border between Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas Mexico and Tecun Uman, Guatemala. They travel by two giant inner tubes with planks of wood tied to them to make a raft.Their journey across the river is taken only 300 meters from the international bridge, which is the legal access to Mexico.

Juan Carlos (28) and Yolani lagos (24) are from SanPedro Sula, Honduras, and are taking refuge in Guadelupe refuge centre Reynosa, Mexico where Juan spends his days cooking for other migrants deported from the United States. They didn't want to leave Honduras but they and their families were repeatedly threatened by the Maras. Eventually they found him and shot him 16 times. Amazingly he survived while the maras believed he was dead.They have spent 16 months travelling to get to Reynosa. While they travelled they stopped a lot to work especially because of Juan's injuries. Now they are trying to get asylum in the United States but they fear deportation as it is now indiscriminate. Even those who have papers are being deported. And if they get deported back to Honduras they face certain death. They just want to be free to live a normal peaceful life. So they will stay in the refuge in Reynosa until they can get asylum legally.

Olman Orlando aka 'Danger' shows his lip tattoo. He is a MS13 gang member and a 33 year old Honduran Prisoner. He was convicted of homicide and sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was initiated into the gang MS13 when he was 8 years old and was tattooed on his forehead at the age of 13. In order to stay alive inside prison, he has had all his MS13 related tattoos tattooed over to project neutrality. He says he no longer wishes to be with the MS13 gang. 'Once a member always a member' so he will not survive life in Honduras once he is released. Therefore, upon release, his hope is to travel to the United States as a refugee, with his 4 small children and wife and try to start a fresh life there.

Doris Zulema Brito Hernandez, aged 53, has been charged with Fraud and Human trafficking. She and her husband arranged to take a trailer full of 74 people to Texas in 2003. Of those 19 suffocated, including a 5 year old child. She was arrested at the airport in San Pedro Sula. Family members of those who died filed their reports with the police in separate cities so she was charged in separate states for the same crime. She has three sentences totalling 29 years, which has since been reduced to 22. She has already served 11 years in Tamara Women’s Prison near Teguscigalpa, Honduras. They never arrested her husband because they couldn’t find him even though he would visit her in prison. He has since passed away. Their two children are currently wards of the state of Florida.

Mauricio is 25 years old and is from Honduras. He has spent several years travelling back and forth on “La Bestia” the freight train called “the Beast” through Mexico, but has never made it to the United States. He survives by begging.

An ex-sicario from Honduras; this elderly man now seeks refuge in the Alberge in Ixtapec

Prisoners locked up in Danli Prison, Honduras.

Malgda Corales is 34 years old. At the age of 12, she started training to become a M18 member and was initiated at 13. She learned to shoot and assemble guns, and how to kill in order to be an active member of the M18. At 16 she was arrested for several murders and sentenced for 18 years. She has been moved several times between the various prisons around Honduras and has been tortured repeatedly in all of the them. She is currently in maximum security because the M18 want to kill her for trying to leave the gang. She has endured several assassination attempts and survived 7 gunshot wounds. Human rights organisations have attempted to get her out of prison and consquently the penal system sent her into solitary confinement in order to prevent them from the organisations for accessing her. The isolation and the abuse has became too much, so she has tried to kill herself. She knows she will be trageted on her release, so she plans to get political asylum in the United States. ‘I don’t want to kill any more and I don’t want to be killed.’

A Honduran refugee continues his journey after resting in the Alberge in Ixtapec

Rebecca (one-year-old) sits on the bottom bunk that she and her mother Sandra share with all their worldly belongings in the Alberge in Ixtapec. Sandra is traveling with her mother, Maribelle 39, and her one-year-old daughter, Rebeca. They lived in El Salvador. They left because the maras took her brother and so they left to live somewhere else in the same town but then the mara found them again. Her mother had a store and the mara was demanding money and then the maras killed her brother. They could no longer live with the violence in El Salvador and decided to flee. They ran from immigration twice and traveled over the course of 15 days to Ixtapec, via taxi, combi, bus and walking. Of the 15 days they walked for 8. They are heading to Monterrey but she is waiting at the Alberge for her daughter’s birth certificate as she is having difficulty with immigration because he doesn’t have one.

Elisabeth is David’s (14yo) mother. David is extremely intelligent and the Maras in El Salvador wanted to recruit him in 2015, so the left with only $5 USD. They slept on the streets and traveled by foot for 40 days. They were deported from Tapachula once. Along their journey two Central American men assaulted them by knifepoint. The men took all their money and sexually assaulted Elisabeth. They been in the alberge for 20 days and are awaiting Humanitarian visa. Her son is staying in the adolescents’ bedroom. She’s has been sexually harassed in the alberge and doesn’t really feel safe but they need to await their visa’s before they can leave. They hope to live in Mexico City. She wants to be a chef there and send her son to school.

Wendy an ex-MS13 member says “... I wanted to kill my sister, so I did and before I could kill my borther I was arrested.” When she was 12 years old both her parents were arrested and then she had to live with her sisters.  She generally felt lonely and there was no real communication in their family.  Her brother tried to rape her and so she began to turn to the MS13 gang as a family.  With them she felt stronger. Once she became a MS13 member – she started using drugs and so she was locked out of her sister’s house. One night she kicked the door to get in and went to bed. Not long after she heard voices of men who broke into the house – all of them raped me and they stole everything. Three days later her sister found her and didn’t believe what she said had happened and accused her of stealing from them. ‘Because they didn’t believe me I wanted to kill my sister, so I did. And before I could kill my brother I was arrested.’

A refugee sitting in the Alberge in Tenosique. The wait at the alberge for a refugee visa or a humanitarian visa is up to 3 months and there is no guarantee of one. This sort of physical flux exaserbates the trauma and difficulties refugees have already endured. Thier fate is unknown and possibly means thay will need to retun to where they'd fled.

Emerita de Jesús Palma rests in her bed in an Albergue. She is 79 years old and is from El Salvador . Three months ago, she traveled all the way alone from El Salvador to Mexico to find her son who is working in a banana plantation in Chiapas, but she got lost on the way and because of her age she is applying for humanitarian visa as a vulnerable refugee and waiting authorities help to find her son

Elder Anibar (23yo) is from Honduras. He waits for 'La Bestia'Elder has travelled with 6 other family members to be safe.There was a lot of crime in Honduras. The maras threatened us so we had to leave. They are headed north toward the US.After Elsy (55yo - grandmother) fell off La bestia and hurt her ankle she is now returning to Honduras with three year old Joshua. The trip is very difficult for the old and young.

Karla Mariana (Honduras) has been feeling unwell in her pregnancy, so she is resting on the concrete floor of the Alberge. Two of her 5 children rest near her.

At risk of being murdered in Honduras, Alexis and his wife are in Mexico seeking refuge with their 2 small children aged 5 & 7. Alexis' wife has already been hit by a car by the maras. It has taken them 6 moths to get to Reynosa. They are terrified of being identified and killed.

Luis is 47 and is from Guatemala . Two months ago was chased by migration agents near the river and fell down the cliff landing in some rocks. Woke up 9 days later in hospital with half his face paralyzed and four skull fractures. Flesh from his leg had been ripped off.He wants to go to the US to find his son who is in the US army but doesn't know how to find him. He was fine and healthy before this accident. He cried, “this accident, this journey has changed my life forever.'

Laura Avila is 51 years old and is from Honduras. A year ago she lost her leg on the train La Bestia in Torreon Coahuila because of the accident she has humanitarian visa. Red Cross help her and she spend the first six months in Saltillo, and then was sent to Tapachula by Red Cross to get a prosthetic leg. She said "I left my country to get a better life and I'm going back worse off" She has four daughters and many grand sons

Laura squeezes into a Combi. Laura was part of a large group of seven people traveling together who are all from the same neighborhood in San Pedro In Honduras. We followed them from their arrival at the Succhiate river for the next 24 hours. After arriving in Mexico they spent three hours walking through Tapachula in the rain trying to find shelter. After nearly being turned in by a bus driver to the migration police and stranded on the roadside a half an hour walk outside Tapachula.

Caught by the Mexican Military two boys will be deported back to Honduras. Two migrant adolescents being escorted by the Mexican Military to the Migrant police for deportation back to Honduras.

The unmarked graves of John Does in Texas. The white crosses signify the resting place of John Doe illegal refugees found dead in Texas trying to find refuge in the United States