Who we are

Meet the people behind Refugee.Today

Martin Thaulow Refugee.Today Founder and Photographer

Martin Thaulow

Founder & photographer martin@goodpeople.dk

rawan abdullah

Storyteller & translator

Jesper Kofod, Refugee.Today film and photo editor/color grader

jesper Kofod

Film & photo editor

 jesper@goodpeople.dk

what we do

Refugee.Today puts a human face to refugees

Based on visual journalism and refugees' personal stories, we nuance the picture of refugees, their everyday lives and the reality they live in. The goal is to contribute to a more nuanced debate in Denmark as well as in the EU.


Refugee.Today was founded in 2014 by Martin Thaulow, professional photographer and visual artist. Martin started portraying refugees in August 2014, when a number of refugees arrived on Bornholm (DK) where he lives.

He was curious to meet the newcomers and to document the meeting between them and the islanders. As a gesture he began photographing the refugees at the asylum centers and giving them their portraits as a gift.

At one of the asylum centers he met Rawan Abdullah. Rawan had fled Syria in 2014 and speaking 4 languages fluently, she easily got herself a job at the Red Cross asylum center, when she was given political asylum on Bornholm. Martin and Rawan started working on the Rojin case,  a Syrian girl who was about to be separated from her family, as the Danish Immigration Service was extraditing her to Bulgaria due to the Dublin Regulation.

Rawan’ and Martin’s work led to the creation of Refugee.Today as we know it - a platform where refugees can tell their story and be recognized as individuals, in contrast to the tendency to adress "refugees" as a collective mass.

Since 2014, Martin has taken thousands of pictures of refugees in Denmark, but also in countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Bulgaria, Jordan, Germany and Finland. Refugee.Today has expanded and we are now a passionate and diverse team of members working with the Refugee.Today vision.