Photo: Refugees flee Kobane into Turkey escaping IS forces

Thousands of refugees from Kobane, Syria, try to escape from fighting between IS and Kurdish forces. Dramatic scenes are taking place at the border.

The refugees are waiting for access to Turkey. Physical exhaustion and psychological damage caused some of them to collapse. Heavy explosions are heard, smoke rises above Kobane.

But the Kurds must wait before they can enter Turkey. Once the Turkish army allow them in they are moved on to trucks which take them to a refugee camp. However, when those camps are overcrowded they have no choice but to remain in front of the gate – some of them for weeks.

Photographers Sebastian Backhaus, Giulia Bertoluzzi and Constanza Spocci captured the scene near the Syrian-Turkey border.