Serbest (32), together with his then pregnant wife Shilan (28) applied for asylum in Lithuania in March 2009. 

Ion (27) first left Moldova in 2009. He had recently married and had a little daughter, yet his income was far from sufficient to support his young family. 

Svetlana (42), an accountant by profession, began trading in clothes in Zugdidi back in 1998. A divorcee raising a son on her own, she always found it difficult to live on a low salary. 

Although Amil (56) had been engaged in various business activities in Azerbaijan – from selling fruit, vegetables and flowers to working in the service sector, – he had been constantly struggling to make ends meet.