Ron Davis Álvarez stood on a train platform in Stockholm, stunned by what he saw.

The Venezuelan conductor was visiting Sweden as part of a university exchange program. He expected his passage through a train station, on his way to visit a group of students that day in 2015, to be uneventful.

However, he saw crowds of people getting off the trains, their faces gaunt and exhausted. Some volunteers ran past him to hand out bananas and water to the newcomers.