Manal, Mohamad, Mhamad. They came on the same boat and the dangerous experience has forged a new friendship.
Manal's story is in the earlier blog. She invites me to sit with 2 other men at her table.
Mohamad, 24, is a Kurdish optician from Aleppo. He, too had a good life before the war. He showed a video of the boat but he does not want it to be published for fear of endangering someone.
He left Aleppo in 2013 for Killis, then spent 3 years in Bursa near Istanbul. He tried to do work in his field or at some point would have worked anything – but was told to his face they do not want to hire Kurds. He should go away. So he did.
Mhamad is a thin wiry truck driver from Mosul, Iraq (maybe in his 40ies).
He was captured by DAESH and kept in prison for 7 months. His back is permanently hurting – but he cannot talk about that time.
When he was released he left for Bagdad, later went to Istanbul + on to Izmir where he met the other two. He has 3 children, a boy of 17 and two girls 4 and 5 who still live in Mosul with their mother. When I ask him if they live in a safe area, her says ‘No’. He hopes to go to Sweden or any northern country, and get his family to join him. Like many others he did not anticipate the years and resources this may take. After a stay of 9-18 months in the camp a lucky applicant can go to a European country that agreed to give asylum. To get his family to join he has to pay several thousand Dollars (rules vary by country), and the family has to fly to a country where they legally can get a visa, then fly to the host country for an interview that gets compared to the husband’s interview. Only then are they allowed to reunite. Given the daily dangers in Mosul this may be too late.
