Hello everyone,
I'm Mahmoud Qeshreh, I am 26 years old.
This is the story of my arrival in Belgium.
I hope you enjoy it and share it just to let all people know how dangerous it is to come here.
Let's start.
1/8/2015 - The StartThis date was the date that has changed my life completely. It has changed my plans and every single thing in my life. I had lived in Istanbul for 15 months before coming to Belgium. It was very difficult, so the only choice for me was to travel to Europe by sea. I had had no idea it was going to be that dangerous.
I went from Istanbul to Izmir and found one person who agreed to help us to travel from Turkey to Greece. We were 10 people, all boys. We met the person and we had a deal: he said he would take us to Greece by boat and charge 1200 US dollars. We couldn't find another person who would have charged less money. He told us, “Be ready. I will call you tomorrow and tell you about the time we are leaving.”
The next day we were ready. All bags were packed, so we were just waiting for him to call us. The day almost ended, but he did not call. He called us at 11 pm and told us," We can't leave today, we will go tomorrow." Then we went to bed and got ready for the trip the next day.
However, the same thing happened again and again. We were waiting for five days. On day 6 the person called us and told us to get ready. This time he promised that there would be no change. In 10 minutes we got ready and we were waiting for his call. He called us and told us to come and meet him in the center of Izmir. We went there. There were a lot of people who were waiting for other people for the same reason. And then the first trial started.
He took us to a house in the countryside and left us there. He also told us to wait for the truck. Three hours later the truck came. The maximum number who can be in the truck is 20, whereas we were 80. We went into the truck and it was very very bad. No place to sit down. After 4.5 hours I couldn’t even move my leg because I did not feel it.
Then we finally arrived at the point where we could take the boat, but a lot of police were there. We could not move and we had to stay in the forest for 3 hours. After that, we went to the boats and started our trip.
It was very safe. The sea was very nice, but before we arrived at the borders between Turkey and Greece, the Turkish police caught us and took us to Turkey again. It was horrible. Everyone was crying, including me. At that moment I felt that I lost my hope and it's the end of my life. However, I convinced myself to try it one more time and that is what happened.
The Second - DisappointmentWe left Izmir and went to the city called Bodrum. It was the second place we could go to get to Greece. We talked to another person to help us. He told us, "Ok, you should be ready very soon to go." And the same thing happened, just like in Izmir. We had been waiting for 3 days to leave, but this time we did not have to use a truck to arrive to the point. We got in the boat and everything was good, except for the sea that was bad and the waves that were high. The sailor of the boat didn't know how to sail it very well. The waves were very high and it was in the middle of the night. No lights, just light of the moon. 100 meters later, the sailor lost control, and the boat sunk in the sea. We had to swim back to the beach, at the same time helping old women and men to arrive safely. We were shocked. I could not believe this. This time my hope was completely devastated.
My friend told me, "Let's try for the last time and if we can't do it, let’s go back." I agreed with him.
Again, we talked to another person to help us and he was the only person who was honest with us. He told us that we were leaving tomorrow. Indeed, the next day we went to the point, got into the boat, and started the trip. Again, in the middle of the night. Again, there were no lights, just the light of the moon. This time the sea was good. No high waves during the 2.5 hours of the trip.
Finally, we arrived at the Kos island of Greece. I can't tell you what it meant to me. We were extremely happy. We did it. WE DID IT. It was the most amazing feeling you can ever feel.
BBC, UNHCR, and CNN were waiting for us. They started taking photos of us. We became famous. And then we made the second step.
We had walked for about 2 hours before we arrived at the police station. We needed an official paper from them that would allow us to go to Athens, the capital of Greece. Of course, a lot of people were there so we had to find a hotel to stay in. And there was a big problem: no hotels. We saw about 10 hotels and all of them were full. We stayed on the street the entire evening and eventually we found a hotel just for 4 people. The rest of us kept looking for a hotel until they found one. We took a shower and went to sleep because we were very tired.
The next day we went to the police station to take the paper but the same situation occurred: lots of people were waiting there. We could not take the paper and we had to stay one more night at the hotel. The next day the same thing happened. It happened again and again for 4 days. Then we received the paper and took the steamship to Athens.
We arrived in Athens at 9 am and found a hotel. We talked to a person who agreed to take us to the border between Greece and Macedonia. The next day we took a bus towards the border. We arrived at 6 pm and some people told us that it was dangerous to go at that time. They suggested waiting until the next day, but we did not want to wait anymore. We kept moving.
There were about 100 of us walking together, so it was safe, you may say. We were walking into the fields while it was raining. It was a bad walk, but we had to do it. 4 hours later we arrived in Macedonia. The second step of our trip was made.
We kept moving until we arrived at the train station. We wanted to go to the border between Serbia and Macedonia. At the train station in Macedonia, there were about 1500 people waiting for the train to come. 3 hours later the train came. The train had 6 doors. Imagine how many people there were in each door. I entered the train from the window, not from the door. I fell down onto the train floor and about 100 people walked on me. I stayed like this for 20 minutes until my friends found me and lifted me up. Sounds too bad, right? You will see things that are much worse than that.
Do you remember the truck we took from Turkey to Greece during our first try? The same thing happened here. I was standing for 4 hours in the truck. I stopped feeling my legs. It was really bad. 4 later hours we arrived at the border. One girl from UNHCR told us about the right way to take in order to cross the border. And we started walking.
5 hours of walking between the wet fields as it was raining really hard. It was terrible. Of course, it was very dark. In the end, we arrived at the first village of Serbia. There we had to be very careful because if the people had seen us, they would have called the police and the police would have brought us back to Macedonia. We were walking silently.
Then we arrived at the third village. We crossed 3 villages on foot. From the third village, we took a bus to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. We arrived there at night and it was raining so much. All hotels were full. It was so difficult to find a hotel. Of course, every 4 people were in a different hotel. The next day we went to the bus station to take the bus to the last village of Serbia, which is the nearest point to the border with Hungary.
We arrived in that village at 6 pm. We started our most dangerous and difficult part of the trip at 8 pm. We started walking just in our group, there were no other people with us. We had two ways to cross the borders, by crossing the riverway or using the railway. We chose the railway because it was safer. We were moving on the left side of the railway.
Suddenly a policeman's light was on us. We started running while he was trying to shoot us with his gun. I will never forget what happened then. The policeman shot my best friend. He died. My best friend died, and I could not do anything. Why him, why not me? Why him? It was the worst moment of my life.
I have known him for 20 years. His father died when he was born. He didn't have any brothers or sisters. He lived with his mother. I lost him just because he was trying to have a future. He was hoping for the best. Every time I remember that I cry. I won't be able to tell you what happened when I told his mother about this accident. I will never forgive myself. The police took the dead body of my friend while we had to keep moving because I could have lost my life and my hope if I had stopped then. We arrived at the end of the railway and saw a highway. We had to cross it in order to get to the other side of the railway, but a lot of policemen were moving and we needed to choose a perfect moment. We were hiding in the cornfields. It was raining a lot while we were waiting in the cornfields for at least 3 hours.
When the police car left the highway, we crossed the highway and continued our trip on the railway. We continued walking through the wet fields, crossing the highways, and keeping close to the railway in the heavy rain. At the end of the railway, we found a person who had a truck and took us to Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
We got a taxi and we made our last step. The driver was drunk and we could have ended up in an accident several times. He was driving so fast, going right and left on the highway. We were scared, but fortunately, we arrived safely.
We arrived at the first city in Germany where the driver left us in the middle of a big forest. Again, we had to walk to the train station. While we were walking, the German police saw us. They were very nice to us, especially when they realized that we are from Syria. They took us to the police station and gave us food and blankets. Then, in the afternoon they took us to the shelter and left us there. Soon we escaped and went to the train station and from there every one of us went alone.
From 1/8/2015 to 24/8/2015... This is how much time it takes to arrive in Germany. 27/8/2015 I arrived in Belgium by train.
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Tôi vẫn nhớ khuôn mặt luôn nở nụ cười, tự gấp hoa giấy tặng cho tôi mỗi lần tôi đứng phát bánh mì trong nhà ăn. Những hình ảnh về chiến tranh bạo động, những cuộc rượt đuổi và ánh sáng le lói trong đêm đó hi vọng sẽ sớm được thay bằng sự bình yên trong tâm trí anh!
~ Be Gratitude ~
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