His name means "Free" - the Life and Journey of a Syrian Refugee (Part Three)

Author's note: At the end of last year, I wrote about meeting and speaking with a Syrian refugee in Vienna, developing a friendship with him, and finally learning of his safe arrival in the UK. I went to visit him in Cardiff and he allowed me to record a conversation about his life, the circumstances that led to his flight from Syria, and his journey. A couple of months ago I wrote two pieces produced out of our conversation. Other responsibilities have prevented me from continuing the story till now, but here is the third part of the series. 

It should go without saying, but please read the first and second parts first if you have not already done so. Since it was our agreement that I not post the audio recording of his voice online, I have made very few adaptions to his phrasing and grammar to preserve some relic of his voice's authenticity.

Now, without further comment, let us return to Azad's narrative. 

I left Syria in late August. It was early evening, about 7. Between 7 and 8. We walked to the Iraqi border and payed $500. Maybe they make a kind of arrangement between the check points and guards on the border so people can leave. We chose the Iraqi border because it is safer than the Turkish border. Why? Because between Syria and Turkey sometimes Turkish army shoots at people because as they state it, they think that maybe it is PKK - that PKK are crossing the borders - this is their excuse. So we chose Iraqi border to go to Iran then to go to Turkey. We entered Turkey and also payed another $500. We then traveled to Istanbul where we stayed a few days to make arrangements with a trafficker. We payed 2,500 euros for one person. We were a group of eighteen persons. 

We went to the Greek border and stayed two days within the forest waiting for a check-point to leave so we could cross. We had two children with us, little food and water. They left us. I mean the traffickers. We thought that they wouldn’t come back. We made many contacts with our relatives in Istanbul, so they come back to us. The second night we crossed the border. We walked more than three hours. It was very very difficult because the roads were very bad. I still have many scars on my body. 

We were then arrested by the Greek police and were kept for about thirteen days. We were in prison, then they moved us to a camp where we stayed a few days before they let us go. After Greece, everything was easy. I have to thank those governments helping refugees crossing their borders safely, providing food, and those organisations providing food, clothes. That must be appreciated. We went to Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria (where I met you!), Germany…We stayed two days at the German border waiting to enter.

I was in Germany. I stayed many, maybe ten, days there before coming to France. I bought a bus ticket and went to Belgium. Then I went to Paris and stayed two or three hours in Paris before going to Calais. I can say the journey from Syria to France was easy if I compare it to my trip from Calais to England. That was the most difficult part.

In Calais I did not know anybody and did not know where to go. Fortunately there were many other refugees on a bus. They said “We are going to ‘The Jungle’”, which is a camp of refugees within Calais for those who attempt to go to the UK. I followed them and went to the camp. I did not know anybody. I didn’t have any place to stay for that night. I went to the camp and I don’t know what to do. A guy beside me, maybe studying my face, my feeling, my expression, he knew that I’m new and that I don’t know anybody.

“Are you new? Do you have any place to stay?”, he asked me.

I said no.

“Come with me”, he said.

I followed him and he took me to his tent and I slept there till more morning. After that you have to take care of yourself, to make a tent for yourself. They gave me a tent. Of course, it was very small.

It is not an arranged camp. There is too much disorder there. It was raining every day. Organisations come I think on Saturday and Sunday, providing clothes sometimes, food, shoes… There was one organisation which is called “Salam”. Salam provided everyday one meal at 3:00 pm. I stayed there about 20 days.

From Calais there are two ways to cross the border, to cross the sea, to come to the UK. You have to go to the ferry harbour or go to the train station. The ferry is near the camp - it is about 30 minutes walking. The train station is very far – it is about two and a half or three hours walking. Those who go to the train station have more chance than the ferry, because with the ferry you have to go and hide within a lorry going through a thermal camera. Of course they will know you are there and check the lorry, and if they find you they will take you out. I tried about 20 days. I went to the train station without succeeding. It was very difficult. Raining every day, walking for long hours. We would leave at about 5 pm and go to the train station trying all the night to find a point when you could cross the fences. There were four fences with wire – razor wire. They were very dangerous. I have seen many people get badly harmed. You have to find a point either to cross the fence or sometimes some people make a hole through the fence so they enter the train station. If you have a tool to cut the fence you will be sentenced to five years in prison. So it was very difficult. I just succeeded three times to get into the train station. Till there, you don’t have a chance, till the train starts to move. You have to jump onto the train then when it starts to move, within 10-15 seconds or the train will be too fast and dangerous. The period that I stayed there, I mean those 20 days, I heard that three or four people died. They tried to jump onto the train but it was too fast and they couldn’t.

My last day there. I went to the train station. We tried hard to cross the fences. We managed to do that. We got into the train station because we were many people. They stopped trains, I mean the police, they stopped trains. They came into the train station to take those people out. We were maybe 50 to 100 persons. Of course we ran, maybe we go to a lorry and hide so they don’t find us. They ran after us and sprayed a kind of gas. Unfortunately I was hot, I couldn’t move anymore. I felt bad and kind of suffocated.

They put many of us in a very narrow car - the back of a car that was very narrow, and brought us back to the camp. It was about 12:00 midnight. I took a kind of rest, washed my trousers for another night of trying, and took something to eat. It was about 3:00 am and I was sort of sleeping when I heard people shouting that there was a crowd of lorries in the street waiting for their turn to go into the ship, into the ferry coming to the UK.

I told myself “Why you don’t try? I know that you are tired but the ferry is not far – it’s about 30 minutes. Go, and do it easily. Don’t exhaust yourself.”

I went. Many people were there trying to go on, so the police don’t arrest them. We managed that and we got to the square where the lorries stayed. I went into a lorry. It was about 5 am in the morning. Many other guys were inside, I think six to seven persons hiding within the containers. I couldn’t find a good place to hide. There was a hole there between the goods.  I stayed there till we crossed the border. It was an open place - maybe they didn’t suspect there was somebody there! When we crossed the thermal camera, of course they knew that there was somebody inside, so they stopped the lorry aside. It stayed about seven to eight hours till police came and checked. Within those hours, the other guys I think felt bored. They went out. I stayed alone. They were making fun of me. 

“This is a ridiculous guy. How can you do it? They will catch you!” 

“Eh,” I told myself. “Be patient, maybe you will succeed. Don’t listen to those guys.” 

That’s what happened. They lost and I win. 

To be continued.