1. Samos, GR 1.4 The Voices of Refugees - Their Stories

Baraa Telling her Story

The story of 21-year old Baraa

Baraa is a married woman and her story starts with her wedding. She showed us pictures of herself in her white wedding gown (a real Syrian Bride), and other professionally done photos of her wedding- a wedding that lacked a groom. The groom was in Germany, unable to join her because of his refugee status. Theirs was an arranged marriage, of sorts. His mom showed his photo to her mom who, in turn, showed it to Baraa wondering whether she'd be interested. She wasn't. But he liked her photo so he contacted her via social media just wanting to talk. She finally agreed to talk to him on a daily basis for one month. At the end of these four weeks he asked her whether she'd want to marry him now. She declined and so their relationship ended. However, she started to miss him badly, and a week later she contacted him and thus wedding plans unfolded.

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Source of map elements: UN cartographic sections
Arrows entered by Barbara Crain

Because the wait time takes two years for family to be united coupled with the deteriorating, scary circumstances in Damascus, Syria, she decided to join her husband in Germany and started her journey in  February 2016.  Alone!  Within Syria she traveled in an organized group from Damascus to Aleppo via Hims and Hamah.  In every city she stayed in a safe house. The last part of the journey they walked across the mountains for 12 hours to cross into Turkey. Once there, the organized group unraveled and it became quite dangerous and difficult for a pretty woman to safely navigate through this underground system.  In Turkey she started out in Antakya, the Turkish city nearest Syria's western border.  From there she traveled to Izmir where she lived in a hotel alone for four weeks. She spent another month in Istanbul-also in a hotel-and then traveled to Izmir where she spent  two more weeks. She had contact to a smuggler who organized trips across the sea to Greece. 

In effect she tried six times to cross the sea but it was very difficult to avoid Turkish authorities. The smugglers would collect people in a house, drive them in a van for roughly two hours, and then herded them on a long and difficult walk in the dark to a clandestine beach. At the beach they had to be very, very quiet while they waited for the boat--it didn't always come.

The smugglers would only collect the money once a boat was provided. Baraa set out twice by boat to Greece, thus she had to pay twice, in her case $500 two times. The smuggler would provide the raft-like boat and determine someone to be the captain at the motor because the smuggler would remain behind. They would all walk in the water up to their knees, get onto the boat, sit in sardine-like fashion and be as quiet as they could possibly be. The smuggler would point towards Greece and then the journey would begin, usually at 3 or 4 am.

The first boat that carried Baraa and others was intercepted by the Turkish coast guard; they all were taken back to Izmir and were made to stay at the police station for two days.  The second time she and others set out for Greece they ran out of gas. Baraa ended up calling her husband in Berlin, Germany, from the boat and he managed to have a helicopter look for them on the water. Once they were spotted, a Greek coastguard boat came and rescued them. Altogether, they spent 9 cold hours on the boat, wearing wet clothes, in mid-April 2016.

She did have her first meeting with her husband on Samos island. He came to the detention center and she was allowed to spend a week, their honeymoon week, in a hotel. Before that she shared a tent with another woman in the detention center; they all had to sleep on the floor, the blankets they were given didn't keep out the cold, and the food lines were long. One day a fight broke out between people of different nationalities and rocks were thrown; one such rock hit her tent and injured her leg. Thus Baraa's husband decided that she should go to a hotel with another woman; this would be Zaina.

The story of 19-year old Zaina and her family

Zaina grew up around the city of Hamah in a family of four--parents, a 2-year older brother and herself. The family has, in effect, double refugee status sinze Zaina's grandfather came to Syria from Palestinian camp to marry his Syrian bride.

The major reason they decided to leave Syria were the ongoing fights between the military and the rebels in her town, many people lost their houses. it wasn't safe anywhere anymore, not even at home. Thus the family decided to leave for Dubai, UAE, in 2014, to stay with an aunt. Here, Zaina finished high school and her brother worked and studied.

Source: Google maps

In March 2016, they were told abruptly to leave Dubai; they were given a week. Since going back to Syria was not an option they applied for visas in Turkey which all of them except Zaina's mother received in time. So they flew to Istanbul having to leave their mother behind. All in all, they spent six weeks in Istanbul and another week in Izmir.

They tried to get onto a boat for Greece four times. Each time they were led through watery and sandy areas for hours in the dark, this was followed usually by standing in the water, trying to not make a sound. All the time they had their bags on their backs. The last time they went, they reached a place to sit and their guide left them there. Then they waited from 3 or 4 am till 7 am in the cold. Finally one of them made a fire to keep the children warm. 

But then the boat came so they walked into the water towards the boats. They were on the sea for three hours till an EU boat spotted them. Zaina explained that they had previously spotted another refugee boat  which had run out of gas so they sent the EU boat to rescue them. Zaina and her family's boat was then intercepted by Greek patrol who were rather rough with them--it was freezing on that boat also, no blankets. But on shore, volunteers brought water and biscuits for the children.

The family applied for asylum and had already an interview. They spent 15 days in jail-like conditions when they couldn't leave the detention center. But then one refugee made a hole in the fence and they could go downtown and eat different food. Zaina ended up moving with Baraa to a room in Kokkari while her father and brother stayed in the camp where they shared a room in one of the newer containers. They reported living there was all right.

Zaina speaks good English and thus was able to serve as translator for Baraa. I also met their father and brother who frequently visit her; Kokkari is about 7 km away from the dentention center in Vathy.


----- UPDATE ------

Cafe signage
The owners are as nice as this sounds.

Three months later, in mid-September 2016, I met both young women at the same spot where I initially interviewed them in June. The spot is a cafe the owners of which have taken the women under their wings. Thus I am also making sure to frequent this particular cafe as often as possible. Business is slow, very slow on Samos this year. 

Both women learn German from Ruth; they meet twice a week and have been doing so for the last three months usually meeting in the cafe at the seaside. Baraa is learning German in preparation for her 'family reunion' with her husband in Berlin; Zaina is learning the language because she thinks it is an important language to know and maybe she'll be able to use it one day. And in any event, she thinks, it is a good idea to keep one's mind busy. 

In order to not have a negative impact on the cafe's business the trio moved to another establishment that closed down early. Here, the owners left them a table complete with a nice table cloth.

Nothing has changed as to the status of the young ladies.