Note: I have been cautious about the details that were shared with me by the adults in this story. I cannot give exact locations, names, etc. as there is the possibility that if they were identified by what I write here, the father could be hunted down by ISIS and killed.
(Lesvos, Greece — December 6, 2015) Two nights ago, I met a family from Syria camped out on Afghan Hill in Moria. They were waiting to get their paperwork processed so they could travel to mainland Greece. It was late, they would have to spend the night on the hill.
A father, mother, and their nine-month-old daughter were huddled around a fire sitting on mats in their makeshift campsite. The husband’s sister and her eleven-year-old daughter, nine-year-old son, seven-year-old son, and three-year-old daughter accompanied them. The sister’s husband was able to make the journey from Syria to Greece in May and was now safely in Germany. They hoped to reconnect with him.
It was dark, cold, and damp. They were not dressed for the weather. They had little food. They were squatting in tents that were not winterized and they had no sleeping bags. It was going to be a long night. But this extended family has experienced more than their share of long, cold nights over the past year or so.
The family is from a historic city in Syria. When the father, now 23, was 18 years old, he was part of the movement that pushing for a new government and freedom from the Assad regime. While taking part in a demonstration, he was arrested. He was tortured by his captors – hung from his wrists and electrocuted. They also whipped him with a live electric wire that nearly ripped all the skin off his back. He was imprisoned for a month and half and then given “forgiveness” and released. He told me that while he was held captive, there were children as young as 13-years-old in the prison with him. They were also tortured.
Despite being arrested, jailed and tortured, he held onto his ideals and later joined the Free Syrian Army. He fought in the civil war against the Assad regime for a year and half. He saw death and destruction. Four of his first cousins were killed – one was tortured to death by Assad’s forces; two were killed by rockets; another was killed in combat with the Free Syrian Army.
As if the bloody civil war was not enough, then ISIS arrived. He fought them too for two months (while still fighting Assad’s forces).
In late August of 2014 a rocket ripped through his home, nearly hitting his wife. Luckily it did not explode. That was the catalyst that pushed him to leave his homeland for which he had fought so hard. He was lucky to get out when he did. During the early days of ISIS’ arrival in his area, it was still possible for men to leave.
Some of his cousins were not so lucky. They did not leave with him and when ISIS established their bloody, barbaric foothold, it was impossible for them to go. He shared with me that the ISIS leadership demanded allegiance of them.
“If you do not pledge allegiance to ISIS, you are killed,” he said.
I was shown what this “allegiance” means in practical terms. First he showed me a video of a “non-believer” having their hand brutally chopped off with a machete. Then he shared photos of his cousins holding the head of a non-believer that they were forced to decapitate to show that they stood with ISIS. It was either that or die.
He shared that along with the brutal violence, under ISIS’ mismanagement, there is no water, no electricity, no food and now no one can get out. He told me, “Daesh (ISIS) are not good people. We are here because of them.”
After leaving his hometown, he and young wife and his sister and her children began their fifteen-month journey to Greece. They walked through the mountains; they hid when necessary; they made their way to the Turkish border and eventually to one of the twenty-five refugee camps that are home to more than 250,000 of the two million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
After arriving at the camp, they spent two and half months sleeping in the open and did their best to create a makeshift shelter. They finally were given a tent from the Red Crescent and lived there for over a year.
During their stay in the refugee camp, this 23-year-old husband and his young 18-year-old wife became pregnant. They could not go to the hospital at all during her pregnancy because they did not have official papers to be in Turkey. It was only when she was in labor that they were able to bring her to the hospital. The baby was boCrn a few months ago and is healthy.
Just weeks ago, they all (husband, wife, sister, kids) left the camp and waited for the call from the smugglers to make the dangerous journey across the Aegean Sea to Greece. It would cost $4,000 for the entire family to cross.
Around midnight on December 6th they were herded along with 40 or so others into a dingy that was designed for 20 people. They were packed one on top of the other. They said it was “two hours of fear” as they crossed the sea in the dark of the night. The children were crying, scared of the water, and afraid the boat may flip over.
They, like tens of thousands of others before them, made it safely to the shore of Lesvos, landing near Mytilini. Some are not so lucky. The threat of death always joins the refugees on this leg of the journey – boats have sunk and people have drowned. But they made it.
What’s next?
They will go through the process of getting documents from the Greek police that will allow them to travel. Then they will take a ferry from Lesvos to the mainland and hopefully they will make it to Germany as planned.
I asked them what they wanted in the end.
“We want security and peace,” said the husband. “We just want to live.”