Waleed, his pregnant wife and their two children left Iraq in February this year. It took them a month to reach the Greek island of Samos through Turkey, and after suffering a short yet traumatic stint of detention in Turkey, they are now in a makeshift detention center, waiting desperately for information on what their future holds.
“There is no mercy left on earth, look at us, look at my children!” 37-year-old Waleed says, standing with his wife, who is seven months pregnant, behind the fence separating them and hundreds of other asylum seekers from freedom.
“We fled Mosul, we can not live there any more, we are running from the Islamic State, and look at where we end up.”
Mosul was overrun by the jihadist IS group in the summer of 2014, amid a brutal offensive that forced millions to flee their homes.
They heard that hundreds of thousands of people were reaching Europe through Turkey, so they decided to try their luck at building a better future.
“My family and I were detained in Turkey for 12 days. We tried to protest in the prison but the prison guards beat us and fired tear gas at us. In the end we were released on March 20, and we arrived in Samos on the 21st,” he said.
“I’m doing my best, but is this a way to treat human beings? They are supposed to protect us, not put us in a big cage like animals, without any information on when our case will be processed.”
On March 20, an EU-Turkey deal aimed at stemming the influx of asylum seekers into Europe came into force. Since then, Greek authorities have turned so-called hotspots that were supposed to act as registration centers into de facto detention centers.
“My wife is pregnant and she can’t remain a prisoner any longer in this dirty, crowded place, while all the NGOs are pulling out and leaving us in the hands of police,” Waleed said angrily, as his wife and children wept.
photo Mohammad Ghannam MSF
No comments:
Post a Comment