Another tale of refugees who left Syria.
Smuggled From Syria to Glasgow by Boat, Plane and Train: A Refugee's Story
BY JAMES FERGUSSON 5/9/15 AT 4:42 PM
WORLD
There are parts of the East End of Glasgow, a deprived urban area notorious for its low life expectancy, that the locals themselves call "Bandit Country." It makes Bilal, 34, half-wonder if this is why the Home Office recently resettled him here—to make him feel more at home.
A quiet-spoken nutritionist from Damascus and a one-time activist against the Assad regime, he is one of 1,500 Syrians granted asylum in the U.K. last year. His new housing association flat may look austere but it is paradise compared with the crowded basement jail he once spent time in. His journey here took him through a dozen countries, and almost cost him his life. "I wouldn't do it again," he says, "not even for $5 million."
Last August, after flying from Istanbul to Algiers on a fake passport, he was smuggled through the desert by local militiamen to the Libyan port of Zuwarah, 100km west of Tripoli. After a two-week wait in a smuggler's house, he was put aboard a 13m fishing boat crammed with 280 people, 80 of them also Syrian, including many mothers with children. "Some of the Syrians tried to turn back when they saw how small the boat was," says Bilal, "but the smugglers forced us aboard at gunpoint."
The boat set off for the Italian island of Lampedusa, with a co-opted migrant at the helm. The Syrians, who had paid more than the African migrants on board, were placed on the open deck, with the Africans in the hold below.
Continue reading at:
Smuggled From Syria to Glasgow by Boat Plane and Train A Refugee s Story
Smuggled From Syria to Glasgow by Boat, Plane and Train: A Refugee's Story
BY JAMES FERGUSSON 5/9/15 AT 4:42 PM
WORLD
There are parts of the East End of Glasgow, a deprived urban area notorious for its low life expectancy, that the locals themselves call "Bandit Country." It makes Bilal, 34, half-wonder if this is why the Home Office recently resettled him here—to make him feel more at home.
A quiet-spoken nutritionist from Damascus and a one-time activist against the Assad regime, he is one of 1,500 Syrians granted asylum in the U.K. last year. His new housing association flat may look austere but it is paradise compared with the crowded basement jail he once spent time in. His journey here took him through a dozen countries, and almost cost him his life. "I wouldn't do it again," he says, "not even for $5 million."
Last August, after flying from Istanbul to Algiers on a fake passport, he was smuggled through the desert by local militiamen to the Libyan port of Zuwarah, 100km west of Tripoli. After a two-week wait in a smuggler's house, he was put aboard a 13m fishing boat crammed with 280 people, 80 of them also Syrian, including many mothers with children. "Some of the Syrians tried to turn back when they saw how small the boat was," says Bilal, "but the smugglers forced us aboard at gunpoint."
The boat set off for the Italian island of Lampedusa, with a co-opted migrant at the helm. The Syrians, who had paid more than the African migrants on board, were placed on the open deck, with the Africans in the hold below.
Continue reading at:
Smuggled From Syria to Glasgow by Boat Plane and Train A Refugee s Story
