QuoteHope Lost in Greece, Some Syrians Pay Smugglers to Get Home
By costas kantouris, associated press
DIDIMOTICHO, Greece — Jun 11, 2016, 1:20 PM ET
Europe seemed like the promised land, worth risking their lives to reach. But in a muddy field on the northern edge of Greece, their dreams died. Now, dozens of Syrian refugees are risking their lives again but in the opposite direction — paying smugglers to take them back to Turkey, and heading home.
Rather than brave the often treacherous waves of the Aegean again, they face the dangerous currents of the Evros River, which runs along the Greek-Turkish border. Each night, groups of migrants and refugees huddle at the railway station of the small border town of Didimoticho, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the frontier, setting up small tents and waiting for their chance to cross.
Among them is Atia Al Jassem, a 27-year-old Syrian barber from Damascus who is heading east with his wife and 1-year-old daughter after spending months stuck on the Greek-Macedonian border, watching his hopes of reaching Europe ebb away.
"I am going to Turkey, I do not want Europe any more. Finished," he said, sitting in a small park near the railway station in Thessaloniki, Greece's main northern city, where he, his 20-year-old wife Yasmine Ramadan and their daughter Legine, who they call Loulou, spent what they hoped would be their last night in the country.
"We are really tired. We're destroyed and I have a baby. I ask God to help me get back to Turkey," he said. "In Syria under the bombs we would be better off than here."
The family arrived in Greece on Feb. 24, crossing the Aegean and then making their way north. But their journey to Germany was cut short at the Greek-Macedonian border.
The European Union and Turkey since agreed on a deal which returns migrants who arrived on the Greek islands after March 20 to Turkey — but it doesn't affect earlier arrivals trapped on the Greek mainland.
Balkan and European countries increasingly tightened entry restrictions at the start of the year, before shutting their land borders to refugees completely in March. That trapped about 57,000 people in Greece, a country enduring a six-year financial crisis and with unemployment running at around 24 percent. Few refugees want to settle here.
Al Jassem and his family stayed for months in Idomeni, a sprawling impromptu refugee camp that sprang up on the Greek-Macedonian border. Authorities evacuated the camp last month, and the family were moved to an official camp with thousands of others.
But months of living rough had sapped their morale and their resolve. They gave up the dream of a life in Germany.
"We did not expect we were going to be treated as such in Europe," said Al Jassem. "We thought they will be humane, looking after us and after our children, protect our children. We though we will be helped, but we found the opposite. Europe has no feeling for us at all."
They decided to head to Turkey, where Al Jassem's brother lives. But like many others, they found there was no easy way back. Syrians cannot be officially returned to their war-ravaged country, and the legal path to Turkey would be lengthy and bureaucratic. So many opt for smugglers, who migrants say now charge cut-price rates of just a few hundred euros instead of thousands to be taken in the opposite direction.
"Recently we have observed a reverse flow of migrants and refugees coming from Idomeni toward our northern borders," said Ilias Akidis, head of the police union of Didimoticho. "From what they tell us, they are trying to cross to Turkey ... because they have relatives there or because they want to head back to their country."
Didimoticho deputy mayor Ioannis Topaloudis said authorities have been seeing around 20-40 people heading toward the Turkish border each day. With a fence sealing the small section of land border, the only option to those without the correct documentation is to take their chances across the river. Over the years, the Evros' current has claimed many migrant lives.
Authorities stop those they find. Police say they have detained about 150 migrants trying to cross illegally into Turkey over the past two months. In mid-May, police caught five Syrians aged between 23 and 52 trying to row across the river in a dinghy.
"This season the Evros (river) is very dangerous. Because of the rains, the water level is very high," said Akidis. "They are always trying to go back. It is very dangerous. They don't succeed because we also are preventing them from crossing, but for their own reasons they keep trying."
Among those giving up on hopes of a life in Europe was Majd Hamed, a 21-year-old fine arts student also from Damascus. After three months in Idomeni, he decided in mid-May to head home.
"I want to go to Syria and continue my studies in the Fine Arts School. Even if the (European) borders open, I'm going back. I'm very angry with the Europeans for this situation we've been living here," he said, sitting outside the train carriages where he had been sleeping in Idomeni before the camp was evacuated.
Hamed says he sought help from U.N. agencies to return home, but was told it wasn't possible.
"They told me that it's not safe for me to go back to Syria," he said. So he sought out the alternative.
Armed with a map with Didimoticho marked out, he was heading to Thessaloniki to catch a train to the border. "From there I'm going to cross the river, as others from Syria have told me," he said. He aimed to fly from Turkey to Lebanon and make his way home to Damascus.
"I never tried to cross the border with Macedonia illegally," he says. "I wanted to get to Germany legally, but now I'm forced to try to return to my country in this way."
Some lucky few do manage to take a legal route. Alia Mohamad, a 21-year-old from Aleppo, was heading with her husband and barely 2-month-old son Uday to Thessaloniki to catch a flight to Turkey with tickets sent by her sister, who was getting married in Turkey and had officially invited them over.
The young family had spent three months in Idomeni. "It is not possible to continue like this and I see it is impossible to get to Europe," Mohamad said.
After the wedding, they aim to return to Syria.
"We have no more money, and the situation here is bad also for the baby," said her 23-year-old husband Mahmud Kusa Ali. "We have decided to return to our country."
They will settle down about 70 kilometers from their hometown of Aleppo. "It is safer there," he said.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hope-lost-greece-syrians-pay-smugglers-home-39778413
Tämä nyt viimeistään todistaa että rahaa ja ilmaista asuntoa ne syyrialaisetkin tuli hakemaan irakilaisista, somaleista ja afgaaneista puhumattakaan.
- Luulitko, että ostit jotkut edestakaiset matkaliput vai?
:o
Ja täällä jaetaan ilmaista rahaa jotta lähtisivät kotiin! :facepalm:
Kreikka ei pysty / halua valvoa rajojaan, mutta Makedonia pystyy ja haluaa. Makedoniako Euroopan nyt pelastaa? Muut maat ottakoot mallia.
QuoteThey will settle down about 70 kilometers from their hometown of Aleppo. "It is safer there," he said.
Kävivät siis Euroopassa asti toteamassa sen että ois se 70km pakeneminen sitten kuitenkin ollut riittävä. :o
Quote from: Kallan on 16.06.2016, 16:38:24
QuoteThey will settle down about 70 kilometers from their hometown of Aleppo. "It is safer there," he said.
Kävivät siis Euroopassa asti toteamassa sen että ois se 70km pakeneminen sitten kuitenkin ollut riittävä. :o
Mekin voimme siis todeta lauseen: Matkailu avartaa, olevan totta?
Toivottavasti naapurin Ahmed uskoo tarinankerronta perinnettä noudattaen toisen puhuvan totta kun kertoo euroopan olevan paska paikka ja pysyän kotosalla.
Quote from: Kni on 16.06.2016, 16:07:33
Kreikka ei pysty / halua valvoa rajojaan, mutta Makedonia pystyy ja haluaa. Makedoniako Euroopan nyt pelastaa? Muut maat ottakoot mallia.
Hyvä että edes joku pystyy ja haluaa. Hyvä on myös, että alueen maat ovat maantieteellisessä pullonkaulassa, josta ei mennä läpi, jos kaikki sulkevat rajansa läpi koko niemimaan. Heidänkin etunsa on, ettei Eurooppa pääse islamisoitumaan.
Quote from: Kallan on 16.06.2016, 16:38:24
QuoteThey will settle down about 70 kilometers from their hometown of Aleppo. "It is safer there," he said.
Kävivät siis Euroopassa asti toteamassa sen että ois se 70km pakeneminen sitten kuitenkin ollut riittävä. :o
Kun ongelmanratkaisu on tätä tasoa, niin ymmärrämme ehkä taas vähän paremmin, miksi tuokin paikka on kehitysvaltio? :roll:
Miksi joku unelmoi elämästä Saksassa? Siellä kun ei ole heille mitään. Syyriassa on sentään sohvia ja kohta runsaasti kysyntää uusista; entiset kun pääsivät rähjääntymään.
Suomensin alun jutusta, melkoista tunteisiin vetoavaa vuodatusta.
Syyrialaiset maksavat salakuljettajille päästäkseen takaisin
Eurooppa vaikutti lupaavalta paikalta, sellaiselta, jonka vuoksi voisi riskeerata henkensä. Kreikan mutaisilla leireillä unelma särkyi. Nyt kymmenet Syyrialaiset riskeeraavat henkensä uudestaan, mutta tällä kertaa toiseen suuntaan. He maksavat salakuljettajille päästäkseen takaisin Turkkiin, ja sieltä kotiinsa.
Jokainen ilta, siirtolaisten ryhmiä kokoontuu Didimotichon juna-asemalla, noin 3 kilometriä raja-alueelta. He yöpyvät teltoissa ja odottavat mahdollisuuttaan palata takaisin.
Heidän joukossaan on eräs Atia Al Jassem, 27 vuotias syyrialainen parturi Damaskoksesta, joka on menossa itään päin vaimonsa ja 1 vuotiaan tyttärensä kanssa. Hän on kuluttanut useita kuukausia Kreikan ja Makedonian välisellä rajalla, katsoen kuinka heidän unelmansa Eurooppaan pääsystä murenee.
"Olen menossa Turkkiin, en halua Eurooppaan enää. Olen lopussa," hän toteaa istuessaan pienessä puistossa lähellä rautatieasemaa Thessalonikissa, Kreikan kaupungissa pohjoisessa. Täällä hän toivoo viettävänsä viimeisen yön vaimonsa Yasmine Ramadanin ja tyttärensä Leginen kanssa.
"Olemme todella väsyneitä. Olemme tuhottuja, ja minulla on lapsi. pyydän Jumalalta apua päästäksemme takaisin Turkkiin," hän sanoi. "Syyriassa pommien alla olemme paremmassa paikassa kuin täällä." Perhe saapui Kreikkaan 24. päivä helmikuuta, ylitettyään Aegean-meren ja suunnattuaan pohjoiseen. Heidän matkansa Saksaan keskeytyi kuitenkin Kreikan ja Makedonian rajalla.
Euroopan Unioni ja Turkki tekivät sopimuksen, jonka mukaan matkaavat siirtolaiset voidaan palauttaa takaisin Turkkiin. Tämä sopimus ei vaikuta heidän perheeseensä, koska sopimus tehtiin myöhemmin kuin he olivat saapuneet Kreikkaan.
Balkanin ja Euroopan maat ovat jatkuvasti tiukentaneet pääsyvaatimuksia vuoden alusta alkaen, ennen kuin sulkivat maarajansa pakolaisilta kokonaisuudessaan maaliskuussa. Tämän vuoksi Kreikkaan jäi kymmeniä tuhansia siirtolaisia. Kuusivuotisen talouskriisin ja olemattomien työmahdollisuuksien vuoksi, siirtolaiset eivät halua jäädä Kreikkaan.
Tämähän ei käy Merkele-Junckerilaiselle eurostoaatteelle alkuunkaan. Pako Euroopasta on saatava loppumaan ja matut Saksaan vaikka väkisin. Mikähän on seuraava siirto? Merkele soittaa Erdoganille ja pyytää laittamaan rajat Turkkiin päin kiinni.