Είμαι ο Basel και είμαι 27 ετών. Η καταγωγή μου είναι από τη Παλαιστίνη, αλλά γεννήθηκα στη Συρία ως πρόσφυγας. Στη Συρία σπούδασα χημικός μηχανικός, στο πανεπιστήμιο. Εκτός αυτού, είμαι και ράφτης. Δραπέτευσα από τη Συρία λόγω του πολέμου και της κακής κατάστασης που επικρατούσε. Έτσι, αποφάσισα να ξεκινήσω το ταξίδι μου προς την Ευρώπη.
Το πρώτο βήμα ήταν να περάσω από τα σύνορα Συρία-Τουρκία. Η πρώτη προσπάθεια ήταν αρκετά δύσκολη. Ο τουρκικός στρατός με συνέλαβε στα σύνορα και με χτύπησε χωρίς λόγο…απλά, επειδή περνούσα τα σύνορα. Μετά από αυτό, όλο το σώμα μου τραυματίστηκε και όταν σταμάτησαν να με χτυπούν…με έστειλαν πίσω στη Συρία. Στο τέλος, πριν με αφήσουν ελεύθερο, μου είπαν ένα πράγμα: «Αν σε δούμε ξανά…θα σε σκοτώσουμε». Αργότερα, πήγα στο νοσοκομείο και έμεινα εκεί για δύο μέρες. Συνέχεια σκεφτόμουν με ποιό τρόπο θα φύγω από τη Τουρκία, ωστέ να μην γυρίσω πίσω στη Συρία. Όταν έφυγα από το νοσοκομείο, πήγα κατευθείαν στα σύνορα και προσπάθησα να δραπετεύσω ξανά από τη Συρία. Τη δεύτερη φορά, κατάφερα να περάσω τα σύνορα. Μερικοί αστυνομικοί που βρίσκονταν εκεί, πυροβολούσαν ακριβώς πάνω από τα κεφάλια μας.
Συνεπώς, με πίστη και δύναμη, έφτασα στην Τουρκία ζωντανός. Έμεινα εκεί μόνο για εφτά ημέρες. Συνέχεια πήγαινα από το ένα μέρος στο άλλο. Έψαχνα να βρώ έναν λαθρέμπορο, που με λίγα χρήματα, θα μπορούσα να διασχίσω τη χώρα και να έρθω στην Ελλάδα. Λίγες μέρες αργότερα, βρήκα κάποιον που με βοήθησε να περάσω τα σύνορα για να έρθω στην Ελλάδα. Στη δική μου ομάδα ήμασταν περίπου 70 άτομα, που διασχίσαμε τη θάλασσα κολυμπώντας. Επιπλέον, πολλές γυναίκες και παιδιά ήταν μαζί μας, αλλά τελικά φτάσαμε στην Ελλάδα ασφαλείς. Ήταν 4 Απριλίου του 2016.
Νομίζαμε πως θα μείνουμε εδώ, στην Ελλάδα, όπως οι φίλοι μας που ήρθαν στην Ευρώπη πριν από εμάς. Έμειναν εδώ μόνο για δύο εβδομάδες. Πέρασε λίγος καιρός μέχρι να συνειδητοποιήσω ότι βρισκόμουν σε ένα μικρό κέντρο φιλοξενίας προσφύγων, σε ένα ελληνικό νησί, στη μέση της θάλασσας. Έτσι, ξεκίνησα τη «νέα ζωή μου» εκεί. Έκανα μερικούς νέους φίλους διαφορετικών εθνικοτήτων. Επίσης, έμαθα να μιλάω τη γλώσσα τους για να μπορώ να επικοινωνώ μαζί τους. Προσπαθούσα να τους μιλάω όσο το δυνατόν περισσότερο μπορούσα. Ακούγοντας τις ιστορίες του και συζητώντας μαζί τους, προσπαθούσα να τους κάνω να νιώσουν καλύτερα. Στη συνέχεια, ξεκίνησα να προσφέρω τη βοήθειά μου, σαν μεταφραστής, εθελοντικά σε μια οργάνωση. Δεν ήταν εύκολο να ακούω τους ανθρώπους να παραπονιούνται και να μην μπορώ να κάνω κάτι γι’ αυτό…«τα χέρια μου ήταν δεμένα». Βοηθούσα σχεδόν ένα χρόνο και δέκα μήνες και συνεχώς ανυπομονούσα να έχω μια καλή ζωή. Έψαχνα για ελπίδα και ευτυχία στα μάτια των ανθρώπων. Μετά από εκείνη τη περίοδο, πήγα στην Αθήνα και ακόμη και τώρα ζω την ίδια ζωή. Σχετικά με το μέλλον μου, ο κύριος στόχος μου είναι να αποκτήσω τα έγγραφά μου και να πάω πίσω στο Λίβανο και από εκεί στη Συρία…στην οικογένειά μου!

I came to Denmark on the 16th of February 2015. I used to work in IT-support in the Danish environmental protection agency in Aarhus. Before that I worked with IT development in Novicell. I stopped working there because I got accepted at the University in Aarhus, to study civil engineering, which I also studies in Damascus.
I just lived like any normal child in Syria. When I was 11 years old I had already finished all of the computing courses that were available to me in Syria. I was the youngest person to do that. The held a big party for me at the Maamoun institute in Damascus, which has now become a private university. I took many courses. I started with windows and the office programs. Then they gave me an internet course, because the internet was so new in Syria, at that time. After that I started with accounting. This was at the age of nine. Then I got a course on how to repair computers – building them regarding software and hardware. Then the accountant at my father’s clothes company got sick, so I could help my father with that job. I worked both in the company and in the warehouses. From that time I started as an accountant there.

At that time I started to get a design course at the University. There I worked with correct drawing, Photoshop and advanced Photoshop. I learned the program Dreamweaver. This was at the age of ten. Then I learned 3D max and Maya, which deals with computer animation. Then I was offered AutoCAD which is a program that works with architectural planning and civil engineering. This was the last course they could offer me. The youngest person there was 25 years old, and I was only 11 years old.  After these courses they had nothing more to offer me. Then I just started teaching myself, practicing and getting the experience myself. Just to better myself. At that time the fastest internet connection in Syria was 8 Kbit pr. Second.
I also got experience working in my fathers company. Then I started to get fashion design courses. I am not the best, but I can design dresses for girls. I got a lot of courses in English also. I could have taken more courses in Jordan, but they would not let me travel there, because I am Palestinian. So I just focused on working in my fathers company. Then I studied It-engineering, where I got an honor degree. Once I was in a competition in typing and coding, where I typed 182 letters pr. Minute in both English and Arabic. Then I was offered a job in another company, but I couldn’t go, because in Syria, when you are already in one company, you can’t just work somewhere else.  It’s like the football teams, in a way – if you for example are playing for Real Madrid, you can’t just go and play for Barcelona. That is just the system in Syria, so I just worked in my father’s company and studies at the same time.

The problem in Syria is that the information is restricted. The reason why most people have a hard time learning English or getting more information, other that what is offered in the library in Damascus, which is Assad’s library, is that the information in censored. It is retsticted. For example, a lot of books are prohibited. I don’t want to read the books they want me to read – I want to choose my own books. Fx. Google chrome is also prohibited in Syria, and so is Youtube and all of Apple’s applications. I had to use my skills in computing to break through the firewalls, so I could access the information.
The last days of my life in Syria, when I was working in my father’s company, The Free Syrian Army captures me and tried to kill me. At that time my life changed drastically. I as driving in my car, and a motorbike tried to stop me. There were two people on the motorbike. They had automatic machineguns, and waved me to the side of the street. They wanted me to stop the car and give them the keys. I realized I was in trouble, so I drove away as fast as I could. 160 mph down a very narrow street, where there was many dumpsters. I was surprised to find out that it was an organized operation to stop me. There were two 4 wheel drive cars blocking the end of the streets in both directions, and they had anti-tank rockets. They had big speakers ordering me to stop, or they would blow up my car. I had to stop! When I looked to the left, there was my fathers company. I was so nervous, that I did not recognize where I was. I ran towards the company, and normally the door was open, because there are always many goods going in and out. But that day it was closed. Something was wrong. I knew it was organized.

As I said, some days I worked there as an accountant, working with the payroll. On this particular day, when they wanted to capture me, it was payday. They wanted money. We used to deliver the money to the employees and the business men, we did business with, on Thursdays. On that day I was already nervous, because we had been getting threatening calls. I had told my father, that I did not want to deliver money that day, but my father said I had to do it. He said he would take care of me. I said ok, but I would only deliver to the employees – not the businessmen. I delivered 6500 dollars, instead of 36500, to the employees. We deal in dollars, because that monetary unit is stable. We only convert the money when we need it. I left the money in the car, ran to the factory door and rang the alarm bell. I rang it 12 times, but no one answered. So they caught me. It was 12:30 in the afternoon. It was a sunny day. It was Ramadan, so I was thirsty, hungry and tired.

They caught me, and started to hit me in a very violent way. They took me to a dried out river. There was a very bad smell and many insects, because many people had been killed there. They put me on my knees, by the river, after they had beat me. They were saying “Allahu Akbar”, and started shooting into the air. Then, suddenly, one of the men’s phone rang. It was an old Nokia, so I could hear what the person was saying. I could hear that it was one of the businessmen that worked for my father’s company, so he knew me. He told the men to leave me alone, and not to kill me. But the man wanted to make me very nervous. He said to me, while I was on my knees “I do not want to pay one dollar for a bullet to execute you. I will kill you with a blunt knife”. I said ok, because at that time I just wanted to get out of the situation. He shot into the air again, and pulled my head back, as if he was about to cut my throat. Then he stopped. He said, “How much money do you have in the car”? I said “Why are you asking, when you already know”? He dragged me back to the car, took the money, and told me to call my father, whom was at our house. At that time I thought my father did not know anything. I had forgotten that we had put cameras in the streets around the company, so he already knew. I called my father, and said “They have taken me.” My father said, he knew. He wanted to talk to them. They told my father thay wanted 40.000 dollars to let me go. They made a deal, that my father would give them 20.000 dollars including the 6500 dollars from the car. The problem was, they said they wanted the money in 10 minutes. My father said “Give me a chance to get the money, and get my son.” My father did not know where I was, only that they had taken me, so he called my uncle at the factory. He told him to go to where The Syrian Free Army was holding me, deliver the money, and take me to the hospital.
From the hospital, we all escaped from Syria to Egypt. We stayed there for one year and tried to make a new life for ourselves. Unfortunately, we found that there was no way we could start a new company there, so we went to Beirut in Lebanon. We stayed there for a year, but we spent a lot of money, because the cost of living there is very expensive. I got a job at a mobile phone company, but he would only pay me 10-15 dollars a day, and that was not even enough to pay for transport. I had to quit. It was a shame because I liked my job. I was working with what I liked, and I had something to do, instead of staying home.

We went back to Syria to our house. It was in a safe area – the same area where Assad lived. There were many checkpoints etc. Unfortunately, we started to be threatened again, so we decided to flee to Denmark. 17 members of our family fled with us, but not everyone went to Denmark. Some went to Germany and some to Sweden.
I have many ideas for projects and small businesses. I do not just want to live on student grants while I am studying. I want to work on the side. Maybe I can use one of my ideas to do that. I am glad to be in Denmark. Mostly people are very kind. On social Facebook, there are many racist groups, but that is not the reality I see. We have many Danish friends whom help us a lot.
It was not easy at all to reach Denmark. Many Danish people ask me “Are you glad, you have an apartment here in Denmark”? “Are you glad you are here in Denmark”? Of course, I am happy, but I want people to know that I had a very good life in Syria. A very luxurious life. Not like here in Denmark. I had a big house with housekeepers and big cars.  Some people in Denmark ask “Why do you not go back to Syria, then”? I want them to know, that our ONLY wish is to do that. It is not safe now, so we cannot.
When I left, I left separately. My family members followed me through Aleppo. I met up with all of my family members in Turkey. I went through Alqamishli to Turkey. I dealt with a smuggler, and paid him money. We started the journey at 3 pm. He said to me, I just had to wait for ten minutes then another car would come and get me. That was a big lie. We tried to cross the border three times, but the Turkish police caught us and sent us back.

It was not easy for me to walk in the mountains. I was so tired. The time was 7 pm. I could not continue to walk in the dangerous mountains. I went back to the smugglers and said that could not continue. They said “You have paid a lot of money to have a good trip, so stay beside the micro-bus, and I will arrange a trip just for you”. I had to believe him, because I had no other possibilities, but I was afraid because of my previous experiences. He waited until everyone had left the place, then they got their weapons out, and told me to empty my pockets. I did what they said. I do not know why they believed that I gave them everything that I had, because I had a secret pocket with another mobile phone. They tool my luggage and my water. On these types of trips, you take better care of your water than of your money, because money cannot save your life.

The smugglers gave me an offer I could not refuse. They said “Now you must go and never come back, or we will kill you”. At that point I felt like I had no choice. I wanted to get to Turkey as soon as possible. They just said to me “Do you see those four mountains”? I said “Yes”. They said “Cross them”. At that time, I just focused all of my energy on one thing: to find the other group, that I had been travelling with until that point. I ran and ran to catch up with them or just to find any sign of life. Lucky for me, the Turkish police had stopped them, so I found them. Even though I did not know those people, I felt such a relief – like I had been reunited with my family – because it gave me hope. Then we started to support eachother as we crossed the mountains. We held hands so we could catch eachother, climbing up the mountains. It is very dangerous because of the steep incline. We had to cross four mountains and three villages. At the top of the second mountain, my foot got stuck between two big rocks. Two strong men from our group tried to move one of the rocks. While they were moving the rock, to free my foot, they accidentally broke my chin. It was an open fracture. I screamed so my group left me. They ran. They were afraid to get discovered by the police. I was dizzy, and felt it was so painful. It was dark. I laid down and could not move, because my foot was still stuck. Then two animals, which looked like dogs, approached. They were not dogs, but hyenas. I saw two people coming towards me. It was two of the members from my group that had come back to help me.  They lit some sticks on fire to chase away the animals. I said thank you for chasing the dogs away. They told me that they were not dogs, but hyenas. The people who helped me lived in the mountains, so they were experienced with that. The two men from the group laid down next to me, and pushed the rock away with their feet. One of the guys from the group was medically trained. He told me to bite down on a stick, and then they put the bone back in my leg. They said I had two choices. I could either go back to the smugglers or they could try to carry me over the mountains. I am so grateful to them, because I am very heavy. It took a lot of strength for them to carry me across two mountains on such a narrow edge.

Finally, I got to Turkey, where I was reunited with my family. From there we travelled to Greece by yacht. A police boat caught us in the middle of the sea. The captain talked to them, and they let us go. Finally, we were in Greece. We were stuck there for ten months. From there we walked to Austria. We walked in 35 degrees below zero through Macedonia, Serbia, and Beograd, Hungary. From Hungary, they brought cars to go to Vienna. We had walked for long periods. I wore six jackets and four pairs of trousers. We ate just snickers and mars bars because they were very light weight and give a lot of energy. From Vienna we got a plane to Copenhagen. Finally on the 16th of February 2015 we arrived.

My life before the war was acceptable. I was studying at high school, and I had a certification as a make-up artist from an institute in Damascus. I have also studied one year of accounting in 2015.
In 2015, I had to escape from Syria because of the war. I escaped to Turkey, then to Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Austria, Germany and finally Denmark. I arrived in DK on the 16th of November 2015.
I was sent to Sandholm refugee camp, and was then moved to another camp called Auderød.  After that they moved me to yet another camp in Næstved.
I was granted permission to stay in Denmark on the 28th of January 2016. Now I live in the municipality of Aarhus with my husband. I consider it a fantastic and good life. I am studying the Danish language, and I hope to work in the same field in Denmark, as a make-up artist, as I did in Damascus.
I would love to send a message to the politicians, to look upon refugees in a more open and positive way.

Svenska: Jag heter Raja och kommer från Palestina men född i Syrien. Jag har bott 1 år i Sverige. Tillsammans mot rasism.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

Svenska: Jag heter Samah och är palestinier från Syrien. Jag kom till Sverige för 3 år sedan.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

Svenska: Jag heter Ahmed och har bott 1 år i Sverige, jag kom från staden Alramla i Palestina.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

Svenska: Jag heter Ghadeer och kommer från Palestina. Jag har bott i Sverige i 4 år. Jag har ritat en bild som symboliserar ensamhet och försök att komma in i samhället.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

I came to Denmark 2 years ago when I was 17. I am now going to start my education at UUC (professional high school).
I went to højskole ( Danish Folk High School) called Kalø last year. It was a wonderful school. I learned a lot of Danish there. It was a really good place. I also got to learn about Danish traditions and customs.
When I’m done with my professional high school, I would like to study computer engineering. Right now I a have a lovely boyfriend who is from Syria but lives in Funen in Denmark.
But, it’s still hard. My parents are both very ill. Both of them have diabetes and heart problems. The war in Syrian took its toll on them.

I never thought I would leave Palestine or Gaza. In my country there is no electricity, sometimes no gas, no medicin, and we are sometimes locked in, but still I love my homeland and miss it. But I had to flee because our house was bombed. Sometimes when I watch videos from Gaza I start crying, I miss it.

My trip started from Gaza to Egypt, Alexandria. The smugglers told us that now you will go with a small boat to a wooden boat that is a little bigger. It was a fishing boat and we were on the sea for two days until we reached the Italian sea border, where we had to switch to another fishing boat that was old and tired. It felt like we were goods which they were moving from one place to another. One smuggler held me in one arm and the other smuggler in the other and threw us to the other fishing boat. We were very afraid, I never thought I would arrive.

We knew nothing, we had neither water nor food. I drank water from the engine and there was nowhere to pee. I was very tired because I was the only one who spoke English and was a doctor, I tried to help the people who were with me on the boat. I sat down at the driver asking him where we were somewhere, so he responded that Italy is to the south, and he had neither GPS nor a map, then it started to get under water but we did not want to tell the people up there because it would panic.

One incident which has stuck with me was that there was an elderly man who had diabetes, he was with his wife and child. The man started to vomit and I tried to save him but eventually he died in front of our eyes.

My goal was any country in Europe, it did not matter where I ended up. When I reached the beach and stood on the ground, it felt like the ground was rocking. We asked the Red Cross who received us if we stood on the ground or not. I would never do it again, I had heard that it was a dangerous road, but I never thought it would be so tough.

It was tough at the beginning when I arrived in Sweden, because I had to wait for almost two years for a residence permit, but right now I’ve got it. I’ve finished SFI and right now I study at Lund University.

I want to tell you about that moment when the Italian ships arrived and saved us, it felt like we’d die, but when they came and saved us, it felt like we were going to live again, that’s an indescribable feeling. It’s very hard when I remember the trip and everything that has happened to me.

Svenska: Jag heter Omar och är tandläkare, Palestinier från Gaza. Jag kom till Sverige under senaste kriget i Gaza 2014 och jag har bott här nästan i tre år.

Jag trodde aldrig att jag skulle lämna Palestina eller Gaza. I mitt land så finns det ingen el, ibland ingen bensin, inga läkemedel, och vi kan vara inlåsta, men ändå älskar jag mitt hemland och saknar det. Men jag var tvungen att fly för att vårt hus bombades. Ibland när jag ser videos från Gaza så börjar jag gråta, jag saknar det.

Min resa började från Gaza till Egypten, Alexandria. Smugglarna sa till oss att nu kommer ni åka med en liten båt till den andra träbåten som är lite större. Det var en fiskebåt och vi var på havet under två dagar tills vi nådde den Italienska havsgränsen, där fick vi byta till en annan fiskebåt som var gammal och sliten. Det kändes som vi var varor och de skulle förflytta oss till en annan plats. Ena smugglaren höll mig i ena armen och den andra smugglaren i den andra och slängde oss till den andra fiskebåten.  Vi var mycket rädda, jag trodde aldrig att jag skulle komma fram.

Vi visste ingenting, vi hade varken vatten eller mat. Jag drack vatten från motorn och det fanns ingenstans att kissa. Jag blev mycket trött för jag var den enda som pratade engelska och var läkare, jag försökte hjälpa folket som var med mig på båten. Jag satt där nere vid föraren och frågade honom vart vi var någonstans, så svarade han mig att Italien är mot syd, och han hade varken gps eller en karta, sedan började det komma in vatten under däck men vi ville inte säga det till människorna däruppe eftersom det skulle få panik.

Det som tog mycket på mig var att det fanns en äldre man som hade diabetes, han var tillsammans med sin fru och barn. Mannen började spy och jag försökte rädda honom men till slut avled han framför oss.

Mitt mål var vilket land i Europa som helst, det spelade ingen roll vart jag hamnade. När jag kom fram till stranden och ställde mig på marken så kändes det som att marken gungade. Vi frågade röda korset som tog emot oss om vi stod på marken eller inte. Jag hade aldrig gjort om det, jag hade hört att det var farlig väg men jag trodde aldrig att det skulle vara såhär tufft.

Det var tufft i början när jag kom fram till Sverige, för jag fick vänta nästan två år till uppehållstillstånd, men just nu har jag fått det. Jag blev klar med SFI och just nu studerar jag på Lunds universitet.

Jag vill berätta om den stunden när den Italienska fartygen kom fram och räddade oss, det kändes först som vi skulle dö, men när de kom och räddade oss så kändes det som vi fick leva igen, det är en obeskrivlig känsla. Det är mycket tufft och jobbigt när jag kommer ihåg resan och allt som har hänt mig.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

We lived in Yarmuk, a town in Syria. My mother worked as a teacher, my father was an agricultural engineer. We’re nine boys in the family, all of them have studied. My life was not easy even before the war, with the beginning of the war it became unbearable. I was never a Syrian, never recognized as a Syrian, I felt that when the war began. We were accused, we, the Palestinian minority in Syria, were no longer allowed to rent apartments in our name.

We had two apartments, one in Yarmuk, where the mother’s family lived, one in Daraa, where the father’s family lived. Daraa is the place where it all began. I remember the first demo, I was very young, but I understood. Many people ran onto the streets for the children who were punished by the government. They ran to the police station and confronted them. I was there, I remember that the policemen were very disrespectful, which made people even angrier. The demonstrations in Syria increased, everyone stood up for the children in Daraa.

Nothing happened, they attacked us with water hoses, later with bullets. I remember everything. We picked up the phones of the wounded and dead and called their families. Many people died. Since that day, the demos have been fought with weapons. The time of the mass graves began. The dead were secretly buried. We found them sometimes, bodies in the ground when we were digging. It was cruel.

They destroyed our house in Daraa, I returned with my family to Yarmuk, where we lived happily. We built ourselves a quite normal life. After one year a minister was killed, the murderer had a connection to the Palestinian camp in Yarmuk. That’s why Yarmuk was destroyed. We had no house, neither in Daraa nor in Yarmuk. Racism against the Palestinians in Syria became worse and worse. We were accused, although we had nothing to do with the murder of the minister. We did not get an apartment for rent, had to sleep on the street, although there were many empty apartments. In mosques we were harassed, we were blamed for the war, we were supposed to leave the country. I sat there, silent. We were insulted, but we couldn’t fight back.

I was never given Syrian citizenship even though I was born there. I was never allowed to feel like a Syrian. I remember an incident in elementary school, a teacher always kicked me out of class for no reason. I didn’t understand, only later I realized why. She did the same thing to my sister nine years later, and then did I realized why. My mother wasn’t silent this time, she went to school. After that, the teacher never kicked my sister out. I graduated from high school although I was very concerned about being treated like that, but there were enough people who supported me and believed in me. Even if my A-levels aren’t the best, I did it.

I went to prison four times. Once, because I grew my hair long. At that time it was known that the members of ISIS wore long hair. An officer stopped me, asked me to take off my hat and I had to go to the police station. At the station they took me to a dark room, my hair was cut off and shaved off with a razor blade. I never let my hair grow again. The second time, they took me with them to build up defense points. They take people off the road to build the points. Either you leave or you stay with them for a long time, it’s always a matter of luck. I was allowed to leave after three days.

The third time was the hardest thing for me. I was playing a game on a cell phone called Counter, a war game. In this game pictures of weapons are saved. An officer stopped me, he took my cell phone and saw the pictures, he didn’t believe me that they were part of the game. I was afraid, I kissed his hands and asked him not to take me with me. But he did. There were many people in the car, the soldiers beat each one on the body with metal. It was terrible, I was terrified. They put us in jail, 40 people in one room. We ate raw potatoes. Every morning they tortured us, made us wet and then electrocuted us. I was tortured so badly that I bled. When another officer saw this, he scolded the soldier. I just want him to torture me, not hurt me. This incident probably saved my life, I was allowed to go. I had spent two weeks in prison. After I got out, I didn’t dare go out any more. My name was known. I was afraid they’d stop me, take me away again.

I fled my homeland, in 2016 I arrived alone in Germany. I haven’t seen my family in four years, it’s hard for me to be here alone. I go home and nobody is waiting for me there. I also experienced racism in Germany. I lived in Saarland, the people there were afraid of me. Once I was sitting in the track, the track was full and still nobody wanted to sit next to me. That was very embarrassing, I again did not understand the reason. I didn’t do anything to get treated that way. I would like to do something useful for society, what do the people who judge me know? You can get to know me and then judge me. At the moment I am taking a language course at university, hopefully I will pass it.

My message to the people who have not told their story yet, there is no reason to be afraid, we have no reason to be afraid. I don’t talk about all people, I only talk about those who have done bad things to me. We have no reason to be silent about the things that have happened to us. We’re not saying everyone’s like that. But the ones who did this to us are.

Storyteller’s name: Ahmad Baroud
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Syria
Sex: m
Age: 20