I came to Denmark 15 November 2015.
Before the war, I had a beautiful life. I am a certified lawyer. I use to go all over the place, to visit, to parties and to live life.
In Syria, I worked as a manager for the employees. My husband was able to escape the war by going to Saudi Arabia, and went on to Europe. I was waiting for family reunification. Because I am from Hama also, I was very afraid that the Assad regime would catch me. They had arrested my husband and tortured him, before he was able to escape. Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, had killed all the men over the age of 16, in my hometown. There was a long history of violence in that city from the Assad family.

After my husband escaped from Syria, the regime was after us. They kept knocking on the door, looking for him. My daughter was very afraid. I had to escape. I went to my husband’s sister in Lebanon to stay for four months. Thereafter I escaped to Saudi Arabia to stay with my husband. I stayed there with him for eighteen month. Then he fled to Europe. It was too dangerous for my young daughter and me to go on that trip with him. I stayed in Saudi Arabia on my own for a year. It was extremely difficult for me as a woman to be alone in Saudi Arabia. I could not walk alone outside and nor could my daughter. I worked for a woman in a salon to get money and she had to pick me up and drive me home every day. After 8 month, my sister fled to Germany. I stayed alone in for another two month before travelling to Denmark together with my three-year daughter.

I travelled to Turkey and from Turkey to Greece in an inflatable boat. I do not want to talk about that trip because it is too hard for me to think about it. From Greece, I came to Denmark via the Balkan route.
When I came to Denmark, I stayed at a camp in Ribe in Jutland. Then I went to a refugee camp in Roskilde. After I got permission to stay, I lived in a shared house in Snoldelev. Finally, I got an apartment in Roskilde.
I am at an internship at a kindergarten in Denmark. I would like to say to the Danish government, that they should be friendlier towards us. They are changing the laws, and make us feel very insecure. They talk badly to us, and force us to do things. Why do they not communicate in a more friendly way? I feel uncertain for my daughter’s future. because I so not know how they will treat her. Will they send her back to Syria one day? Can she build a life here?

I am from Hama in Syria and I have five children. I came to Denmark in 2015. In Syria, I worked in construction and trade between China, Dubai and Syria. All my life I have been working, because when I was very young, Bashar al-Assad’s father; Hafez al-Assad killed all men in my hometown Hama. He got every man over the age of 16 killed. Approximately 200.000 men.
I started to work with maturing shoes. My father used to make shoes. I did that in the daytime. At night, I got a job in construction. I worked 13-15 hours a day, every day of the week.
That was my childhood. When I got older, I saved money in order to buy a small apartment and renovated it, using the skills I learned in the construction business. When I sold the apartment, I made a profit to buy a new apartment. That is how I worked my way up. I also did that with cars.
One day after the war started, I was stopped, at one of Assad’s checkpoints. I had to show my ID, because I was from Hama, they arrested me. They put me in prison for two month. In prison, they tortured me. I was electrocuted, whipped, blinded and I was burned with cigarettes. They broke all of my fingers. Still today, I have no feeling in one of my hands.

After I got out of prison I paid 1.5 million Syrian dollars – about 25000$ to be smuggled to Saudi Arabia. From Saudi Arabia, I went to Turkey and from there to Greece by boat. From Greece, I got a plane to Belgium, from Belgium to Sweden and from there to Denmark.
I choose Denmark because I thought I could find peace and happiness here. I was wrong. The government is very hostile towards refugees. The way Denmark treats refugees and their foreign policy gives Denmark a very bad reputation all around the world.

When I came to Denmark, I was destroyed. I felt like a dead man. I had so much pain in my body. I could not use my arms or my legs.
My first job here was an internship. I worked every day for 8 hours, for 3 months with Red Cross. I worked as a volunteer in Aunstrup refugee camp for The Red Cross. I got a key for everything, and I was a trusted employee.
After a while, I got permission to stay and I went to Lejre. I also go to a psychiatric center for traumatized refugees. I have PTSO. I also got a job in a restaurant in Lejre. I worked there for a year, before it closed. Then I got a job in Føtex near Roskilde station.

I wish the Danes to see us people for Syria as hard working people. I wish that they would not generalize us all as bad; just a few people that makes mistakes.
I wish the government could see how refugee families live with 3-4 children, and the parents have to get by on integration help and live at 5000 kr. Per month. It is very sad and hard for them. The municipality constantly threatens refugees who are traumatized and cannot work and go to school. They feel like second-rate citizen. Not me, I have a job but I am speaking for other refugees.

I came to Denmark on june 16th 2016. I live in Kirke Hyllinge with my husband and five children.

Before the war my life was very beautiful. When I was a baby, many years ago on February 28th, Hafez Al Assad and his soldiers came to our house, and all houses in my hometown of Hama, and killed all males over the age of 16. I lost my father and five uncles. The soldiers kicked open our door at 4AM, and murdered my father in front of my mother, me and my sisters. The reason was that Hama was the centre of a beginning of a revolution against the regime, against Hafez Al Assad, the father of Bashar Al Assad. My mother took care of me and my sisters my whole childhood. I got married when I was 18. It was a beautiful day. Eight months later I gave birth to my first child. A son. I now have five children. I had cesarean sections with all of them.

When the war started they arrested my husband. They tortured him. I was afraid that they would kill him like they did to my father many years ago. When he was released he escaped from Syria, and went to Saudi Arabia. When I tried to escape with three of my five children (my two youngest was not born yet), the soldiers arrested me and my children. They wouldn’t let me cross the border. Only if I gave them my husband, but he had already left the country. They called my husband on the phone and the soldiers agreed to release us and let us cross the border if my husband payed 125.000 syrian pounds per person. So, we had to pay. I went to Saudi Arabia with my husband, and we stayed there for two years. My husband left for Europe. Five months before I gave birth to my second youngest daughter. I was alone in Saudi Arabia. That was extremely difficult to be alone as a woman. I cried on the phone when I talked to him. It was so hard at the hospital, I had a cesarean section and I had to stay there with my baby daughter for 15 days because she had jaundice. My sister stayed with my three other children while we were at the hospital.

When my baby was one year and eight months we were granted family reunification to go to Denmark and stay with my husband. When I got to the airport in Saudi Arabia they wouldn’t let us leave. In Saudi Arabia the law says that if you want to travel, you must have a valid permission to stay. My permission in Saudi Arabia had expired. We had to apply for a new one, but the authorities would not give it to me without my husband being there. Again, we had to bribe the authorities with 2000 saudi Arabian dollars per passport. Then we came to Denmark.
When I came here, the first thing I remember is the cold weather. The authorities treated me very badly. At that time I was pregnant but unfortunately I had a miscarriage. I was very tired and bleeding. The municipality kept calling me and threatened me to take away my allowance to stay if I didn’t go to my internship. Since then I said I don’t want any money from them. My husband support me financially, since he has a good job. I enjoy my life now, but my dream is to one day see my mother again in Hama.

My name is Hakam and I am from Hamaa in Syria. I left Syria in early 2012 hoping to do something in Tunisia, but unfortunately, I did not manage to find work in Tunisia because their rules are difficult and life was tough.

I then tried to get a visa to fly legally to Europe. I visited different embassies but everyone denied me because I was from Syria. After 1.5 years in Tunisia, I began to look for illegal ways to flee. My plan was to flee from Libya to Europe.

The smuggler had a boat and the flight would happen the same day from Tunisia to Zwara in Libya which is a place of escape. The smuggler told me I should instead flee directly to Lampedusa. I told him it does not matter and then he told us: we are going tonight. The plan was that I was going to a house near the beach, but as I was in a wheelchair, the tactics changed. They would instead create a noise at the beach and then they would take me straight into the boat so nobody noticed it. I had to crawl up to the boat and then they helped me into dinghy. We did not go in a boat or yacht. We went for 7-8 hours at sea. It felt like there was a mountain under the ocean. We knew it was an area where everyone fished. We were an hour away from the regional sea.

One of the fishermen told the smuggler who drove the dinghy to not continue because there was a hurricane on the way. We continued anyway. I asked the smuggler if it was the two clouds that they were afraid of and that only two clouds will not create a hurricane. The smuggler replied that this is not a cloud, but it’s the hurricane that is coming and he prayed to God to protect us. To me it looked like clouds, but apparently it was a hurricane.

I noticed that the smuggler was scared and nervous. I did not feel the same because I went through much more during the Assad regime, it was almost like a vacation compared to what I saw in Syria. After 15 minutes, however, it started blowing heavily and I was terrified. But I want to thank God that we made it. The hurricane continued for two hours but what calmed down was that 4 dolphins swam beside our dinghy until the hurricane disappeared. Then we arrived at Lampedusa island. The whole trip took us 8-9 hours, but it felt like 24 or 48 hours. They noticed both my and my wife’s health situations and decided to take us to Crotone in Italy. We then went bus and train to Milan. I called some friends who helped us along the way. We arrived at 10 am in the morning.

The Red Cross asked us to wait at the central station until 6 o’clock in the evening and they would send a car there. I told them taht I was in a wheelchair and they then told us that they would send a taxi there. My friend, who lives in Budapest, called and said that he would come down to Milan and pick me up. I told him I would get myself to a city called Trieste, located on the border between Italy and Slovenia. We then went to Budapest and stayed there for three days. After that we went to Malmö via Berlin and Hamburg.

Svenska: Jag heter Hakam, kommer från Hamaa  i Syrien. Jag lämnade Syrien i början av 2012 i hopp om att kunna göra något i Tunisien, men tyvärr lyckades jag inte hitta arbete i Tunisien eftersom deras regler är svåra och livet var tufft.

Jag försökte sedan skaffa visum för att kunna fly till Europa på ett lagligt sätt. Jag besökte olika ambassader men alla nekade mig eftersom jag var från Syrien.  Efter 1,5 år i Tunisien började jag leta efter olagliga sätt att fly. Min plan var att fly från Libyen till Europa. Smugglaren hade en båt och flykten skulle ske samma dag från Tunisien till Zwara i Libyen som är en plats för flykt. Smugglaren sa till mig att jag istället borde fly direkt till Lampedusa.

Jag sa till honom det spelar ingen roll och då sa han vi åker ikväll.  Planen var att jag skulle åka till ett hus nära stranden, men eftersom jag sitter i en rullstol ändrades taktiken. De skulle istället skapa ett bråk vid stranden och sedan skulle de ta in mig direkt in i båten så att ingen märker av det. Jag fick krypa fram till båten och sedan hjälpte de mig upp i gummibåten. Vi åkte inte i en båt eller yacht.

Vi åkte i 7-8 timmar ute på havet. Det kändes som att det var ett berg under havet. Sedan visste vi att det var ett område där alla fiskade. Vi var en timme ifrån det regionala havet.  En av fiskarna sa till smugglaren som körde gummibåten att inte fortsätta eftersom det var en orkan på väg. Vi fortsatte ändå.

Jag frågade smugglaren om det var de två molnen som de var rädda för och att endast två moln kommer inte skapa en orkan. Smugglaren svarade mig att det här inte är moln utan det är orkanen som kommer och bad till gud att skydda oss. För mig såg det ut som moln, men tydligen var det orkanen.

Jag märkte att smugglaren var rädd och nervös. Jag kände inte av det för jag hade gått igenom mycket mer under Assadregimen, det var nästan som en semester jämfört med det jag såg i Syrien. Efter 15 minuter började det dock blåsa kraftigt och jag blev livrädd. Men jag vill tacka gud att vi klarade oss.

Orkanen fortsatte under två timmar men det som lugnade ner mig var att 4 delfiner simmade bredvid vår gummibåt tills orkanen försvann. Sedan kom vi fram till ön Lampedusa. Hela resan tog oss 8–9 timmar, men det kändes som 24 eller 48 timmar. De såg både min och min frus hälsosituation och bestämde sig för att ta oss till Crotone i Italien. Sedan åkte vi buss och tåg till Milano. Jag ringde några vänner som hjälpte oss på vägen. Vi kom fram kl 10 på morgonen.

Röda korset bad oss vänta på Centralstationen till kl 6 på kvällen och att de skulle skicka en bil dit. Jag berättade att jag satt i en rullstol och då sa de att vi skulle ta taxi dit. Sedan ringde min vän som bor i Budapest och sade att han skulle komma till Milano och hämta mig.  Jag sa till honom att jag skulle ta mig själv till en stad som heter Trieste, som ligger på gränsen mellan Italien och Slovenien. Därefter åkte vi till Budapest och var där i tre dagar.  Vi tog oss sedan till Malmö via Berlin och Hamburg.

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

Storyteller’s name: Laith
Interviewer’s name: Anxhela Dani
Country of origin: Syria
Sex: M
Age: 23

I am Rula Habil. I am a Syrian refugee. We had been suffering when we first arrived in Greece. We were waiting for 6 months until we had our first interview with the people in the documents office, and then we got rejected. After this situation, I had a nervous breakdown and I went to the psychologist. I took some pills for 3 months until I noticed that I am pregnant. After some time we got accepted.

Storyteller’s name: Rula Habil
Interviewer’s name: Anxhela Dani
Country of origin: Syria
Sex: F
Age: 35

I am Wael Mustafa from Syria, “Selamia”. I came to Europe because of the war and we had a difficult situation on the road from my town until Greece. We faced a difficult situation on the borders of Turkey because we have two kids.

Also Al-Nusra Front they caught us and they investigated us. After a short period, we went to Turkey and we stayed there for 10 days, then we left to Greece.

First of all, we had to apply for our documents in Greece because in another way we couldn’t go to other countries in Europe. Moreover, in Greece, we had a difficult situation for accepting us (about the documents). After a long time, they accepted us when we had our newborn baby. Since we get in line and had to wait for a long time they gave us the ID. At first, they gave the ID just to my wife and to our two kids, except for me and the newborn. It’s has been almost 2 years that we are in Greece.

Storyteller’s name: Wael Mustafa
Interviewer’s name: Anxhela Dani
Country of origin: Syria
Sex: M
Age: 39