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.

Mohammad Bader al Deen Al Mozeek is 50 years old, from Damascus, Syria.

I came to Denmark in august 2015, with my oldest daughter. I have 5 girls and a boy. We lived in Sønderborg for 8 months, and then we moved to Hillerød. I came from the old Town of Damascus. Damascus is a beautiful city, we have an old river that is about 10000 years old. I had my own company, but got a job in Saudi Arabia, as a projectleader.
In Denmark I found a job with delivering newspapers, but after 7 months I had an accident. It was very cold and I fell twice because it was slippery. I had a slip disc and now I need to take medicine.

In Damascus, when I was about 10 years old, I went to a teacher who taught me a traditional ancient Syrian artform. An artform where you sing and play at religious events. It is a very special artform that only 10 people in Syria know about, and you have to study at the university of music there to learn it.

In Saudi Arabia I got a problem with my boss. He wanted me to help Hizbollah financially. He wanted to take money from my salary, and I wouldn’t agree on that. Its about the conflict between shia an sunni muslims. My boss was shia, like Assad. The shia muslims wanted to start a conflict with the sunni muslims. Assad took control of Syria and wanted to take all the riches in Syria for himself, and he didn’t care about the population in Syria. He claimed there is a conflict between sunni and shia. He wanted shia muslims in Saudi Arabia and other countries to support Hizbollas conflict against sunni muslims, but I couldn’t be a part of that. I would not support that they could buy weapons to fight my own people. Because of that I could not stay in Saudi Arabia or go back to Syria.
When I came to Denmark I applied for family reunification to get my children here, get them to safety. I hope to get a job again, and recover from the slip disc. My son also delivers newspapers, and he works as a a translator too. My wife want a job, when her internship is over.

I wanted to go to Sweden, but now Im happy to be here. I have many good friends, I say hello to my neighbours, and they say hello to me. My mood isn’t that good because I cant work right now. But, my son Osama gives me a reason to smile, because I can teach him my skills the same way a teacher taught me when I was young.

Osama Bader al Deen Al Mozeek is 16 years old, from Saudi Arabia

I was born in Saudi Arabia by Syrian parents. I lived in Ryad, where I went to international school, and took karate lessons. When we moved to Turkey, I had finished 7th grade. In Turkey, I went to 8th and 9th grade.
We flew to Denmark from Turkey in September 2016, when I was granted family reunification. When I arrived in Denmark I started at class to learn Danish, and after 7 months I was ready to go to ordinary school. I was told that if I finished 7th, 8th and 9th grade, I could go to high school.
My dream is to become a doctor, and a would like to sing and play the drum, that my father teaches me.