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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-09-17
CONTENTS
[01] 'Our town no longer exists.' Syrian refugee Aime recounts her
family's struggle to escape war and reach Germany
[01] 'Our town no longer exists.' Syrian refugee Aime recounts her
family's struggle to escape war and reach Germany
ANA-MPA -- "Our town no longer exists." Syrian refugee Aime sits in
her wheelchair in Mytilene port, along with her husband Omer, their
two children and three or four thousand other migrants and refugees,
recounting her family's story in perfect English.
"Our country Syria no longer exists either," Omer cuts in. They are
both less than 30 years old, their children under five. They paid 1,500
dollars each for a place on one of the flimsy rubber dinghies that make
the crossing to Lesvos each day, as well as 750 dollars for each of
their children and an extra 1,000 dollars to take Aime's wheelchair!
A form of myopathy has left Aime disabled from the waist down but this
does not prevent her from caring for their two children, nor does it
prevent Omer from loving and caring for her. They left Syria, fleeing the
war, and crossed the border into Turkey between water pumps and barbed
wire. At one point, Omer was forced to carry Aime, the children and the
wheelchair to get across. "There was nothing else I could do," he said.
"Where are you heading?" we ask them. "Germany," they reply. When asked
what they will do when they get there, all they say is that they want
to live. Then we lose sight of them among the throng of fellow refugees,
to fight another battle: that for the ticket that will allow them to
get on a boat to Piraeus and complete another leg of their long journey.
We wish them good luck. They're going to need it.
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