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Ten Borders: One refugee's epic escape from Syria.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/ten-bordersAt first, Ghaith contemplated trying to secure a visa to a European country. But the rising violence in Syria had led most European countries to close their embassies in Damascus. Syrians could travel to Turkey or to Lebanon without a visa, but the European consulates there were inundated with immigration requests and issuing very few visas.
Ghaith’s other option was to apply for asylum. The European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees that no asylum seeker can be “removed, expelled, or extradited” to a country where he might face “degrading treatment or punishment.” By this logic, any Syrian who made it to Europe would be eligible to stay there. But the matter wasn’t that simple. In 1990, the E.U. had passed a law, now known as the Dublin Regulation, requiring asylum seekers to be registered, and fingerprinted, in the first E.U. state they entered. The measure, which was designed to discourage refugees from roaming Europe before choosing where to settle, posed a formidable challenge for asylum seekers, who often desired to live in one of the prosperous nations of Northern Europe, and thus had to find ways to traverse the countries in between without being noticed by the authorities. “Wherever you get stamped, you have to stay,” Ghaith told me. Some refugees, upon reaching Italy, would burn their fingertips in order to make their prints temporarily indecipherable.
...
Ghaith checked into the Aksaray hostel, where he slept on a bunk bed in a room with seven other men. His roommates confirmed something that he’d read online: smugglers were now charging about five thousand dollars. “I didn’t have that much,” Ghaith said. He considered using his money to bring his wife to Istanbul, but decided against it. “I really like studying, and Turkey doesn’t have good educational opportunities,” he said. He felt mired. “You’re thinking all the time, What should I do? How should I do it? You spend twenty-four hours a day thinking.”
On Facebook, Ghaith searched for information about upcoming voyages. He found a post offering a discounted trip on a boat bound for Italy, run by a smuggler known as Abu Emad. It departed soon from Mersin, a city on Turkey’s southern coast, across from Cyprus. Ghaith travelled fourteen hours by bus to Mersin, and, the next morning, he followed instructions from the Facebook post and went to an insurance office, where he deposited four thousand dollars into an account, accessible by a four-digit code. Once he reached Italy, he would release the code to Abu Emad, and the payment would be complete.
Ghaith’s other option was to apply for asylum. The European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees that no asylum seeker can be “removed, expelled, or extradited” to a country where he might face “degrading treatment or punishment.” By this logic, any Syrian who made it to Europe would be eligible to stay there. But the matter wasn’t that simple. In 1990, the E.U. had passed a law, now known as the Dublin Regulation, requiring asylum seekers to be registered, and fingerprinted, in the first E.U. state they entered. The measure, which was designed to discourage refugees from roaming Europe before choosing where to settle, posed a formidable challenge for asylum seekers, who often desired to live in one of the prosperous nations of Northern Europe, and thus had to find ways to traverse the countries in between without being noticed by the authorities. “Wherever you get stamped, you have to stay,” Ghaith told me. Some refugees, upon reaching Italy, would burn their fingertips in order to make their prints temporarily indecipherable.
...
Ghaith checked into the Aksaray hostel, where he slept on a bunk bed in a room with seven other men. His roommates confirmed something that he’d read online: smugglers were now charging about five thousand dollars. “I didn’t have that much,” Ghaith said. He considered using his money to bring his wife to Istanbul, but decided against it. “I really like studying, and Turkey doesn’t have good educational opportunities,” he said. He felt mired. “You’re thinking all the time, What should I do? How should I do it? You spend twenty-four hours a day thinking.”
On Facebook, Ghaith searched for information about upcoming voyages. He found a post offering a discounted trip on a boat bound for Italy, run by a smuggler known as Abu Emad. It departed soon from Mersin, a city on Turkey’s southern coast, across from Cyprus. Ghaith travelled fourteen hours by bus to Mersin, and, the next morning, he followed instructions from the Facebook post and went to an insurance office, where he deposited four thousand dollars into an account, accessible by a four-digit code. Once he reached Italy, he would release the code to Abu Emad, and the payment would be complete.
