Escape from Egypt

Ali is a 14-year-old child from Duma, a city about 10km outside of Damascus. He left his home with his family after repeated raids and in very difficult circumstances. They moved within Syria more than eight times, fleeing gangs, raids and humiliation.

Ali belongs to a family that was once wealthy, but the war and repeated displacement forced them to Egypt where they could not find work. They now share an 80-square-meter apartment with 21 other people. There are four families and due to the number of people at home, he cannot study by after 3:00 am. Given the difficult circumstances in Egypt, the family has tried to flee to Italy but was stopped by police before boarding the smuggling boats.

After they were arrested, Ali and his family appeared before the prosecutor but were released citing lack of evidence of illegal immigration. But the police kept them and other Syrians, with orders from security establishments. They were detained for three months in an arbitrary manner. They allege they were mistreated and forced under threat to accept their deportation to Syria in writing. Those who accepted were allowed to speak to their families or to NGOs to collect the money needed for their flights back to Syria. The police accompanied them to the airport. Ali’s father says that deportees from Egyptian prisons were detained again once they reached Syria. The detention conditions were quite bad. Cells were 8 x 1.6 meters or smaller and accommodated more than 40 people at a time including children in a space meant for no more than 15. Ali says that they were treated worse than animals.

Ali picks fruit from the trees on the way to school each day with permission from the farmer. He eats one meal a day in order to save food for his family.

After they were released from prison, the student visas Ali and his brothers had received upon entry to Egypt were revoked. Egyptian authorities gave them new non-renewable visas valid for 30 days, which means Ali cannot legally continue to live in Egypt or enroll in final exams or continue his education.

Ali’s brother-in-law Yasser is the main bread earner in his 21-member family. He was hit with shrapnel in his chest and legs during the war in Syria and his daughter was killed in front of him. She was less than a month old. He too lost his residency in Egypt after his release from prison. The Egyptian authorities gave him a 30-day permit that is not renewable. He is not allowed to work. Yasser stays at home because he fears arrest and deportation to Syria.

Asked whether he can swim, Ali hesitates and says he never had the chance to learn. The smuggling boats have no life vests, and if they do there are not enough for all the passengers.

After Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was removed from power in July 2014 and the military took over, some NGOs supporting Syrian refugees in Egypt were closed. State security ordered some NGOs by phone to stop supporting Syrians, who now face additional restrictions. Food aid has been reduced and they often have difficulty obtaining it from UN offices in Egypt, which has made living conditions significantly worse for many families.

“Our children have seen in Syria what any human being in the world can’t handle,” says Ali’s father. “Some of them scream at night from nightmares. Some of them are losing hair.” After experiencing air raids in Syria, the children are terrified when planes fly over their house, he says.

Ali and his brother-in-law tried to leave Egypt a second time and managed to board the boats. However rough seas broke the boats and as they seemed near to peril, Greek coast guard forces rescued them. However, they were again detained, this time in Greek prisons, and face deportation back to Egypt.

Nora is a 15-year-old from the countryside of Damascus. She came with her family by road around the same time of the June 30 protests to oust Morsi and the violence that ensued. En route they were stopped in Jordan, which prevents many Syrians from crossing through its territory to get to Egypt. Given the dire condition of the children, Nora and her family fled to Egypt hoping for safety, but immediately upon arrival they say they were shocked by news of the attempted kidnapping of a Syrian girl.

Nora’s father suffered from a health condition for which he needed surgery. He was treated in a private hospital, where the family says that due to a medical error he went into kidney failure. He must have ongoing dialysis and has also gotten a virus from this process, they say.

The family believes that leaving Egypt is their only hope at having a better life as they have been stifled and restricted, particularly after June 30. However, the father’s health and also the family’s lack of resources have prevented them from attempting to relocate.

Nora’s father died as their lives were being documented for this story. Now nothing shields Nora and her family from the sea. The image is the last one of her with her father.

Nora often experiences harassment in the street, which she says terrifies her as she is not accustomed to facing it in Syria. Her father is now paying bus fees so that she won’t have to walk and will pursue her education. She was a good student and had always good grades in Syria. I tried many times to speak to Nora who seemed depressed and reserved, to an unacceptable level for a child.

The sheer act of leaving the house is troubling for Nora. She is filled with fear of what she may encounter on the street. One of her family members says that the situation has become extremely difficult, that living conditions have worsened, that they can’t adapt to the Egyptian society and that they are mistreated by many Egyptians who have heard rumors that Syrians support the Muslim Brotherhood. “Here in Egypt we die every day,” says Nora.

Fouad is 64 years old. He spent 40 years of his life in Libya and four in Egypt, where he attended university. The rest he spent in Syria until the war erupted there. His wife is Palestinian and they have two sons and a daughter. He is now a Syrian refugee with a Syrian-Palestinian travel document.

He was an artist and an arts teacher in Libya for a long time. He came to Egypt hoping to find a point of passage to Europe after he heard from acquaintances that the Egyptian authorities let smuggling boats go during Morsi’s rule. But he was shocked to find a completely different situation after June 30. Nevertheless, he didn’t hesitate to gamble with his life twice.

Fouad hasn’t seen his sons for nine years. He is stuck in Egypt, while they are in Nablus and Palestine. The family was separated after years of living together in Libya when Fouad traveled to work in the Gulf in the hopes of saving money for a house in Syria. His wife went to live with her children in Nablus. When Fouad returned to Syria, the revolution broke out and the children couldn’t find their father there. He also could not join them because he does not share the Palestinian nationality. Fouad was scared to go to Lebanon as members of the pro-Syrian regime Hizbullah militia may have handed him over to Syria. His easiest option was to go to Egypt which required no entry visa. But Egypt requires a security clearance for the children and they have to be under a certain age. Fouad calls his wife and children every day. He can’t speak to them through video so it doesn’t hurt him.

He failed twice to go to Italy by sea. He was detained for long times. ‘Am Fouad is claustrophobic and that’s why he describes prison as hell.

When the police arrested him during his second attempt to leave Egypt, Fouad fell on the ground and suffered from some blood clots in his eyes. The clotting forced him to stop taking his heart medication so that his sight wouldn’t deteriorate, but he also cannot take medication for his eyes as it would affect his heart. He is simultaneously at risk of losing his eyesight and of heart failure.

When they were in prison, they asked tried to reach an official to help them, but they failed. Fouad’s health condition was bad and the UN was able to get him doctors but not medication. Fouad remembers there was also a Syrian man in detention who worked as a director and had a dog named “Anoushka.” When he asked for help and to smuggle some photos out of prison, a human rights official asked him, “How is the dog? Does she need anything? Is she in good health?” Fouad says the official ignored the presence of the 60 other people, including minors, in the detention center. Another NGO officer came to negotiate with Anouskha’s owner to take her out of prison.

Fouad stops praying. He says he can’t raise his head toward God because he has let him down. When I asked him about the one thing he would do once he reaches the other shore, he said, “I will take to the sea one more time and let seven waves hit me until I purge myself from my Arabness.”

Two weeks ago, Fouad called me from Germany and told me he had travelled there illegally. He fled through the Egyptian Libyan borders to Libya and from Libya to Italy then onward to Germany. He is receiving medical treatment now and is still waiting to be reunited with his family.

«وفر مُجدي» و«شلل واسع النطاق»

Douma in new remand detention cycle as court rejects appeal

تجاهل «الترميم» يقتل أسرة سكندرية تحت سقف «الإيجار القديم»

The long and costly wait for a new personal status law

We will sit together on Srifa hill, Qassem

تكتيكات الاستعمار الإسرائيلي: دروس القدس وسيناء وجنوب لبنان

«اتجمعوا العشاق في الزنزانة»: عن أحمد دومة والشعرية التي لا يسعها المنطق السجني

How the horrible month of March for Meloni might change the path of Italy

مأساة الأطفال مبتوري الأطراف في غزة

Gaza’s child amputees

يوم ما أبطل أشجع…

إيچبشن سوبر هيرو

على جسم مصر التاريخ يقدر يقول ما شاء

مصائر مشتركة

ملتقى فبراير

يوميات قارئ صحف

Mada Morning Digest

فتحي نمر

Karam Saad

كرم سعد

Ebrahim Elmoly

Your support is the only way to ensure independent, progressive journalism survives.