Now,
five months after fleeing their home in the suburbs of Damascus, young
Syrian couple Hassan and Nour and their two-year-old son Riad find
themselves in Rome as guests of Pope Francis, who plucked them and two
other Muslim families from Lesbos on Saturday.
An
odyssey fraught with danger and the fear of the unknown has ended with
plates of lasagna and strolls in the spring sunshine of the Eternal
City.
Nour,
30, clutches little Riad's hand as she explains why they had no option
but to get out of a Syria on its knees after five years of civil war.
"We
were neither for the Syrian regime or for the Islamists," the scientist
said. "We had to leave the country because my husband had been
conscripted to join the army."
As Nour had studied in France and speaks the language, that was where they decided to head for.
But
first they had to get out of Syria and into Turkey, a challenge that
involved the ordeal of being detained for a week by the Islamic State
group in the region of its stronghold Raqa.
- Capture could mean death -
At
a time when Syrian and Russian warplanes were intensifying air strikes
on the region, it was a terrifying experience. But they escaped from it
thanks to a trafficker skilled at smuggling people over the border.
"Between
Turkey and Greece, if you are caught it is not serious, you are likely
to only be in prison for a few hours. If you get caught in Syria, you
can get killed," said Nour.
Hassan,
31, recalled being swindled in a Turkish port by a less helpful
smuggler who tried to convince him to join more than 60 people on board a
rubber dinghy made for 40 in rough weather.
"I refused," said Hassan.
Eventually,
the family found their way across the narrow strait of the Aegean Sea
that separates Turkey from Lesbos, only to find themselves bogged down
in the interminable bureaucracy associated with trying to enter the
European Union via its southeastern tip.
Having
arrived before the entry into force in March of an EU deal allowing
migrants arriving clandestinely to be sent back to Turkey, they were not
in danger of deportation.
But
with their hopes of a new life in limbo, the Greek island was no less a
prison to them for that - until representatives of the Catholic
Sant-Egidio community began to raise the possibility of a transfer to
Italy, without ever mentioning the pope or his plane.
"Even now I do not believe what happened to us, it is like a beautiful dream," said Nour.
Once on the plane, Francis came to greet them. "He ruffled our little boy's head. Now Riad kisses his picture."
- An uncertain future -
Installed
in temporary accommodation in the Trastevere district of Rome while the
Vatican prepares longer-term housing for the families, Hassan says the
relief of reaching safety cannot remove the pain of being so far from
loved ones.
"The pope is an amazing person. We hope every religious person should be like the pope," he said.
"You can find a new place but you cannot find a new family."
The
couple also feel a longing for a time when Syria was not a place of
war, when people of different religions and cultures were able to
co-exist peacefully.
And
they see the pope's gesture as all the more symbolic because of how it
highlighted the failure of the Muslim world to come to the aid of the
Syrian people in their hour of need.
"No Muslim cleric, no president felt our suffering," Nour said.
"None
of them have done what the pope has done. And yet they have the means,
the money. I am thinking of the Gulf states. They have everything to
take in Syrian refugees but they have not done it."
Having
already taken their first language lessons in their new home, the
family now face another odyssey of sorts: dealing with Italy's notorious
bureaucracy over their application for asylum.
Who
knows what the future holds for them but Nour is clear about one thing:
"I want my son to have the kind of life I had before the war."
No comments:
Post a Comment