Torn Apart: The Smuggler and My Baby
This is the story of just one woman and her little daughter who are among the surge of Syrian migrants seeking refuge in Europe, the same ones nationalist & nativist bigots urge people to be suspicious of and want them to reject.
This woman and her child could be you, me, any of us given sudden violent upheaval in our homeland. If you can make it through the entire harrowing story without tearing up, then you should probably check your pulse to make sure your heart is still beating.
Syrians leaving their homes for the safety of Europe often rely on people smugglers to help them reach their destination. But it’s impossible to know who to trust and things can go wrong. One woman ended up seeing a man, whose real name she didn’t even know, walk off with her one-year-old daughter.
Zizit knew she had to leave Syria when she became a target for snipers and a bullet hit her car.
She had taken a job as a doctor in a hospital in Damascus where an Islamic militant group approached her and demanded that she go and work for them. When she refused, the death threats started.
“They tried to kill me twice,” she says. Afraid for her one-year-old daughter, Maya, Zizit decided she had no choice but to leave. “I was not happy to leave Syria, I love my country. I left for my baby, not for myself.”
Zizit and her brother Ghassan took Maya to Turkey. The first smuggler they met promised to take them to Greece over land for $13,500 - they paid up front and waited for him to collect them from a hotel. But after a few days they realised he wasn’t coming back. […]