“We came here to the woods because we were told that there is no place for us in the camp. We kept waiting out in the cold. For what? For nothing. My wife was nine months pregnant. The first few days, we were offered help by friends, but also by people who didn’t know us at all. Then, someone left and gave us their tent. A few days ago, my wife gave birth to our third child, a girl. Her name, Rafif. My wife was admitted to the hospital and three days later the birth they told me we could leave. But we didn’t have anywhere to go, so we came back to the tent.

I left my country’s hell, a place without houses, people, life; a destroyed place. If I knew this would be the case, I don’t know if I had come. Maybe, I would have stayed to die in my homeland. The only difference here is that they don’t bombard us.

I cannot see any future here, life, prospects. We live in the woods, in the cold. Every morning we wake up frozen. I help my wife get up because her body hurts. We are sleeping down. I asked to transfer my wife to Kara Tepe until she gives birth. Nothing happened. And from day to day she will have our child.

All I ask for is safety and dignity for me and my family. If there was a life for us here in Greece, a job, I would like to stay here.”

Bashar, 29, comes from Syria where he worked as an electrical engineer. He arrived at Lesvos on November 16^th, 2017 with his wife Bara, 23, nine months pregnant, and their two children, Rima, 4 and Muhammad, 2 years old.

Note

Little Rafif and her family are now living in a warm home in Lesvos thanks to the kindness of a resident who helped them. The five members of Bashar’s family will sleep in a real bed, under a real roof, after such a long time!