Rami Khalaf has never seen his one-year-old daughter, stuck in Jordan with his wife after having fled Syria together as a family.
Two years ago, Rami, his then pregnant wife and two other daughters fled Syria. They lived in a town next to the Damascus airport, however in 2012, the area was assaulted by government and rebel forces. “We went from place to place, however my daughter at the age of 3 years eight months, was killed by bomb shrapnel. I wanted to be with my brother Yamen and nowhere else”.
Yamen has been residing in Malta for around 15 years. He is married to a Maltese woman and has two kids. Yamen helped bring his parents and another brother over to Malta.
Rami’s wife is not in Malta, Yamen explained. “When they were in Lebanon, after escaping Syria, he helped his pregnant wife escape to Jordan. He kept his other daughter with him as Hezbollah operated the Lebanon airport and when they see a Syrian man on his own, they would know he is trying to escape and so they will either jail him or hand him over to Assad.
His pregnant wife had left for Jordan three days before and when he and his other daughter arrived in Jordan, they were stopped and sent back to Lebanon. He then began the journey to Europe, culminating in the crossing of the Mediterranean.
(File photo)
The trip from Libya to Malta byboat took around 16 hours and cost €3,000, Rami explained. They knew the risk of coming by boat, Yamen said. “There was no other choice for my brother and his daughter, they would either make it or die”.
Yamen said that his brother was taken to Algeria and then had to walk from Algeria (where the traffickers took them from Lebanon) to Libya, through the desert, around 2,000 km.
In Libya they were kept in a basement for four days, not stepping outside. As soon as a boat was found, they were taken to it.
As for the human traffickers, Rami said they never saw the head honcho. “Every hour one person would check on us, throwing food and would then leave. But the big shot does not allow you to see him. We left Libya on a small boat straight off. The guards all had arms. If you complain, they kill you, like you would swat a fly. We weren’t given any water or anything”.
“If you give me a guarantee that my wife along with my one-year-old child will not die at sea then I will bring them. Some might ask me, why not go to Jordan, give me a guarantee that if I go to Jordan, they will let me in. I don’t know what we are going to do. We are doing everything to bring my wife and youngest daughter to Malta and are in talks with the Maltese government,” Rami said.
Yamen said that Rami's daughter in Malta misses her mother. “My wife is Maltese and when Rami's daughter (the one in Malta) sees my children hugging their mother, she feels it. We want nothing from government, not even a single cent, but we want my brother’s wife here”.
What's the situation like back home? “There is ISIS, Assad, Al Qaeda, rebels, thieves posing as rebels, they are all problems. If Assad’s men discover you are Sunni they will do things to you that no human would even do to an animal. We still have a brother there and I don’t think he can escape or do anything. If the Assad problem is solved, there’s ISIS. If ISIS is solved there is Al Qaeda, it’s like what is happening in Libya now. The country will not be truly democratic for many years. We were born into a dictatorial country, it will not become democratic overnight, it will take 25-30 years. The extreme Muslims now want their own government, Al Qaeda want their own, the normal Muslims want it as well… The solution will not be easy”.
Asked where he believed ISIS was now, he mentioned a town on the border with Iraq. “ISIS is with the government. Why? Where there are rebels or normal people, government throws bombs to kill them, however where there is ISIS present, no bombs fall”. Yamen explained that they began fighting between themselves over oil .
Women, children and the elderly are the ones suffering. People are dying from hunger. The problem is huge. If you run to a town you find ISIS, if you run from that town you find Assad, and it goes on. It’s no longer the people versus government it’s Sunni vs Shiite now. They know if you are Sunni for example depending on where you were born, or from your name.
Turning to the Maltese people they both said that they have not felt any form of discrimination from the Maltese people, and nor has Rami’s daughter at school. He again stressed the need to reunite his brother's family.
“His daughter is so upset that she is now saying she doesn’t want to go to school anymore. A young child wants her mother”.
They explained that their lawyer is currently working on trying to bring the rest of his family to Malta.
They appealed to the government to help his daughter reunite with her mother. “This is my only wish. We don’t want anything else, we don’t want help with anything else”.
Turning to the recent photograph of the Syrian boy washed up on the beach, Yamen said that while Rami was still in Libya, he used to worry about his brother, as Rami's boat left soon after one of the many tragedies that occurred in the Mediterranean. “I tried to help them with everything while they were there, but at the time I couldn’t convince him to find another way here. When I was out of contact with them, I was always on the lookout, worried when hearing about the next sinking boat. When you escape a country you do it when you have no choice. None of these people thought they were going to leave”.
Yamen and Rami have not seen any discrimination by the Maltese people. “I know the Maltese have good hearts. You find good and bad, but the majority have a good heart. If you are a good person, people will treat you well. If I knew the Maltese were not good people I would not have brought my brother here,” Yamen explained.
I was told to do things that a human being should never do
Mohammed Sabet is a 41-year-old Syrian refugee who lives in Malta. He has been on the island for the past five years.
“I had many problems with the Assad government. They asked me to do things I couldn’t do, things a human being should not do. I had problems with the government and police. They told me to do things to people that a human being cannot do, bad things. You have no option but to be with them. You aren't given an option to tell the Syrian government yes or no, you cannot say no. People would ask government for water to drink, to create schools for children, yet the government used to put them down,” Mr Sabet explained. He said he had to leave as he was asked to do something which he couldn't.
“I did not originally want to come to Malta, I wanted to go to a mainland European country and live in peace, bringing my wife and five children over. I brought my family to Malta this year. The people are friendly, I like the people here very much”.
He didn’t have a particular end destination in mind, but somewhere like Germany or Sweden.
He explained that living in a Western country has new challenges. Such as his children wanting new things which are hard to afford. “I want the best for my children”.
He said that there is some inequality evident between the Maltese and refugees. One example would be ID cards. “We pay for things we aren’t supposed to, such as the ID card. I need to pay €25 per person per year. I have five children and my wife. It adds up. I don’t want to be treated above the Maltese, no, but equally”.
As for the people in the street, however, he said they are very friendly and he has not seen any signs of discrimination towards him in that regard.
He left Syria when the civil war broke out. “Everyone was fed up and wanted to leave. Everyone wanted government to help the people, but government rounded up those who were vocal, street by street. You understand? They killed many of them”.
“The Syrian government does not know the meaning of being human”
The process of achieving refugee status took around a year, he said, adding that it took quite a while to bring his family over.
So why did he leave his family behind and not bring them over with him? “The government was after me not my family, to kill me. They told me to kill someone and I didn’t. I had to walk and crawl for five days in the cold winter. I couldn’t bring them with me, it was freezing”.
He had arrived in Malta by plane, using a false passport. “I went to the refugee centre and registered. I had my papers stating that I used to work for the government with my name and the minister’s signature”. After this he was taken to the police depot where he was fingerprinted and to apply tor temporary status. He then rented an apartment.
“If the war ends and Assad is removed, I would go back and live in my country with my family. There’s no place like the one you grew up in. We only had two options, either leave or be killed. There was no third option”.
, he said that they were created by Assad. He had imprisoned the extremists, fed them and when he began killing everyone he let them out and told them to do what they want.
Told that Assad now fights against ISIS, he said yes, “because of the oil. He then lost control of them”.
He claimed that in prison, the members who began ISIS were effectively brainwashed by the Assad regime, not knowing what is right and wrong. “I think if Assad’s reign ends, then ISIS will end”.
Seeing so many of his countrymen escaping to Europe, he said it’s sad. “The problem is the struggle they go through to arrive, their problems, their suffering. There are people who kill themselves, people who wouldn’t have the money to feed their family sleeping in the streets. If the EU would remove ISIS and Assad then it would be done. Syria has 28 million people, everyone will leave. If they don’t have the money, they will do whatever they can to leave, otherwise they will die. Instead of having 28 million refugees, remove one, remove Assad, and everyone will go back. Nobody will drown at sea”.