Syria refugee gives up asylum for job in Turkey

Antalya, Turkey: Ready to board a train, 23-year old Ahmad, was finally getting his turn to go to Germany. He had crossed Europe and waited days for trains. He was eager to start life over and his final leg from Vienna, Austria would take him to Dusseldorf, in Germany.

But everything changed when he checked an email on his phone: a job offer in Turkey he applied for months before finally came through.

So Ahmad turned back, on his own, and returned to the Turkish border.

Ahmad grew up in Idlib, studied maritime navigation and graduated from a university in Latakia. When he returned home, he was not able to find much work, at most 90 cents a day working for small cafes. But almost daily, he was subjected to the sound of pounding air strikes and rebel battles outside his home.

Then came the decision to leave. At 2am one morning in September, “I was sleeping, I opened my eyes like in a dream, a huge fireball, landed in front of my window, people were screaming, it was a hell of a night,” he told Gulf News.

He only suffered minor scrapes and bruises, and was able to scramble away from the window.

Faced with grim options at home, Ahmad, like many other Syrians, decided to flee the country.

Ahmad found a human trafficker in September who smuggled him from Idlib to Turkey for $300 (Dh1,101). Ahmad then paid $1,500 to take a flimsy and unsafe raft from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos.

Once he reached Greece, government officials gave him exit papers, but would not let his group stay, so they made the arduous journey across Bulgaria, Serbia and to the Croatian-Hungarian border, where he waited several days before going through to Austria.

Ahmad’s end goal was Germany which had been more welcoming to refugees than most other European countries.

Refugees applying for asylum in Germany cannot legally work until their paperwork is complete, so when Ahmad got a job offer in Antalya, he couldn’t turn it down.

So again, Ahmad boarded a train, heading opposite of Germany and went back through Greece, to the Island of Lesbos, by boat and found a smuggler to get him to the Turkish border, where he turned himself in to authorities at the Edrine border town.

In Edrine, Turkish authorities detained him for two days where Ahmad said he was treated well. He is now working for Pegasus Airlines as a coordinator and says he is hopeful for the future.

He hopes he can make use of his univeristy degree and hopes one day to go to America. “I like American culture,” Ahmad said, citing The Simpsons as one of his favourite television shows.

He wants to eventually get his master’s degree and doctorate.

While his fate is far better than most Syrian refugees, Ahmad admits living in a foreign country and learning a new language is difficult.

“My Turkish is very miserable and most Turks do not speak English, but they are very kind people,” Ahmad said.

As for his homeland Syria, Ahmad worries about his father who has gone to live in the family farm outside of Idlib.

“Its hard to leave knowing you are not going back.”

— Ash Gallagher is a freelance journalist based in the Middle East