EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GREECE-FAMILY Syrian refugee reunites with family in tearful exchange at Greek port

Record ID: 135688

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GREECE-FAMILY Syrian refugee reunites with family in tearful exchange at Greek port
  • Date: 21st October 2015
  • Summary: PIRAEUS, GREECE (OCTOBER 21, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SYRIAN REFUGEE, ZAKI ISMAIL KHALIL, LOOKING AT THE SEA AND WAITING FOR HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN TO ARRIVE FROM CHIOS ISLAND (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE, ZAKI ISMAIL KHALIL, SAYING: "Twenty five days ago my daughter was born so I was forced to smuggle them out because the lawyer said that my case might take up to
  • Embargoed: 5th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4EUJ549PRRHM3HCHSVQCMBOSC
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: At the Greek port of Piraeus, Syrian refugee, Zaki Ismail Khalil, anxiously awaited on Wednesday (October 21) for the arrival of his wife Najwa Mohammad and their four children who on Monday (October 19) crossed safely from the Turkish shore near Izmir to the Greek Island of Chios before meeting their father.
    The family left Qameshli, Syria in 2013 and tried to build a life for themselves in Turkey, which proved difficult without job opportunities and proper housing for Syrians there.
    In 2014, Khalil decided to embark on a dangerous journey to Europe hoping that when he settles down in Sweden where he arrived in February 2014 his family will be able to join him legally.
    But the application was rejected.
    Khalil didn't take 'No' as an answer and as soon as his wife gave birth to their fourth child last month, the 38-year-old arranged for them to enter Europe aboard a rubber dinghy commandeered by smugglers.
    "Twenty five days ago my daughter was born so I was forced to smuggle them out because the lawyer said that my case might take up to four more months and that the possibility that there will be a positive outcome is very slim so I might lose," Khalil said.
    He said it wasn't an easy choice for him to send his children by sea and pay off smugglers.
    "Especially the last two months have been very difficult. I feel like I aged 20 years. For the past week when they were in Izmir they were trying to leave every day and every day I have been worried that they will drown, or one of them will and that something will happen to them. I have been thinking constantly that they are leaving and that they might arrive or not. These last moments (before seeing the children) feel like centuries," Khalil said.
    He believes that most parents who leave Syria do so for their children so they have a better life.
    "Our suffering has been going on for more than two years, without proper housing in Turkey, no sleep, no food, no proper education. All these two years has been difficult for me and for my children. I did it all for them. I have been living for the past two years waiting for this moment to see them arrive here and that we will make it to Sweden and settle down a bit," Khalil said.
    With tears in his eyes Khalil finally gathered three of his young children in his arms after reuniting with his family and met his 25 day-old daughter, Haiveen, for the first time.
    After an emotional meeting, the family boarded a bus to Idomeni, a Greek town on the border with Macedonia; from there they will cross into Serbia and via Croatia will try to make it north to a new home in Orebro in Sweden, joining hundreds of refugees on their way across Europe.
    Over half a million refugees and migrants have arrived by sea in Greece this year and the rate of arrivals is rising with over 8,000 coming on Monday (October 19) alone, in a rush to beat the onset of freezing winter, the United Nations said on Tuesday (October 20).
    U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said 27,500 refugees and migrants remained in transit on Greek islands near Turkey from which hundreds of thousands have come.
    Migrants continue to stream north through the Balkans from Greece but Hungary sealed its border with Croatia on Friday and Slovenia imposed daily limits on migrants entering from Croatia, leaving thousands stuck on cold, rain-sodden frontiers.
    Slovenia said on Tuesday it would deploy the army to help guard its border and appealed for help from fellow members of the European Union.
    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called an extraordinary meeting of several European leaders on Sunday (October 25) to tackle the refugee emergency in the western Balkans.
    The Commission said in a statement on Wednesday that Juncker had invited the heads of state or government of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
    The mini-summit comes as tens of thousands of mostly Syrian and Afghan refugees trying to reach Germany are stranded on the roads of western Balkan countries in worsening autumn weather after Hungary sealed its borders with Serbia and Croatia, triggering a chain reaction in other overwhelmed states.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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