As if the brutal crackdown of Assad’s regime was not horrible enough, Syrians who managed to escape Assad’s inferno have faced the bleak destiny of becoming refugees.  In a country like Egypt, which is undergoing great political fluctuation, some refugees there have tried to escape its harsh life by illegal immigration via the sea, in hopes of finding another merciful place.

As if the brutal crackdown of Assad’s regime was not horrible enough, Syrians who managed to escape Assad’s inferno have faced the bleak destiny of becoming refugees.  In a country like Egypt, which is undergoing great political fluctuation, some refugees there have tried to escape its harsh life by illegal immigration via the sea, in hopes of finding another merciful place.

On October 11 a migrant boat sank near the coast of Dakhila, west of Alexandria. The boat was en route to Italy, transporting 128 people, 12 of whom died, including six women, three children and three men. One hundred sixteen people were rescued, including 72 Palestinians, 40 Syrians and four Egyptians (the boat crew). The refugees have found themselves on the run again.

A number of survivors explained the conditions that compelled them to escape in such a way and described the details of the sinking accident. Such tragic details unmasked the grave reality suffered by those characterized as refugees.

Remnants of memories

“I was with my wife and child when the boat sailed. A strong gust of wind tipped over the boat and we all have fallen into the water. I lost my wife or child. They died and now I am left alone in the face of the inferno of refuge. All I have now is the memory of my family,” said Hazem Shediak who escaped the war in Syria after his house was shelled and his parents were killed while he as well as his wife and child survived. He had no other choice but to flee the Syrian inferno to Egypt where he stayed in Alexandria. “We were not comfortable because everything was different starting from food to rejecting our kids’ registration at schools and accusing us with collusion with Morsi’s regime and the Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore, I had no choice but to travel,” he explained.

Shediak learned from a Syrian friend living in Alexandria about a broker who smuggles people to Italy by sea and charges USD 3000 for each passenger and USD 500 for each child. Thus, he decided to go and put together everything he saved including his wife’s jewelry, to collect the requested amount.

He went to the broker and paid him before the traveling date which was set on October 11. When the fateful day arrived, he was surprised to see that the supposed “ship” was merely a fishing boat that could only accommodate 50 people, whereas 130 were on board.

Floating corpses

“I realized that the hell of war in my country is much more merciful than the death, deprivation, poverty and suffering in another land’s soil. I should have waited to die as a martyr on Syrian ground,” said Muhammad Kassem Fayrouzim, a Syrian refugee in Alexandria.

Fayrouzi also tried to escape to Italy after suffering in Egypt. “When I came here, I was not planning on travelling to another country since Egypt was a temporary solution until the situation in Syria becomes stable,” but the deteriorated economic and living situation in Egypt provoked the idea of moving to Italy, he explained, and added that he paid USD 3500 for the illegal travel to Italy and got onboard the ‘boat of death.’

Only luck saved Fayrouzi from dying in the heavy storm that whirled him into the sea. He swam for three hours until he was found by a rescue boat, but he was devastated by the great number of the dead floating bodies.

A transit to nothingness

Khamis Abdulal, one of the survivors, had a different story.  He escaped Assad’s regime after his family was murdered by government forces and arrived legally to Alexandria last September and intended to later travel to Italy by sea.

He paid the money to the broker with whom he was acquainted through a Syrian friend. “At that moment I felt that I would finally escape the death that has been following me everywhere.  I believed going to Italy would help me have a new start away from the destructive hell of Syria, but the winds blow where the ship does not wish to go. The death ship was waiting for me,” he said.

Frozen bodies

Egypt for Tareq Bashir Zeyadi, one of the survivors, was also a transit station, but unlike Abdulal, he was not alone, as he arrived in September with his wife and fifteen-year-old daughter. He met the broker through some acquaintances and paid the requested money to travel with his family.

“When we left the coast, the boat started swinging near Dakhila district, west of the governorate and within seconds everyone was screaming,” he said crying. “Although some of us had life rings, we could not use them because of the high waves and the strong wind. I was holding the hands of my daughter and wife who could not swim, but suddenly a strong wave pushed us apart.”

Zeiady became silent for a while, the signs of grief, pain and anguish spread along his sad wrinkled face and then said: “In this crucial situation, I had no choice but to swim. My wife and daughter were left to their destiny and I tried swimming to reach the shore. The rescue teams arrived and only managed to pull out 13 frozen bodies from the water, including my wife and daughter.”

Once the procedures and investigations of the case are over, Zeiady will go back to Syria. “Dying in one’s own country is much merciful than dying in another country,” he said.

A space for life

This incident was not the first of its kind and it surely will not be the last, as security statistics issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior  reported that during the last six months, 2000 Syrians and Palestinians were caught trying to migrate illegally to Italy through the coasts of Alexandria. It was reported that an attempt to smuggle 120 Syrians and Palestinians to Italy through Abu Keir coast was foiled last May and security forces detained 41 Syrians – including 28 Palestinians, 13 children and 10 women – attempting to travel illegally by sea between last August 6 and 14, where they were expelled to Turkey and Malaysia.

Hasna wants a place where her children are accepted in schools and her husband might earn a better salary than EGP 700 (US $101) as they pay EGP 500 (US $72) for rent. She said she would work with her husband to collect the requested amount to travel even if death awaits them.