The Syrian refugee family tells about life in the Moria camp before they came to Norway
“How are we going to sleep here, Dad?”
This was the first question Evin (13) asked his father when they set up the tent in the Moria camp. They were to stay here for one year.
Zakaria Hussain (42) had no answer to give. He also had no money or opportunity to give his family anything else to take care of.
The family fled their home, Kobani in Syria in 2013.
Zakaria decided after he saw dead people and mutilated bodies in Aleppo after a bomb attack.
First they traveled to Turkey, but life in the new country was not easy.
They received neither passports, residence permits, nor financial support.
In 2019, Zakaria decides to flee once more. This time to Europe, but crossing the Aegean Sea with five children is not easy.
Zakaria came into contact with the human traffickers. They said that for a higher price, you could get a safe boat, so that’s what Zakaria asked the smuggler for.
“I want a big and good quality boat,” he said to the smuggler.
– I didn’t want to risk the lives of my children, says the father of five to TV 2.
He paid 6,000 euros to the smugglers. It was all he had saved in Turkey.
A few days later, the family arrived in the Turkish city of Izmir, where several thousand refugees embark on dangerous journeys towards Europe.
At one o’clock in the morning, the family was to board the boat, and then came the shock:
– It was a very bad boat. There were even 60 other refugees with us. The boat was overcrowded, but we had to continue, he says and continues:
– I knew that the people smugglers are liars, but we had to trust them. We had no choice, he says.
This is how Zakaria and his family arrived in Greece. They were then sent to the infamous Moria camp.
Although Zakaria prepared as best he could for what they would see in the Moria camp, the new life came as a shock to the family.
On arrival they were given information meals and two small tents.
– Imagine a camp that will house perhaps 2,000 refugees, but then almost 20,000 refugees live there. We found a small place and set up the tent, says Zakaria.
Evin is the family’s youngest daughter. She was 13 years old when they came to the Moria camp. Now she is 15. She could not imagine how they would manage to sleep in the camp.
– It was absolutely terrible. I wanted to go back to Turkey but dad said we have to be patient and eventually we will get a very nice house in Europe. So I tried to wait, says Evin.
Long food lines
The new life was difficult. Zakaria or his wife, Zaynab, had to wait in line for food every day. It could take up to three hours.
– It was very difficult to live there. We were red. It was very cold in the winter and we wore all our clothes so as not to freeze, says Zakaria.
16-year-old Sirin found it difficult to see her mother standing in a food queue for hours.
– It was so sad to see, she says. Then she starts to cry.
Shower in cold water
Evin and the eldest daughter, Mizgin, talk about the difficulties in the camp.
– We used to wait in line for around an hour to go to the toilet, says Mizgin.
– Showering was very difficult. If you wanted to shower at six o’clock, you had to start waiting in the queue at two o’clock. It was also only cold water, says Evin.
The children insisted on going back to Turkey but Zakaria was determined to move on.
– We could not go back to Turkey. We had nowhere to live and everything we owned had been sold. I used all my money to cross the border, says Zakaria.
This is how the Syrian family lived in the Moria camp for a year.
Men saw: On September 9, 2020, everything was turned upside down. The family heard screams.
Lived on the streets
“It burns!” shouts one, “run” shouts another. The family took the most important thing with them, then they started running.
Many thousands of migrants and refugees lost everything they had in the great fire. Zakaria’s family had to start living on the streets.
After the fire, Mizgin was so scared that she stopped talking.
– Life in the Moria camp and the fire affected us all a lot, but Mizgin the most. So we contacted aid organizations and psychologists, he says.
The family and the five children were about to lose hope, but then something happened that would change their lives.
Extracted
Norway decided to take 50 refugees from the overcrowded Moria camp, and Zakaria’s family became one of the lucky ones.
– Then the Moria nightmare came to an end. It was like hell there, says Zakaria
– Imagine that someone is coming to collect you from hell. I can’t tell you how happy we were. The children danced the whole time. They couldn’t sleep, he says.
On 3 March 2021, the family landed in Norway. The first night was almost sleepless for the Kurdish family.
– We couldn’t sleep because we wanted to go out and see what the country looks like even though it was night, says Evin.
Now Zakaria and his wife, Zaynab, go to school to learn Norwegian.
– I really can’t tell you how grateful we are, he says and continues in Norwegian.
– Norway is like paradise. We love Norway! Thank you Norway!
The journalist behind the article, Aysun Yazici, is a journalist from Turkey who lives in exile in Norway. She is associated with TV 2’s foreign affairs department.