LEAVING YOUR country by force is undoubtedly a severely traumatising experience, especially when the loss of close family members or friends is involved. Added to this, however, are the anxieties of facing the unknown, especially when you have to flee without documents, entrusting your hopes for a future to someone you don’t know, the smuggler, and the risk of being injured or even killed.
Testimonies of people on the move, including refugees, who survived against all odds show that this traumatic experience can leave indelible marks on the lives of the persons. Organisations like the Council of Europe and UNHCR, acknowledge the need to address through a constructive dialogue with all parties involved – such as governmental officers, and police officers – the humanitarian dimension of this phenomenon.
A dimension that is usually lost under the numerous titles of “illegal migration”, as the case of the two Iraqi families in December 2008, indicates. Fleeing persecution and insecurity in Iraq, they came to Cyprus to seek a safe life for their families. While crossing the UN buffer zone they were injured by landmines.
The first accident in the beginning of December involved a family of five Iraqis; the man stepped on a landmine that blew off part of his right foot, while fragments from the explosion injured his four-year-old son, his wife and one other child.
Two weeks later another accident, again involving a family of three from Iraq, cost the right foot of the family breadwinner.
As it is always the case, behind the dry headlines and facts about people crossing irregularly from the north to the south, there are personal stories of tragedy, courage, and compassion.
“When the mine went off, at first I realised nothing – I thought that it was the police firing at us to arrest us; it was only after a while that I started feeling the pain and seeing the endless blood pouring from my foot which opened up completely,” 35 year-old, Ali*,described his own horror as if he was describing a film he just saw. Ali, a Palestinian from Iraq was dumped by his smuggler somewhere in the buffer zone only to be collected later on by the police, who transferred him to the hospital. There the doctors had to amputate his leg.
“It could have been worse… I could be dead now,” whispers and hugs his three-year-old boy who plays with his red car, his only toy;
Similarly, Mr Said*, 52, from Iraq, had the courage to put a plastic bag around his injured leg until the time the smuggler transferred him and the family to the hospital (and then disappeared). Unlike Ali, Said’s right foot has been saved for now after having his heel operated.
Compassion allows hope
Ali is already undergoing physiotherapy and he will (soon) be getting an artificial leg, while Said’s medical treatment for his injured heel is ongoing. All day and night he sits on the sofa with his leg up until he is able to walk again. “The doctors told me it will take one year” he said.
Both families are thankful to the government. The Ministry of Health abiding by its legal obligations towards refugees covered the expenses for a special treatment at the private hospital to save the leg from amputation.
A Cypriot parliamentarian visited Said and his family once she heard the news. When the doctors decided to cut his leg because the particular treatment needed to save his leg was not available at the hospital, she intervened on the government’s behalf and had Said transferred to a private hospital.
Invaluable is also the help that they are receiving from two locals: a priest in Larnaca and a 65-year-old man in Limassol, who both chose not to be named.
Father P, a Christian Orthodox priest brought up in Jerusalem, recalls that when he first met Said at the hospital, he was very weak with low moral. “After the operation he has regained his self-confidence and he hopes again,” said Father P, an Arabic-speaking priest who continues to visit the family.
“What they need from us is to show them love. They need to feel that they are welcomed that they have someone to share their fears, to feel they are not alone” says Father P, who assists many Arabic-speaking people with translations. As well as translating for patients at the hospital, he escorts parents at Greek speaking schools who wish to find more about their kids’ progress and he is ready to assist in any other possible way.
Father P helps people in need regardless of his/her religion; he says it is something that should come naturally and is an obligation he feels owes to his fellow human beings.
“In the same way that I, a Christian, was welcomed and well-treated by Muslim people in Jerusalem, it’s now my turn, as a good Christian and a human being, to reciprocate.”
For Mr G, who visited Ali at the hospital when he heard the news, his sensitivity and eagerness to help in practical terms derives from the experience of his grandfather, who was a refugee from Asia Minor and sought refuge in Cyprus with his six children – among of whom was Mr G’s mother.
“The day I heard about the incident coincided with the day my mother died; I felt like caring for a person in need which I considered to be a gift for the soul of my mother.” His attachment to the family did not remain there; despite the fact that he resides at another district, he visits the family and wants to find out how he can help more.
He thought to open an account to the bank where he will be depositing each month an amount of money. He recalls the “adoption of a refugee child” scheme which took place back in 1974 with the Cypriot refugees and he wants to do the same.
His care does not stop at financial support. He even goes further and thinks about the empowerment of Ali, which will help him heal his indelible psychological wounds. He thinks of involving Ali in a vocational training, for jobs that can be delivered by a person with special needs.
Both families recall happier times back in Iraq.
“We had a very good life once in Iraq – job, house, car and friends – but we had to leave everything behind and go,” says Said who decided to leave when a car explosion targeting him killed his 16-year-old daughter.
“From that moment, I realised that Iraq is over for me and the rest of my family,” he said and burst into tears.
Ali similarly recalls the good times back in Iraq, but the discrimination, constant threats and murders of other Palestinians of Iraq by insurgent groups left him with no other option than to flee.
Paying the smuggler $20,000 was the only available escape route for the two families. Indeed, this is the reality for many refugees – not only Iraqis – who, in the absence of any legal means to seek refuge in another country, resort to unscrupulous smugglers who have built a multi-billion dollar business by preying on the desperation of many people who cannot cross borders in a regular manner.
Both Ali and Said have the same wish: “good education for my kids, health and be able to live in peace”. This dream is common to all human beings but a reality only for some.
The solidarity that they have experienced so far in Cyprus allows them to hope for a dignified life. Although medical assistance is the first necessary step of the rehabilitation process, psycho-social support and reintegration assistance are equally indispensable in that regard.
Practical support from society is of course to be welcomed and encouraged but it can only complement – and not substitute – the governmental obligations. It is equally important for the Social Welfare Services to engage in the rehabilitation and reintegration of theses two families. The same applies to all other refugee cases with special needs.
Emilia Strovolidou is the Public Information Officer for the UNHCR
Representation in Cyprus
*All names have been changed for protection reasons
