Published : 01-12-2014
The young man Yousif talked to the Action Group and revealed the details of the children “Abdul Rahman AL Saadi” and his mother “Maha Al Saadi” who sank after they reached Greece, and also revealed the bad inhuman treatment they face by the Greece coast guards.
Yousif started by telling the causes that forced him to risk and ride the sea to reach Greece and to continue to Europe after the Yarmouk camp was bombed several times and after the tragic situations he lived such as bombing, clashes, and displacement, Yousif decided to risk as many Palestinian Syrian refugees to travel by sea to reach Europe searching for peace and safety there.
In details, Yousif said:”I was heading to Turkey hoping to reach Greece and then continue my trip to Europe, I already reached Turkey and launched from Izmir to a nearby coast in order to reach Greece through it. We were about 40 people, most of us Palestinian refugees from Palestinian camps in Syria, on last Sunday evening. After we sail for an hour the boat reached a Greece island above mountain and there was a Greece military car, we surrendered directly to the Greece military members, who kept us for about 7 hours, after that they handed us over to a group of masked men, we thought at first that they will take us to one of the camps and this is what a refugee understood, who knows the Greek language, through talk that took place between members of the army and masked men, we knew then they were from the Coast Guards. "
Yousif continues talking about the arrangements to transfer them: "After they gathered us, we were about 40 people, we were transferred to a small boat and it took us to a larger boat of the Greek coast guards, then we began to mistrust and we realized that there is something reassuring to happen to us, especially with the presence of a number of masked men super-sized body was dressed in black and carrying weapons, and in the way they took all our luggage, mobiles, bags, official papers and some were thrown into the sea "
In the details of what happened with them in the boat, Yousif describes :" few minutes later they began to pide every ten separately and then forced every ten to ride a rubber boat, which in turn bring us across the sea to an area away from the coast, about one kilometer, and then forced the passengers to jump into the water, we cannot resist, they were armed and some of them carrying something that looks like a spear, as if anyone resist he will beat you in it, some of us jumped into the water immediately to avoid being beaten. "
And the sinking details of the child, "Saadi," and his mother, describes "Yousif", saying:
"They threw all of us, youth, children and women, as well as the child," Abdul-Rahman al-Saadi "in the water not concerning that he is a child and without mercy or humanity if we are not human beings, and after throwing the baby, his mother," Maha al-Saadi " jumped immediately behind him, perhaps to save her son but unfortunately she and her son had drowned in the water, as it was dark and the temperature is low and everyone was scared, and also a woman sank, who is often non-Arab, Afghan woman, they have treated us with the utmost cruelty, we stayed in the water amid the darkness and extreme cold. "
And about their rescue Yousif continues, “We stayed in the water until the Turkish Coast Guard Command came and rescued us. Turkey treated us completely differently, where they took some of the details from us to make sure that we are from Syria, in addition to the details of how the mother and her child sank, as they gave us aid and food, in addition to the Turkish media interaction with our case significantly, and then they released all of us. "
Yousif noted that during their presence in the Turkish police station, he had met a number of young people from Khan Al Sheih camp in Damascus suburb, who told him that the Greek Coast Guards stopped them and pull fuel from their boat and left them in the middle of the sea, prompting the young men rowing until the Turkish Coast Guard found them and brought them back to Turkey.
Yousif stressed that during their stay in the Turkish Police Department they had not been subjected to any abuse but merely a routine procedure and that he had been released after taking their statements about the sinking of the child, "Abdul-Rahman al-Saadi," and his mother, "Maha al-Saadi."
The young man Yousif talked to the Action Group and revealed the details of the children “Abdul Rahman AL Saadi” and his mother “Maha Al Saadi” who sank after they reached Greece, and also revealed the bad inhuman treatment they face by the Greece coast guards.
Yousif started by telling the causes that forced him to risk and ride the sea to reach Greece and to continue to Europe after the Yarmouk camp was bombed several times and after the tragic situations he lived such as bombing, clashes, and displacement, Yousif decided to risk as many Palestinian Syrian refugees to travel by sea to reach Europe searching for peace and safety there.
In details, Yousif said:”I was heading to Turkey hoping to reach Greece and then continue my trip to Europe, I already reached Turkey and launched from Izmir to a nearby coast in order to reach Greece through it. We were about 40 people, most of us Palestinian refugees from Palestinian camps in Syria, on last Sunday evening. After we sail for an hour the boat reached a Greece island above mountain and there was a Greece military car, we surrendered directly to the Greece military members, who kept us for about 7 hours, after that they handed us over to a group of masked men, we thought at first that they will take us to one of the camps and this is what a refugee understood, who knows the Greek language, through talk that took place between members of the army and masked men, we knew then they were from the Coast Guards. "
Yousif continues talking about the arrangements to transfer them: "After they gathered us, we were about 40 people, we were transferred to a small boat and it took us to a larger boat of the Greek coast guards, then we began to mistrust and we realized that there is something reassuring to happen to us, especially with the presence of a number of masked men super-sized body was dressed in black and carrying weapons, and in the way they took all our luggage, mobiles, bags, official papers and some were thrown into the sea "
In the details of what happened with them in the boat, Yousif describes :" few minutes later they began to pide every ten separately and then forced every ten to ride a rubber boat, which in turn bring us across the sea to an area away from the coast, about one kilometer, and then forced the passengers to jump into the water, we cannot resist, they were armed and some of them carrying something that looks like a spear, as if anyone resist he will beat you in it, some of us jumped into the water immediately to avoid being beaten. "
And the sinking details of the child, "Saadi," and his mother, describes "Yousif", saying:
"They threw all of us, youth, children and women, as well as the child," Abdul-Rahman al-Saadi "in the water not concerning that he is a child and without mercy or humanity if we are not human beings, and after throwing the baby, his mother," Maha al-Saadi " jumped immediately behind him, perhaps to save her son but unfortunately she and her son had drowned in the water, as it was dark and the temperature is low and everyone was scared, and also a woman sank, who is often non-Arab, Afghan woman, they have treated us with the utmost cruelty, we stayed in the water amid the darkness and extreme cold. "
And about their rescue Yousif continues, “We stayed in the water until the Turkish Coast Guard Command came and rescued us. Turkey treated us completely differently, where they took some of the details from us to make sure that we are from Syria, in addition to the details of how the mother and her child sank, as they gave us aid and food, in addition to the Turkish media interaction with our case significantly, and then they released all of us. "
Yousif noted that during their presence in the Turkish police station, he had met a number of young people from Khan Al Sheih camp in Damascus suburb, who told him that the Greek Coast Guards stopped them and pull fuel from their boat and left them in the middle of the sea, prompting the young men rowing until the Turkish Coast Guard found them and brought them back to Turkey.
Yousif stressed that during their stay in the Turkish Police Department they had not been subjected to any abuse but merely a routine procedure and that he had been released after taking their statements about the sinking of the child, "Abdul-Rahman al-Saadi," and his mother, "Maha al-Saadi."
