Syrian swam six hours from Turkey on epic journey to Europe

For one man, the most terrifying part of the journey from Syria to Germany was not the sprint down a shell-pocked gauntlet to escape a neighbourhood under siege, nor the hours of interrogation he endured in a Jordanian police cell. It was the moment he dropped himself into the freezing night waters of the Mediterranean and began a six-hour swim towards Europe.

Hesham Moadamani, 24, wrapped up his three prized belongings — passport, laser pen and mobile phone — in plastic and nylon bags, stood at the edge of Turkey and surveyed the Greek island he was heading for.

Unlike many Syrians, he knows how to swim — yet he had only swum in the sea twice. By that point, however, swimming the 5km strait was his only option if he was to reach Europe. He had run out of money and had no way to raise the $US1000 ($1365) that the smugglers wanted for a place in one of their rubber boats.

Yet in that second when his body hit the water, he thought this would be where his journey finished. “I looked towards the island and I thought that this will be the end of my life,” said Mr Moadamani, now finally claiming asylum in the German city of Hamburg after a 3½-year exodus that took him through 11 countries. “There was a deserted island in the middle, about 3km away, and so I said to myself that I will try to reach it and call for help in the morning.” When he reached the island, however, he found its cliffs dropped sheer into the water and it was impossible to climb on land. So he kept swimming until he saw a nearby ship, and signalled for help with his laser pen. The Greek coastguard brought him on to European shores.

He believes he is the first refugee to swim the stretch of water between Turkey and the Greek islands — though tens of thousands more have made that journey in boats.

After one of the harshest early crackdowns by the Syrian military against pro-democracy demonstrators in Damascus in 2012, Mr Moadamani left Syria for the first time in his life.

His first stop was Lebanon, but the high cost of living caused him to carry on to Egypt. He was unable to find a job so returned to Syria but could not rejoin his family, who lived in a government-controlled area. He left again and took three attempts to cross the Jordanian border. When he finally made it, he was jailed and his passport taken. He was there for two years until he bribed an official to give it back. He took the well-trodden path from Turkey to Europe and made it to Germany on July 1.

“After a few metres we were stopped by the German police. They asked us, ‘Are you Syrian?’,” he said. “I told them that I am. Then the police smiled, and said, ‘Welcome to Germany’.”

 

The Times