AP Photos: A Syrian's journey to new life in Europe
Posted October 21, 2015 7:00 am
Most of all, the young Syrian wanted his dignity. "At least in Europe, I will feel that I have rights," Mohammed al-Haj told The Associated Press.
The 26-year-old embarked on a 2,500-mile (4,000-kilometer), 14-day odyssey to reach his dream, joining an historic movement of humanity: More than 600,000 migrants and refugees who crossed land and sea to reach Western Europe this year.
Mohammed's life was wrecked by the civil war in his homeland. His home city, Aleppo, turned into a hellish battle zone between government and rebel forces. In 2012, The Associated Press first met him as he volunteered at a front-line hospital in the city. In 2014, he fled with his family to Turkey.
Mohammed's journey to Europe in September chronicles the deeply personal aspirations that drove him and many others. He was convinced he deserved better than a life trapped as a refugee in Turkey. Pointing to the future of Europe as it absorbs the wave of migrants, he spoke of how he wanted to be a productive part of society.
The dream of a normal life sustained him through all the obstacles. Across the Aegean Sea where others like him had drowned. Through miles of walking under hot sun. Through rain and muddy fields, crowded train stations and long bus rides, lack of sleep, confusion, impatience, exhaustion, fear and anger - a barrage of every emotion, except one. Never despair.
Here are a series of photos by AP photographer Santi Palacios following Mohammed's journey from Aleppo to Germany.
NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT - FILE - When Syriaâs Arab Spring uprising began in early 2011, Mohammed al-Haj quickly joined in the protests against President Bashar Assad, hoping for democratic rule. But within a year, the uprising slid into outright civil war. Mohammedâs home city of Aleppo became one of the worst battlefields as government forces besieged rebel-held neighborhoods. In late 2012, Mohammed worked as a volunteer at Dar al-Shifaa, a front-line hospital in Aleppo shown in this Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 file photo. The hospital saw a constant flow of wounded and dying. Though he had no medical training, Mohammed _ not pictured here _ helped however he could, stitching wounds, cleaning bloody floors and comforting the patients. The hospital closed in November 2012 after it was damaged in an airstrike, and its staff dispersed, many eventually fleeing to neighboring countries. Mohammed fled to Turkey in 2014. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo, File)
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Mohammed al-Haj began his journey to Europe with a dangerous 2-hour boat journey from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Lesbos with six other Syrians. After landing, Mohammed _ pictured on the right in this photo, taken on Monday, Sept. 7, 2015 in the Lesbos capital of Mytilene _ became trapped there along with some 20,000 other migrants and refugees. They all needed to register and get a document before they could take a ferry to the mainland and continue their journey. Greek authorities were overwhelmed, eking out only a few hundred documents a day. So refugees were left languishing, sleeping on sidewalks and in parks in Lesbosâ capital Mytilene, walking the seafront promenade under broiling heat. For Mohammed, with his motto of âalways keep moving,â it was torture. After a fight broke out among the migrants in line, he led hundreds in a spontaneous protest demanding authorities give them papers. After Greece sent more officials to speed up the process, Mohammed spent hours in line but finally got his document and bought his ferry ticket for Athens. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj, foreground, and his friend Dr. Mohanad Abdul-Qader, also from Syria, sleep on the deck of a ferry in this photo taken on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015, as they travel from Lesbos to Athens. Ferry officials barred the refugees from entering the lounges on the lower decks, where tourists and Greeks stretched out on comfortable seats. Instead, the migrants were told to cram on the eighth level, but when the smell there became too much, Mohammed and others slept on the open-air deck, exposed to the cold night breeze and the rain. âOf course, this is a kind of racism. They look at us Syrians as animals,â Mohammed said. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj checks Germany's map on his cell phone, in this photo taken on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015, while on the bus from Athens to the Greek border with Macedonia. Armed with a Greek SIM card he bought for his smartphone, Mohammed had access to a whole world of information. He checked maps and Facebook pages of other migrants, and he chatted on WhatsApp constantly with Syrians who had taken the same route before him, getting their advice. His goal was to reach Germany, where he knows many Syrians, including Dr. Osman al-Haj Osman, the chief doctor from the Aleppo hospital where Mohammed volunteered. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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After crossing through Macedonia and into Serbia, Mohammed al-Haj ended up in another bottleneck-turned-madhouse, the town of Presevo. In this Friday, Sept. 11, 2015 photo, Mohammed sits in a lot in the city as refugee children play around him and other families settle in. The city was teeming with migrants trying to get Serbian registration papers required before they could continue on to Hungary, a process that could take hours or days. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj, in blue jacket, waits outside the hospital where Serbian authorities were registering refugees in the town of Presevo, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2015. Under a chilly drizzle that turned everything to mud, families huddled on sidewalks or around fires set in barrels. Street peddlers made a killing selling blankets and clothes to the bedraggled travelers _ Mohammed bought his blue jacket from one. Local ethnic Albanians also had a business selling the registration documents _ which they obtained from their friends in the police _ to migrants for as much as 100 Euros ($110). Mohammed finally got his document by good luck and street-savvy. While lining up for hours at the hospital, he chatted with a Serbian policeman. They hit it off, and the policeman and a colleague started asking Mohammed whether he knew of Islamic militants among the migrants. Mohammed gave them his email to stay in touch, and the policemen got Mohammed and his friends their documents. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj, right, and his friend Abdul-Rahman Babelly sleep on a bus traveling from Presevo, in southern Serbia, to the capital, Belgrade, their next stop en route to the Hungarian border n this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015. Throughout his journey, Mohammed sought to constantly move forward, searching for any open door or opportunity to jump before it closed in his face and blocked his path. It was only at moments like this, when he was on track, on a bus or train to his next destination, that he could relax. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj and his friends walk on the railway tracks near the Serbian village of Horgos across the border into Hungary in this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015. On the other side, 500 yards down the railroad tracks, was the office where the Hungarians were registering and fingerprinting migrants. From everything Mohammed had heard, if you registered with the Hungarians, Germany would force you back to Hungary. He was determined not to let that happen. So as dusk deepened, he and his friends devised a plan to make a run for it past the Hungarian border guards. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Once across the border, the Syrian migrants ducked left off the railroad tracks into a nearby cornfield near the Hungarian village of Roszke. Mohammed al-Haj crouched in the tall stalks in this photo taken Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015. Their plan was to slip through the field to a road and a gas station, where they could find a taxi to take them along their way. The path would then be open to Austria and, after, to Germany. Silently, Mohammed led the others through the corn stalks, signaling them with hand gestures. Walk. Stop. Down. He flattened onto his belly, and the others did the same. They could see the road and the gas station. They made their run for it. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj, in the background, and his friends dashed out of the cornfield in this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015, near the Hungarian village of Roszke. But the police seemed to materialize out of nowhere, shouting, "Stop! Stop!" Then came two police dogs. One of the dogs jumped on Mohammed, knocking him to the ground. "Please! Please!" Mohammed screamed as the dog stood on his chest snarling in his face, the police flashlight in his eyes. They were caught. Mohammed was registered and fingerprinted by the Hungarian police, stayed a chilly, rainy night at a camp set up for the refugees, then was taken to the Austrian border with the last of his colleagues, the others having been freed earlier. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj takes a selfie at the Vienna central train station in this photo taken on Monday, Sept. 14, 2015. After his release by the Hungarians, he turned to WhatsApp, consulting with other Syrians already in Germany who assured him that the Germans would take him in even if he had been registered with the Hungarians. Mohammed's determination to keep moving had served him well _ on Sept. 15, Hungary slammed its border with Serbia shut, and other Balkan nations followed suit, leaving thousands of migrants with no place to go for weeks until European politicians negotiated a solution. As he traveled by train across Austria, Mohammed was upbeat. The miles to his goal were melting away. His dreams started to spill out, and he spoke of going to a German university and one day getting a job with an NGO. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj reached his destination, the German city of Saarlouis, where he was to meet his friend Dr. Osman al-Haj Osman from the Aleppo hospital. In this photo taken on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, Mohammed looks at a shop window with mobile phones. Here in Germany, he was convinced he could build a future. "Syrians work really hard. They'll crush rocks for a living," he said. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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Mohammed al-Haj, right, talks with Dr. Osman al-Haj Osman on a bus in the German city of Saarlouis on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2015. The two men, who had worked together in the Aleppo hospital during brutal fighting in the city, were reunited after Mohammed's trek across the continent. At the Saarlouis train station, they hugged and swapped stories. Then they went to a nearby restaurant where the 33-year-old Osman, who has been in Germany nearly a year and now has asylum, gave Mohammed advice on settling in. Stop smoking _ it's too expensive. Learn German. And get a job _ or else the Germans will look down on you. As a man outside his country, Mohammed was prepared to face contempt, but he said, that would change: "When I complete my education, I will regain my self-esteem and those Germans will be proud of me." (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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