I met Naheed from Afghanistan again. Almost two months have passed. In her earlier story she said: “I miss my old life, my friends, my work, but most of all I miss my mother.” Fortunately, her mother now arrived in Berlin as well, after two tough months of fleeing across seven different countries. This is what she said:
“I am Mahnaz from Afghanistan and the mother of my daughter Naheed. My legs and feet are wounded from walking. Sometimes I walked for 18 hours a day. It took me two months, there was a lot of trouble and hardly any food along the way. In Iran the border was very dangerous as many people who tried to cross the border got shot. Also, there were gangsters and robbers crossing my way.
In Turkey, there were fights between rivalling “Schlepper”-groups (human traffickers). They were shooting at each other on the beach where we wanted to go on the boats. I hid in a nearby forest, it was very cold. After two days of hiding, the turkish police arrested me and put me in jail for four days. They said that I had to go back home and let me go. But I tried again and made it onto a boat to Greece. When we arrived at the beach, I cried because was so happy to have made it over the water despite of the boat breaking down and all the danger. One volunteer who was helping me out of the boat cried too. I was so touched by the humanity. People in Greece were very kind.
Me and my daughter Naheed reunited at Zoologischer Garten in Berlin. We cried a lot out of happiness, we cried again and again. Now I have to register at LaGeSo and we hope it goes quickly. Naheed lives in a shared flat (WG), but I have to take a bus to a camp until I’m registered. We hope to be able to live together very soon, we have to be patient for a little while longer. My husband wants to be safe too but the way is too dangerous for him. It’s sad. In the Iranian mountains, there are many dead bodies of people who died on the way. They still are laying on the ground.
I am very happy. We feel safe here and met many kind people in Germany. We miss all the rest of my family. We left everything. Here we have nothing, but us.”