130 | July• 2019
camera, and he asked me, “Is it the
first time you’ve been at sea?”
“Yes, and it looks beautiful to me.”
“What do you expect from Europe?”
I thought for a moment and then
said, “I expect freedom like a normal
person.”
“WE ARE ESCAPING WAR!”
We’d landed in a fishing village, and
were overwhelmed with how kind
people were. We found out later that
like many on Lesbos, their own moth-
ers and fathers had come to the island
as refugees from Izmir, when it was
called Smyrna, at the time mostly a
Greek city. Turkish forces attacked it
in 1922 during the Greco-Turkish war,
and thousands fled across the Aegean
Sea.
We spent the night in the village.
The next day a volunteer drove Nas-
rine and me first to the main refugee
centre, and then to a special camp,
which had been set up by a charity for
the sick or those more in need. One of
the volunteers told me she had seen
me on TV – my interview had made
me famous!
Meanwhile, we bought a local SIM
card, bottles of water and top-up
cards. There was a charging area in
the camp, which we had to queue
for – everyone wanted to charge their
phone!
Nasrine and I spent a week on Les-
bos, then we were cleared to take a
ferry to the mainland. We met up
with relatives in a hotel in Athens,
while Shiar flew in from Germany to
try to arrange our passage. At first he
thought we could fly to Germany, but PHOTO: IVOR PRICKETT/UNHCRVolunteers in Lesbos carry Nujeen ashore