Syrian refugees’ hopes for a better life turn to tragedy in smuggler’s truck
The father of the young Muhammad, who was killed on his way to Europe - North Press
By Matin Hassan
DERIK, Syria (North Press) – Four Syrian refugees had dreamed of a better life in Europe with a smuggler having promised to get them there by a truck, a relative of one of those four said.
“They could not breathe. They called the smuggler to tell the driver to find a solution, but the driver’s delay caused them to suffocate,” Muhammad Sharif al-Omar, the father of young man Muhammad, who was among those in the truck, recounts the details of the incident.
Muhammad and his three friends were not lucky enough to reach Europe, as they tragically suffocated inside the truck that was taking them to a European country.
Last week, four people from Qamishli, northeast Syria, tragically suffocated in a secret compartment inside a smuggler’s truck in its way to Europe.
The incident took place on the road linking between Turkey and Greece. The victims are 25-year-old Muhammad al-Omar, Agid Abbas, Wa’el Rassoul, and Fahed al-Taher.
Muhammad told his father that he wants to travel to Germany to be with his brother, explaining that there is no promising future in Syria.
“I tried to convince him not to go, but all in vain. My son did not reach his destination; this is his fate,” the father told North Press.
After spending approximately 50 days in Istanbul, Turkey, Muhammad received a call from the smuggler informing him that they would be leaving for Greece that day.
Along with three other young men, he took a taxi to the truck that was scheduled to take them to their destination.
The father said that his son told him in the last phone call between them that “the smuggler told the taxi driver to slow down since the truck was late.”
“When they first got into the truck, Muhammad called his brother in Germany and told him that they had water and were doing well. After hours of being in the completely closed truck, the four young men began to have difficulty in breathing due to the extreme heat,” the father told North Press.
“They called the smuggler to tell the driver that they cannot breath, but the driver was late; they all passed away,” al-Omar told North Press.
In June, the International Organization for Migration published shocking and unexpected figures on the number of victims of illegal immigration in the Middle East and North Africa over the past year.
The organization said that last year was one of the deadliest for migrants using migration routes with nearly 3,800 deaths reported.
The organization stated that the highest number of deaths among migrants were in the Middle East and North Africa.
On July 7, the bodies of eight Syrian victims who were onboard a boat that sank off the Algerian coast arrived in their birthplace in the city of Kobani, northern Syria, after a month.
A boat carrying about 25 migrants, most of them from Kobani, including women and children, sank off the Algerian coast, while en route to the Spanish coast.
“The smugglers’ top priority is financial gain. They lack any moral or ethical principles, and while they may portray the journey as easy, it is often perilous and challenging,” the heartbroken father concluded.