Chase and Escape on the Roads of Greece

It's 4 PM. The train's speed is decreasing moment by moment. Now the sound of raindrops hitting the train window can be heard. An announcement in the train asks passengers to prepare their passports. In Makoo, the smugglers have told Arash that everything is coordinated. They told him that even though his passport is fake, he just needs to control his behavior when encountering border officials. Arash, an Iranian refugee: "It was a complete risk because it was clear that I was alone there, without any support. I was just given a fake passport to pass through. The anxiety of possibly being arrested at any moment was overwhelming. Just crossing a 50-kilometer radius inside Turkey was very nerve-wracking. The train only goes to Van, and in Van, I had to take a boat to cross Lake Van, and then again take a train, all while being checked for my ticket." Arash finds himself in Van, Turkey. The atmosphere of the city is not unfamiliar, which makes him a bit anxious. There is still a long way to go to reach somewhere in Europe, another train to Istanbul. In Istanbul, finding human smugglers is not hard, but trusting them is very difficult. Arash: "In Istanbul, there is no guarantee, no assurance that the person who wants to smuggle you will actually do it and you can really go to Greece. On the way, they drop you off somewhere and tell the passenger that this is Greece. Go there, get on the train, buy a ticket, and go to Athens; but in reality, you are still in Turkey. How can you trust someone called a smuggler, and what guarantee is there? In fact, there is nothing. You just have to take the risk." At 11 PM, in Edirne, at the border with Greece. Outside the city, two human smugglers are waiting for Arash and several other refugees. One by one they arrive, a few women, two children, and an Afghan refugee with a disability, using two crutches. Now it is midnight. The sound of crickets at night is the only cover for the footsteps that should not reach the ears of border officials. Arash: "We had not been moving for an hour when suddenly many lights shone in our faces. Gunshots rang out, and everyone fled into the darkness of the night. We spent several hours in these agricultural lands at the zero border of Greece and Turkey, lying on the ground until, as they say, the waters receded so that we could find the guide again. In any case, another attempt was made that night. We went a certain distance, then reached a river where a boat was waiting. Ultimately, three or four people could fit in it, but nearly 15 of us boarded. We were packed from the bottom to the edges of the boat. We were on the water for 45 minutes. Eventually, we got off at a point in the water. Two other guides took us from there." They have now entered a point in Greece, a very dangerous place for refugees entering the country illegally. They must somehow reach the road where other smugglers are waiting for them. Arash: "We had to sleep in those swamps, in those flooded areas with so many people, seventeen or eighteen people plus the guides, in the mud for a few minutes, then get up and walk again, with women and children. With someone who has lost a leg. Then the smugglers' behavior was extremely hysterical. The physical confrontations they had. Forcing us to lie face down on the ground. They said not to make a sound. Another problem was that we barely understood each other’s language. Eventually, we reached one of the highways in Greece where four Audi cars were waiting by the highway. We got into four cars with seventeen or eighteen people. I and a young Palestinian squeezed into the trunk of one Audi. In another car, a mother and child went into the trunk. The cars took off at a dizzying speed. We, who had been lying in the mud, smelled of sludge and sewage, and that stench filled the trunk of the car. I had no idea how many hours we would be in that trunk. But then I felt the car was making unusual movements." The Greek police have become suspicious of the four cars that, according to Arash, are moving at a dizzying speed. The drivers, who are the smugglers, do not heed the police's warnings. Arash is truly trapped in the trunk of the car. At any moment, police gunfire could hit the vehicle carrying him. Arash: "With the sound of gunfire, I realized we were being chased by the police, and the car had no intention of stopping. I kicked the back of the seat to somehow signal to the front that there was a person in the trunk of the car. Those were very terrifying minutes. From the first gunshot to the last gunshot before the car stopped, I heard seven or eight gunshots. The police opened the trunk, and then we went to the police station. We were in police custody for four days until we were given the paper that everyone gets, the one-month leave to leave Greece. I returned to Athens and started the process of finding another smuggler from Athens to Europe..." Now Arash has only a few days to leave Greece. The Ahkano neighborhood in Athens is a hangout for "human traffickers." There is not much difference between the smugglers in Athens and those in Istanbul. Both take the money upfront, and there is no guarantee. But for the refugee, including Arash, there is no choice but to trust, at least to fate's game. Arash: "Because of that terrifying experience I had in the trunk of the car, I didn't even think about getting back into a truck. Eventually, I managed to buy a Greek ID card to leave Greece by air. I took all the risks and went to the airport." Athens Airport, 6 PM. The flight board has been open for half an hour for the Athens to Munich flight. To sit in this flight's seat, Arash must pass through three passenger control sections, and he successfully passes through two of them. Arash: "I had nothing with me because I wanted to avoid any possibility of questions. I mentally tossed a coin to decide which of the three people standing at the boarding gate to approach. I chose one from afar. I don’t know a single word of Greek. A young woman who was checking, split my boarding pass in two and returned the second part to me on my ID card. She said something in Greek, and I was so stressed that I replied to her in English! My English is also very broken, I took a step past her. Suddenly, it struck me: what did you do, Arash?" "What did you do, Arash?" This sentence questioned his mind dozens of times in a few seconds. His steps became more unsteady, and fearing that they would see his unstable situation, he stopped after a few steps. Suddenly, he felt someone calling him from behind. He didn’t have the courage to look back. For the second time, he heard the same voice and the same Greek sentence. At that moment, he made his decision to continue moving towards the boarding door of the plane, ignoring whoever was calling him. His steps became more unsteady but faster, and he now finds himself in front of the airplane door. Arash, the Iranian refugee: "After three or four minutes, I found myself in the airplane seat. When I felt the plane moving on the runway, I finally relaxed, knowing the flight had taken off. Everything was over. The fact that I didn’t get caught that specific day and managed to reach Germany by air was completely unnatural." After 45 minutes, Arash's plane lands at Munich Airport. However, his arrival in Germany was more miraculous than unnatural. But in this miracle, one thing remained forever unsaid for Arash: at that terrifying moment in the airplane tunnel, who called him and what did they want from him. In the next part of the documentary "Hidden Roads," we will follow the harrowing story of a family from Mahabad to Northern Europe.