The Misery of Turning to Smugglers for Refuge

His inner sorrow is heavy. It takes more than an hour for him to gather the strength to speak. Darvish Khan is from Mahabad, familiar with the mountains, yet he finds himself fleeing to Turkey with his wife and four-year-old son. He says Iran has become unsafe for him, accused of security-related offenses, but Turkey is not safe either. For refugees, as always, accepting risk and the demands of smugglers along the road of hope is a necessity. Darvish Khan, an Iranian refugee, recounts: "When I left Iran, I didn't see my mother, brother, or sister. I didn't say goodbye to anyone. My wife didn't see her parents for the last time either; we suddenly escaped from Iran. In Turkey and Greece, I lost all my money. One smuggler took two thousand euros, another one took one thousand five hundred euros, and another took three thousand euros. We were living as smugglers, with no documents. We had to turn to smugglers, who are the worst of all. We had no idea where we were going on the road; from Turkey to Greece, my wife and child and I spent a full day and night in a hole that I later learned was a World War II soldier's hole, just like a mouse hole. One person lying down or crawling couldn't fit inside; the three of us squeezed into that hole. We were there for twenty-four hours. In water and filth, it was a terrible situation. There was a possibility that the smuggler would take a knife and kill us himself." Darvish Khan had heard about the harsh conditions of refugee life in Greece from Turkey. He knows that enduring these conditions is not feasible for his family. The promises of smugglers in Athens to send him and his family to Europe by air fade away. Darvish Khan: "With the fake passports I got from the smuggler, I decided to fly illegally with my family from Athens airport, but the Greek police noticed our fake passports and even beat me in front of my wife and child. They didn't care; they beat me in front of twenty people." The sky over Greece becomes grayer for Darvish Khan. They say bad luck comes with misfortune. Darvish Khan: "We returned to Athens and settled in the basement of a smuggler's house. Every night, sewage overflowed from his toilet and bathroom. It was a multi-story apartment, and since we were in the basement, all the filth came into our room. In the meantime, my child got sick and later broke his arm. We had nothing, no documents to even take him to a doctor until a Greek family helped us, otherwise, I couldn't have taken my child to a doctor. There were days when we had nothing to eat, not even a euro in my pocket. There were nights when my wife, child, and I slept in the cold in a park in Athens with just one blanket; we only had one blanket." After some time working hard in Athens and gathering some money with the help of a Greek family, Darvish Khan and his family manage to fly illegally to the Netherlands. Darvish Khan: "When we arrived in the Netherlands, I applied for asylum. The first camp they took us to was terrible; even the food they provided was inedible. They gave a small juice box daily, which my child only ate." Darvish Khan now sees himself in the land of tulips. However, the color of these tulips is not orange for him and his family. The Dutch Immigration Office (IND) does not believe their life story. Darvish Khan: "After a short time, which didn't even last three months, unfortunately, they gave us a negative response without considering witnesses, documents, and facts. They pressured us so much that I regrettably had to leave this country about three months after my arrival in the Netherlands." While thousands of refugees are trying to leave Turkey and reach a country in Western Europe, Darvish Khan and his family are returned to Turkey again. He tries again to go to another country in Europe. By sheer luck, he manages to leave Turkey this time for Norway. However, he is unaware of a common refugee law among European countries. Darvish Khan: "In Norway, I provided every document they requested; unfortunately, they also rejected us and said since you previously applied for asylum in the Netherlands, we must return you to the Netherlands, and you have no other rights. After seven months, they returned us to the Netherlands. Because my wife had developed psychological issues and was pregnant, three police officers accompanied us to the Netherlands and handed us over to the police at Amsterdam Airport." Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. For Darvish Khan and his family, it was hard to believe. Problems started all over again. They are no longer three; for some time now, Golnaz, Darvish Khan's wife, has become pregnant. She says it was unintentional, and they had also paid smugglers for an abortion. At Amsterdam Airport, they are fingerprinted again and told that since their previous asylum request in this country was rejected, they have no other chance. For deportation again, they are transferred to the quarantine camp in Ter Apel in northern Holland. Darvish Khan: "At Amsterdam Airport, when the police received us, they sent us to the Ter Apel quarantine camp. The next day, a lady from the Dutch Immigration Office spoke with us and said to leave the camp tomorrow. I really had no one in the Netherlands, no friends or acquaintances. They expelled us from the camp, and in a very terrible situation, my wife and child ended up on the street. I thought to myself, what should I do, I have no one, no money, and no place I know, my wife was in terrible condition, and we had one bag that had fallen on it, and no one paid attention to us. Thankfully, at a bus station, someone came up to us and started talking, and I saw he was Iranian and had also been a refugee and had gone through many days like this, and when he saw us, he remembered his past. He insisted on taking us to his home." The kindness of the stranger who sheltered Darvish Khan and his family was only a temporary relief in the harsh life of this family. Meanwhile, an event that should not have happened occurs. Darvish Khan: "After a few days in this man's house, my wife started bleeding; for five and a half hours, my child and I sat and watched my wife bleed. My wife was weak and unconscious, and my child kept crying. That man couldn't do anything; he said you have no insurance card or number, how can I take you to the hospital, no one will accept you. Then he called a woman he knew until we managed to get an ambulance with her responsibility and take my wife to the hospital. But unfortunately, it was too late, and the doctor said your baby has fallen, and if you had brought your wife any later, there would have been no hope for her either." Days pass, and the parks of the city become a shelter for Darvish Khan and his family, and humanitarian aid from those around them becomes their sustenance. In a nearby city, other refugees have set up tents in front of the municipality for several days in protest of their situation and are on hunger strike. Darvish Khan seizes the opportunity and reaches this city to perhaps make his voice heard louder alongside other refugees. Darvish Khan: "This time, we had no place to go. There was no news from the man who helped us. We spent nearly twenty to thirty nights on the streets. The municipality of Zwolle came and said that it is not allowed for a small child to sleep outside. I said if it is not allowed, why did you expel us from the camp? With a thousand pleas, they sent us back to a refugee quarantine camp, a camp where every day they come and say you must return to Iran. I tell them I have problems; they say the Dutch Immigration Office does not believe you. I discuss my problem with every lawyer; they do not accept my case at all. Until I had to call Amnesty International, then they said unfortunately, Amnesty International cannot accept you either. I said why? They said because you are a refugee. I said I am a refugee, but I am a human being. Now I had to apply through Amnesty International in England." Ultimately, Darvish Khan takes his painful life story to global human rights organizations. In fact, he begins waiting again from the beginning. In the next part of the Hidden Roads documentary, we will go to the refugee accommodation camps in Germany.