The effect of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East from 2003 up until the current
conflict in Syria continues.
For most European residents, these wars are a distant image reported in the news.
And yet, more recently, many Europeans have now seen the Middle East refugees firsthand,
arriving en masse on the islands of the eastern Aegean as they search for a safer environment.
One day before sailing, we left Istanbul on 27th of October, in a 12 hours long trip
by bus with a lot of stops.
At 8, we arrived at the province of Tsanakale.
Around 2.30, the boat took off to Greece.
It broke after 20 minutes of sailing.
Unlike movies, it did not sink gradually, it rather broke and totally sank.
It carried 300 people mostly from families and children and a few men.
I was with my cousin Ali and my friend's family.
As I said, after 20 minutes of sailing, the boat totally broke at once.
I was on the upper deck which broke and fell on the down one.
Of course, all of us fell in water at once.
Actually, I did not have a life jacket.
It was tragic that most people did not have any life jackets, not even a little children.
When we first fell in water, many people drowned.
I kept swimming, yelling, early, early, and looking from him.
But he disappeared the minute we fell in water.
I was lucky to catch one wooden piece from the boat and hung on it.
We stayed in water for nearly half an hour, with many corpses floating and people dying
around us.
The waves rose higher and it was getting dark, until the coast guards and two fisherman boats
came for rescue.
The rescue was very difficult as waves were very high and were taking people away from
the boats, which couldn't approach.
I was holding the wooden piece for almost three hours until I was rescued.
Even by sea proved to be especially dangerous, as thousands of refugees drowned in their
attempt to flee from the conflict at home.
Despite the risks, refugees continue to flee to Europe.
In Greece itself, institutional mechanisms have not been in place to cope with the scale
of the refugee drownings.
One example of this is the process of identifying and burying the deceased.
The Greek government has not demonstrated the required capacity to shield the families
of the deceased from the pain of not knowing the fate of their loved ones.
A fair amount of facts which could have been used in the identification of bodies remains
underutilized.
There was an absence of coordination of government agencies and organization.
This absence contributed to the increase of missing and unidentified dead.
I was taking the Greece to a coastal port of a small city called Volvos.
There I started looking for Ali.
I went to the other coastal port.
There I discovered that Mustafa, whose family was with me, was also disappeared.
I kept searching here and there and also visited the hospital but did not find them.
I then contacted an English-speaker journalist at the UN who took me to specialists in finding
missing people.
Next day these people took us to Moria Camp in Metellini.
After that the real tragedy started by taking us, me and Mustafa's family, over 10 days
to identify the corpses from our boat.
I have seen 84 corpses so far, 4 to 5 and sometimes 10 or 15 corpses a day.
I also talked to my cousin in Germany and asked him to go to Turkey and search there
for 10 days but did not find anyone.
He came back to Greece and together we went to Red Cross.
A specialized section for missing people.
I presented them papers, names, information but nothing happened since then.
Then I went to Greece Coast Guards who helped me a lot and took me also to the hospital
mortuary.
While I was searching for Ali corpses I identified Mustafa's.
In Greece the Red Cross requested the sample of my husband's DNA but I could not secure
it because his family lives in Syria and I was not blood related to him.
Till my brother-in-law recently sent me a hair sample which I presented to the Red Cross
in Sweden who refused to give me any information unless they contract their office in Greece
first.
So they gave me my files number in both Sweden and Greece and told me that if I needed to
contact them later I should give them my files number for any updates.
Nonetheless, I constantly call and send them emails but they do not reply.
They should search harder.
They only searched in the first two days after the incident and when the corpses were recovered
they stopped searching anymore.
When I asked the police they said that they don't have any information about him without
even paying any efforts.
They shut me out from the very beginning.
They say they are waiting news from hospitals but they don't search for him personally.
I published his photos in all hospitals, police stations and prisons but he has not been seen
yet.
I told them.
Perhaps he had received a strong hit on his head and was in coma in some hospital, lost
his memory or was detained.
They could not forget him, he is still living with them, you cannot live on hope, otherwise
it would kill you.
I know it would be extremely difficult and would destroy them but it would be better
if they found Alice's corpse, it would somehow relive his family.
My life priorities changed after what we have been through.
I had permanent insomnia and breathlessness for the first time.
The doctor said it was mental illness resulted from a tragedy and requires treatment.
I see Ali and Mustafa in my dreams, even if I sleep 3 or 5 hours a day.
It became a routine to see the corpses from the hospital, especially the extremely foreign
ones.
The minute I close my eyes I would inevitably remember them.
I see photos and corpses that were floating around me in water.
It is unbelievable not to know whether he is alive or dead.
Until recently most of the dead were buried at Mithilini Cemetery without any procedure
in place for future identification.
The only indication of the graves themselves are some broken pieces of marble inscribed
with numbers and burial dates.
In recent years the situation seems to have improved.
The pressure of local organizations combined with increasing numbers of victims have been
a driving factor.
