I lost my brother who probably died at sea, says a refugee from Afghanistan
Published: Oct 1, 2015 Reading time: 1 minute
Twenty-nine-year-old Masi is from the Afghan province of Logar. He worked for the US military and various international organizations in Afghanistan. “Being Pashtun and working for foreigners is a terrible sin, according to radicals. So I was threatened with death because of it. First I went to Kabul, but even there I was threatened,” describes Masi.
One day Masi decided to leave with a group of people who flew to Tehran, Iran. “From Tehran we walked on foot. During the day we slept and at night we marched up to Turkey,” says Masi. We got to Greece on a boat. On the boat, Masi explains that they “stuffed us on with 25 adults and five tiny children. We crossed the sea in three hours,” says Masi. In addition, a tragedy took place. “I lost a brother who was trying to get to Italy. I do not know what happened or whether he is dead. My best guess is that he probably drowned while sailing on a boat,” says Masi as he stands in an old brick factory in Northern Serbia. He is about to go cross the border into Hungary on the way to Western Europe.