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(CNN)I
would have done anything to get to Europe. It was worth the risk, the
bad treatment and the fear, hard as that may be to believe. Simply put, I
have a better life now than I did before.
But my journey across the Mediterranean, like those of thousands of other migrants, wasn't easy. Here's my story.
It
all started late last year when I lost my job in Dubai. My work visa
had expired, and I had nowhere else to go. I'm Syrian, and returning to
Syria wasn't an option -- going back means you either have to kill or be
killed.
Moutassem Yazbek
But
Syrians don't need visas to get into Turkey, so Turkey it was. I
arrived in the country in December with an old dream in my mind:
reaching Europe.
While in Istanbul, I
discovered many Facebook pages about illegal smuggling from Turkey to
Italy by sea. All of them mentioned that Mersin, a port city on the
southern border, was the jump off point, so I made my way there.
I
met a Syrian guy in a hotel in Mersin who had already paid money to one
smuggler and was planning to depart within a few days. He told me his
smuggler was a decent man with a great reputation.
Reputation:
It was a funny thing to hear for the first time, the thought that these
people, who I always considered to be little more than criminals, were
concerned about what people thought of them. But why wouldn't they be?
It's a long-term business, and the Syrian conflict isn't ending anytime
soon. So I decided to meet the guy.
We
spoke about terms of payment and agreed on a fee of $6,500. Some of the
money would be deposited into an insurance company, with the usual
transaction fees. When I reached Italy the money would be released to
the smuggler -- or, if I changed my mind, I'd be able to get some of it
back.
"Be
ready all day, every day for the next few days, because you might
receive the call to go," the smuggler told me. One evening a few days
later, I got the call and my journey began.
They
gathered 100 men and women in five buses and drove us to the smuggling
point. It was far from Mersin. We walked for 30 minutes, through rough
terrain and orange farms near the beach, in darkness to avoid detection
by police.
The idea was to take us in
three small boats to the main ship. I still remember an old lady, barely
able to walk, with her two sons, marching along as fast as they could
to try to reach the boats. They were told that if they didn't walk
faster, the boat would leave without them.
I
asked myself so many time what could possibly drive a normal person to
put himself and his family in this kind of danger. I decided that anyone
with a past but no future was capable of doing crazy things.
Finally
we reached the boat. It was just as the smuggler described. For three
days we waited in the boat for two other parties of 100 people to join
us before departing. We were in the middle of the Mediterranean, far
enough away from the surrounding countries to be in international
waters.
On the fourth day we started
our journey with a mix of excitement and fear -- fear that this madness
often ends in tragedy, ends with us as numbers piled on top of all the
other unfortunate, nameless numbers who never made it to the other side.
But there was no going back -- it's a one-way ticket.
We
sailed for eight hours before the boat's engine broke down. There were
around 300 of us on board, and as the waves began to push us towards
Cyprus the crew sent a distress signal, hoping to alert maybe a U.N. or
Red Cross boat, anyone who could help us.
Eventually
our boat hit a cliff and got stuck. Luckily, before long, a Cypriot
coast guard ship arrived to rescue us and deport us back to Turkey.
Turkish authorities fingerprinted and released us within a few hours.
Some
of the people I had been traveling with said they weren't going to try
to make the trip again. When they asked me what I planned to do, I told
them I would do it again tomorrow if I could -- another journey through a
sea where no prayer works, where no one is bigger than nature, where
you can feel so small, no matter how big your dreams are.
I'd
already lost everything. My family didn't know what I was doing, but I
dreamed of being a human being who is treated like one. I wasn't going
to stop.
So I called the smuggler the same night I was released, and said I wanted to get on the next ship out.
Two days later I received the call, and........READ THE REST AT CNN
