- Text size
| 
| 
| 
-
Danish Refugee Council
NGO Directory, 27 October 2011
Address:
Borgergade 10, 3rd Floor
P.O. Box 53
1300 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Tel: +45 33 73 50 00
Fax: +45 33 32 84 48
Email: id@drc.dk
Web: www.drc.dk
UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency
Related Stories
- Mediterranean crisis sees former Vietnamese boat person break long silence
- Syria Crisis: UNHCR urges European Union states to honour their asylum system principles
- Statelessness Q&A: Canada helps ex-Dane out of Bermuda triangle
- More than 5,000 refugees resettled from Nepal
- Denmark's Crown Princess Mary visits UNHCR headquarters
UNHCR country pages
Jihan's Story
Like millions, 34-year-old Jihan was willing to risk everything in order to escape war-torn Syria and find safety for her family. Unlike most, she is blind.
Nine months ago, she fled Damascus with her husband, Ashraf, 35, who is also losing his sight. Together with their two sons, they made their way to Turkey, boarding a boat with 40 others and setting out on the Mediterranean Sea. They hoped the journey would take eight hours. There was no guarantee they would make it alive.
After a treacherous voyage that lasted 45 hours, the family finally arrived at a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, called Milos - miles off course. Without support or assistance, they had to find their own way to Athens.
The police detained them for four days upon their arrival. They were cautioned to stay out of Athens, as well as three other Greek cities, leaving them stranded.
By now destitute and exhausted, the family were forced to split up - with Ashraf continuing the journey northwards in search of asylum and Jihan taking their two sons to Lavrion, an informal settlement about an hour's drive from the Greek capital.
Today, Jihan can only wait to be reunited with her husband, who has since been granted asylum in Denmark. The single room she shares with her two sons, Ahmed, 5, and Mohammad, 7, is tiny, and she worries about their education. Without an urgent, highly complex corneal transplant, her left eye will close forever.
"We came here for a better life and to find people who might better understand our situation," she says, sadly. "I am so upset when I see how little they do [understand]."
