"When the soldiers come in your apartment, it's over."
Tarik Demirovic, 41, grew up in the picturesque former Yugoslav town of Mostar, on the Neretva River. Twenty years ago, when Bosnia-Herzegovina descended into civil war, he tried to stay on, growing accustomed to the danger and the new reality. But eventually he was faced with a stark choice: stay in the city that he loved but risk his well-being and possibly the lives of his family, or escape with them to a country that he did not know and start anew. Demirovic chose to leave. His family received refugee status from the UNHCR office in Mostar. He himself traveled first to Germany and then on to Norway, which had accepted his family as resettled refugees. As a new arrival in Norway, Tarik did not speak the language, but quickly found work on a farm and went on to flourish in his adopted home. Demirovic is currently director of Manpower Professional Engineering, an Oslo-based consultancy with more than 38,000 professionals employed daily in 80 countries around the world. He is married with two children. "It's very difficult to leave your home." he told us. "But when the soldiers come in your apartment, it's over. There is really a question about life and death. My decision was to become a refugee." To learn more about refugees visit: www.unhcr.org
