Podcast

Ladan, along with five other Somalis, decided to travel to Greece from Egypt with the help of human smugglers. But the journey at sea quickly turned into a nightmare for both her and the other refugees and migrants on the ship.

Community submission

Community submission.

Abdi was 17 when he embarked on his irregular journey in 2014. He felt the need to leave Somalia due to what he describes as a difficult situation—living in a war-torn area. Abdi left on his own, leaving his family behind, with an aim of getting to Europe. Despite allowing him to embark on the journey, Abdi’s family was oblivious of the dangers associated with it.

28 year old Bashiir is quietly seated in the room of a refugee center in Berlin. His demeanor is that of a person who feels out of place and isolated. His towering figure is hunched in a state of resignation, as if giving in to a battle.

In 2012 Rahel left Eritrea for Sudan, where she lived for four years working menial jobs to raise money for the journey. She lived on the bare minimum and struggled to make ends meet. In 2014, with a one year old child and another one on the way, she decided to embark on the infamous, arduous journey through the Sahara to the Mediterranean.

“Ever since the journey I keep asking myself, was it worth it? If my life had been lost in one of these ordeals, Allah would have held me accountable,” laments Mohammed, an Eritrean refugee living in Germany.

Ibrahim Abdi is 16 years old and was born in the city of Jijiga in the Somali region of Ethiopia. He decided to take the hazardous journey to Europe to pursue a better life.

Jama has just received word from the Swedish Migration Agency that he will be deported to Italy, where he originally registered as an asylum seeker. Like many refugees disappointed by the limited opportunities and provisions in Italy, he chose to try his luck by traveling north. Now his luck has run out.

Irregular migration,  tahriib in Somali, has a horrible effect on the communities that are left behind, both financially and psychologically. This is less discussed by the community or in the media. Families suffer in silence and rarely have the opportunity to talk about the effects of Tahriib on those left at home.