Refugee Crisis

Apr 11

“ISIS looks for any reason to punish you. If they saw me with my face shaved, they’d punish me. If they saw me with these jeans, they’d punish me. Two of them walked into my electronics shop, and they asked me why my beard was so short. I tried to make an excuse about having just returned from vacation, but they said: ‘Come with us.’ I begged them to forgive me, but they took me to the judge and I was sentenced to three days of digging tunnels at the airport. They told me that they’d come get me when it was time. When they came to my house, I was hiding, so they took my neighbors instead. Everyone they took that day was killed by American planes.”

More from this series

Series Storage

“My father loved children. But I was his favorite because I was the small one.”

“The army searched our house six times. The first two times they knocked on the door.”

“I’m sixty-two years old. I was a government clerk in Baghdad.”

“I lived in Mosul for five months under ISIS. I tried to avoid trouble but one of my neighbors reported me for shaving my beard”

“I studied to be a teacher, but I’m young, so I knew I’d be forced to fight.”

“I wish I could have done more for her. Her life has been nothing but struggle.”

“My husband and I sold everything we had to afford the journey.”

“There is no security in Baghdad. We lived in constant fear.”

“ISIS looks for any reason to punish you.”

“The extent to which refugee children have been conditioned by their environment is heartbreaking.”

“A friend called me at work and told me that a sniper had shot my youngest brother.”

“I’m working as an interpreter. I know what these people are going through. “

“I worked as a waiter in Saudi Arabia for seven years to save money so that I could build a house in Syria.”

“I saw the army burn my neighbor’s house. They set it on fire and took photographs while it burned.”

“Every month we had to go to Baghdad to get my son’s eyes treated.”

“Before leaving for Europe, I went back to Syria to see my family once more.”

Adam Parks https://apollocreativeco.com