Naleen holds her two-month-old son, Pulat, during the ferry journey from Lesvos to Athens. UNHCR/And

Naleen holds her two-month-old son, Pulat, during the ferry journey from Lesvos to Athens. UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

The Long Journey        

After explosions rock their home in Syria, a young family set out on a perilous journey in search of sanctuary in northern Europe.

As the outboard motor on the small Zodiac started cutting out, the waves battering its starboard side pushing it back towards Turkey, Dara Mohammed began to regret taking his family on this voyage.

Crammed with 40 people, the tiny vessel was fighting an angry sea on its course towards Europe.

The 29-year-old Syrian had paid the smuggler he found in Izmir US$2,500 to transport his family of four to what he hoped would be safety. The smuggler assured them all would go well.

But the night had turned the aquamarine waters of the Aegean black.

Dara pressed his two-year-old daughter, Lamar, to his chest and pulled his wife, Naleen, who was holding their baby son, Pulat, close.

Little Lamar kept silent, recognising the fear in her mother’s eyes as the small Zodiac struggled towards the Greek island of Lesvos. The two-year-old had seen this same fear before, when explosions shook their house in Syria. She saw it again as they fled for their lives soon afterwards, and she had seen it many times since.

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