“Why do we get killed?

I don’t understand it. We just want to be left in peace and don’t want to hurt anybody. Please, give us a reason why you are killing us. We didn’t do anything.

The killers came to my town in Pakistan with lots of explosives. One bomb exploded nearby, so I ran to the roof of my house. There was dust and smoke everywhere and when I got down to see what had happened, I saw hands and other body parts lying around. I cried and was so scared. Nobody can have a life in such a place.

My mum said to me that I should leave the country and that I am my family’s only hope. Our father had died when I was a kid.

All I wish for is love and peace, and to be with my younger brother and my mother. That’s all I need. It was so difficult to leave them behind in such bad conditions, but we didn’t have enough money for the three of us. To pay my journey, my mother sold the house. She lives with relatives now.

My happiest moments of my life were when I was at home with my mother and she cooked for me. My mother is my world. She taught me to behave myself and not to fight, especially when I go to another country.

I would like to be a cricket player in England. The leaders of Pakistan are bad, but the cricket players are really good. They play with their hearts. But England won’t take refugees anymore, so now I am in Austria. I can play football here, which I wasn’t able to do in Pakistan because there were no football fields in our town.

I loved going to school and learned English at an institute. In Pakistan, the schools are not good enough. There are not enough teachers or proper facilities. But going to school is not just about getting an education; it’s also about finding friends and growing up. They should have schools in the refugee camps, then we could try our best to get an education.

Religion is important for me. But everybody should follow their own beliefs and it doesn’t matter if you are Muslim, Hindu or something else.”