“I miss everything about Baghdad: My neighbours, going to school, and playing football with my friends in the afternoons. Our family lived in a 300 m2 house. This was enough space for my parents, my five brothers, my two sisters, and me. But when I was 19, terrorists came to our area and told us that they would kill us if we didn’t leave. They murdered some of our friends. My family went to Mosul, but eventually, the terrorists came to Mosul too and we had to go to Turkey.
My father loves us very much and wanted us to be far away from the terrorists, but he was afraid of sending his children across the sea from Turkey to Greece. So at first, he only sent two of my brothers. When they arrived safely in Europe, he sent the next two. When my parents learned that all six of us had survived the journey, they were very happy. My two younger sisters are still in Turkey, but I don’t want them to come here illegally. I would fear for their lives, because I know how dangerous the journey is.
All of my five brothers are in Austria now, but we are not together. Even my brother Mustafa, who journeyed with me, got sent to a different part of Austria. I would like to have a home together with my brothers. I don’t understand why they separated us.
I want to build a family of my own someday – I’d like to have two daughters and three sons. But mostly I hope the war ends so I will be able to go back to Iraq. I dream of seeing everything again: My relatives, my family, and the place where we used to play football.”