Danish shares his story with us through the audio article presented by Migratory Birds in a mini-podcast.
My name is Danish. My village is Kuthiala Shaikhan, it is in Mandi Bahauddin district in Punjab. I left my country Pakistan on 7/8/2020. I left my country Pakistan firstly because there is poverty there and secondly because they don’t respect people there. You don’t know when they can kill a man. That’s the situation in Pakistan.
I left my country and came to Iran. When I arrived in Iran I was harassed and physically abused. Twice I was kidnapped and I had to give them money to let me go. Then I got out of Iran and we came to Turkey. At the border they beat us, then after we crossed the border, they kidnapped us again and we gave them money. Then I entered Turkey and stayed there for about a year.
I was trying for a year to enter Greece. I couldn’t get across by boat. Every time I was caught. The 9th time I got on the boat, I crossed into Greece and went to Tripoli. That’s where the boat capsized. Then we went out on the road and were caught by the police. We didn’t know how to talk, neither we nor they. They registered me as an adult and sent me to prison in Corinth. I stayed there for about a year. There were other Pakistanis in the prison and they continue to spend their lives there.
We don’t come to this country because we like it, we come because of necessity. I am young in age. Who leaves his mother and father and leaves? That’s the right age to study. That’s why I left my country, so that I could be a support for my family. To be a sacrifice so they can eat twice a day. We live in this country now. You never know when you might die. I don’t know if I’ll ever see the people I left behind…
That’s why I want to share all of this through Migratory Birds, so that everyone in this country understands that we didn’t come because we like it, but we came because of need. We were very much in need, that’s why we left our country.
When you are young, no one’s heart goes out to leave his mother and father. Do you understand? We came here to be a support for those left behind. That’s why I’m saying all this because I want everyone to know that we came here out of necessity…
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