Welcome to Finland

Ahmed was walking with some immigrants from 8 pm to 4 am beside the railway tracks until they reached to the Hungarian border. They saw a light from a long distance, so they lied on the ground until the light faded as they knew that the light came from the border guards.

The Hungarian border was surrounded by barbed wires and behind that fence were police border and security personel who are well-known of treating immigrants

badly. There was no food, water, or anything. Ahmad hung his clothes on a tree because they were wet by the rain.

While he was searching the area for some water to drink or something to eat and thinking how he could flee, he found a gap in the fence that he could pass through to Hungary. As he went through it, the border guards saw him from a far distance and threw a truncheon at him. He tried to run quickly half-naked through corn fields and he didn’t stop or turn his face to glimpse behind him even if he was hit in his back by than truncheon.

He ran fast for about three kilometers until he saw a man who waved a black flag on a long stick and shouted to him: ”help! help! help!” Ahmad knew that the old

man was trying to say that he could help him, but he could not trust that strange man and was afraid that the man would hand him over to the Hungarian police.

The man continued to shout ”come on, I will help you. I have food”. Ahmad decided to accept the man’s offer. The man was so kind and helpful. He gave Ahmed clothes to wear, water and some food. Moreover, he arranged a taxi for him and a group of other immigrants. They then shared the cost of 250 dollars for the taxi to drive them to Budapest.

In Budapest they joined another group of immigrants who were headed for Germany and together they caught mini bus to Germany. The mini bus was driving so fast and in a crazy way, so the immigrants asked him why he was driving in this improper way. The driver replied that he had not slept for five days, and that he was afraid of falling asleep.

Then, they travelled to Munich by train. After having arrived some of them applied for asylum while a few immigrants preferred to continue their way to Finland through a train to Denmark, a bus and another train to Sweden.

At 2 am he arrived to Helsinki and went directly to the police office to apply for asylum. He was asked about his identity information, and he was barely able to answer because he was really exhausted due to the long trip which took about 21 days without any break or any time to have a rest.

He ended his story with these words: ”I wish this would be my last destination and that I would never be an immigrant again. I have had the most difficult moments in my life. I was near death several times; once in my country and twice on my way to Finland.”

This is a brief real story of an immigrant who was lucky to be able to tell it himself. Many other stories have been covered under the sea or buried in the ground with together with their character’s soul.

One of immigrants,

Ammar Al-Kaysi