The desperate road to Greece is a graveyard for migrants

Since 2015, over a million people have crossed over from Turkey to Athens on illegal routes

A migrant waits to sneak through the fence in the northern town of Fnideq in an attempt to cross the border from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (EPA)

This article first appeared on our partner site, Independent Arabia

“He wanted to emigrate to help us financially. He knocked on every door in Morocco, but still couldn’t find a job,” says the mother of a young man (HS) who lost his life trying to cross the border to Bosnia. “He found it difficult to accept me supporting the family while he was unemployed, so he sacrificed his life for us.

“I don’t even know the circumstances in which he died. We could not even find his body. His Algerian companion phoned me to inform me of his death.”

HS was 28 years old and had travelled to Turkey, hoping to cross the border from there to a European country. Like other young men, he believed that the road was safe and that he would be able to achieve his dream of crossing the border, finding work and helping out his family.

In closed Facebook groups, Moroccan youths hoping to emigrate illegally obtain phone numbers for smugglers who help them cross the border. Once the young men land in a European country, they post videos on YouTube explaining how they made the journey and provide the contact details of the smuggler who helped them. Since 2015, more than a million people have made the journey from Turkey to Athens, with smugglers pocketing $10 billion, according to Turkish media.

Facebook Emigration Groups

While Morocco is only a few kilometres away from Spain, tight border security has led Moroccan youths to look for alternative routes. They head instead to Turkey with the aim of crossing into Europe through the Balkans.

Recently, a young man posted a video in a Facebook group for young people looking to move abroad about the death of a Moroccan migrant he knew, saying he was looking for the phone number of the man’s family to contact them. The families of migrants who have disappeared also resort to these Facebook pages and groups in search of their lost children.

Turkey allows Moroccan nationals to stay up to 90 days without a visa. This has given a boost to people-smuggling activity there, with most smugglers exploiting the aspirations of young people to reach Europe and charging around €5,000 to cross from Turkey to Greece.

In closed Facebook groups, migrants instruct each other on how to travel the Balkan road by foot, hide under trucks, and cross from Greece to Macedonia and then onto Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia to reach Slovenia.

Slovenian police data shows that during the first nine months of 2019, more than 952 Moroccans and 1,590 Algerians arrived in Slovenia illegally. Nationals of Maghreb (northwest African) countries top the list of asylum seekers, according to the data.

Rashid, a 26-year-old Moroccan, is still trapped in Slovenia. He is planning to cross through via woodland and reach safety. Speaking to Independent Arabia on the phone about his experience, he says, “Death finds its way to you. If you survive hunger in the woods, you may drown while crossing the river. You might get robbed, or suffer violence at the hands of ruthless border guards.”

Egyptian volunteer buries Muslim migrants

"Some migrants die while crossing the Evros river into Greece,” Rashid adds. On the Greek island of Lesbos, there is a graveyard for Muslim migrants who perished during the crossing after smugglers deceived them into believing they would reach European shores safely.

In that graveyard, Mustafa Dawa, a 32-year-old Egyptian man, volunteers to bury the dead. He moved to Greece to study Greek literature and works in translation. He volunteers to bury Muslims in a makeshift cemetery inside an olive grove.

Mustafa washes the deceased and shrouds them according to Islamic rites. He prays for them before laying them to rest and hopes that their families manage to find their graves.

In October 2015, Mustafa was working as an interpreter for migrants inside the camps on Lesbos. After three migrant boats sank, the bodies of Muslim migrants were buried in a small section of the Saint Panteleimon church cemetery. With the increase in the number of dead from the boats from Turkey to Greece, the cemetery was soon full.

He then decided to pressure the municipality into providing a burial plot for unidentified Muslim migrants, on the provision that he would bury them by himself. On their headstones, he writes their age and gender. No one knows who these people are.

The families of those who go missing reach out to him, as he is the only person who has information on those buried there.

The number of anonymous bodies buried in this makeshift graveyard is rising, and the responsibilities shouldered by Mustafa are increasing. Despite this, 35-year-old Moroccan national Nawfal still wants to travel to Turkey and embark on this perilous onward journey to Greece. The young man is adamant about travelling, despite knowing that many have lost their lives this way. “I am very aware that there is a big chance I may die. But there is also a small chance I will succeed in migrating to Europe and finding work there.”

‘I fear death but I have no other recourse’

“In this neighbourhood,” Nawfal adds, “the only thing we talk about is how to cross over to Europe. We gather information on social media to avoid being conned. Despite all the challenges, we try to get there.”

Asked about his reasons for emigrating, Nawfal says: “After graduating from university, I could not find a job. My only hope was finding a public sector job, but Morocco issued a new law banning men over 30 from entering teaching. This is why it would be better for me to risk my life.”

When asked if he was worried about dying during the crossing, Nawfal explains: “Yes, I am afraid of dying but I have no other solution. Being unemployed, at home and a burden on the family is also a kind of death. It is an indescribable, bitter death.”

Social media has contributed to an increase in the number of Maghrebi youth wishing to cross into Europe through the Balkans. Many YouTube pages and channels persuade young people that illegal immigration into Europe is the solution they seek.

Reviewed by Tooba Ali and Celine Assaf