Yara
Yara, a 28 year-old woman from Syria, remembers 'homes' that no longer physically exist:
"My family doesn’t have money. All of their houses were destroyed. And every member is living somewhere. Their situation was very very very difficult. I want one thing, that God protects my family. That they stay well. I traveled, and my entire thinking is about them. The area that we were staying in, almost all of the houses were destroyed and almost everything was destroyed. I speak to them every day and I check up on them. Their situation is very difficult."
In this blogpost an unaccompanied minor describes his journey to Europe, and reflects on being separated from his family - for several months, as he was unable to contact his mother, she believed that he had died. In her response to this testimony, Vicki Squire discusses the failure of Europe 'to address the rights of those it renders most precarious', particularly unaccompanied minors within reception centres.
Elliniko, an informal refugee camp in Athens – image by Vicki Squire, copyright CTM
VICKI SQUIRE
This extract is from an interview conducted during the summer of 2016 as part of the Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat project, which was led by Vicki Squire: www.warwick.ac.uk/crossingthemed. Fuller stories from which these excerpts are taken can be explored here: https://crossing-the-med-map.warwick.ac.uk/