Refugee

Chapter Eighteen - Lost.

“What you think happened to Amar?” Samir looked at Firas, but he knew he didn't know. He thought maybe he might have an idea, because Samir couldn't understand why they had been separated.

“I don't know any more than you.”

They were not alone in their cell, there was another kid. Another refugee, he looked to be about the same age as Samir.

“Was your friend older?” The other boy spoke up, looking across at them a little uncertain.

“Yes,” Firas turned towards the boy, studying him. “He was the oldest of the three of us.”

“Nearly eighteen,” Samir added.

“They treat the men different.”

“Different, what do you mean?” Firas wanted to know why they would treat Amar different just for being a bit older.

“He's not eighteen yet,” Samir pointed out.

“Yeah, I know, you already said. Doesn't matter, eighteen or nearly eighteen. They must have put him with the adults if he's not here.”

“Why?”

“Cos they can refuse the adult refugees. They can try to send them back to Turkey. That's what they would like to do.”

“How do you know all this?” Firas stared at the boy.

Samir felt an uneasy feeling in his stomach, like butterflies. What would he do if Amar got sent back.

“What happens to us?” Samir desperately wanted to know what would happen.

The boy smiled at Samir, he could see he was upset. “I don't know. But they can't treat us the same. They can't send children back.” There was a silence that descended in the cell. Each one was reflecting on their situation, trying to make sense of things.

“I know,” the boy broke the silence, “because they put my cousin on a boat back to Turkey.”

“What's your name?” Firas wanted to somehow lighten the mood.

“Rifat.”

“How old are you?”

“Nearly fourteen.”

“You’re the same age as me,” Samir told him.

For the next hour they exchanged stories, telling Rifat how they had arrived in Greece. He in turn related his own history. Rifat paid a passage in a large inflatable, he was with his cousin, the one who had been sent back to Turkey last time. His parents stayed in Turkey, his father did not have enough money to pay for the whole family. He had been here two days, and had not seen his cousin since they both got picked up at the ferry.

There were some similarities in the last part of their stories, Rifat and his cousin also bought tickets for the mainland and had been stopped when they were about to go on the ferry.

“How long do you think we will be here? Locked up like this?” Firas was pacing up and down.

“My cousin told me that the first time it happened he was in a cell for a couple of days, but it's already that long. After, he was in some sort of army camp place. Then about two weeks later, my cousin and the other men, were taken and put on a ferry. They were told they were going to the mainland, but it was soon obvious they were heading in the opposite direction, back to Turkey.”

Rifat put his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hands.

“Have you been alone here all the time?” Firas asked sympathetically.