Communications: Refugee children growing up early

Athens, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Refugee children who grew up early

Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yongqiu Chen Zhanjie

On the road near Idomeini, about 360 kilometers north of Athens, there are groups of exhausted-looking refugees walking. After the Greek police dismantled the Idomeini camp, they did not want to go to the government-set camp, but chose to flee to the nearby illegal camp. Many of these refugees are children, with the older ones carrying or dragging their bags with their parents and the younger carrying their toys. A life of displacement deprives children of the right to spoil their parents prematurely and must learn to take care of themselves and even their families.

Since the outbreak of the European refugee crisis in 2015, the fate of children who have been interrupted by war and forced to flee their homes has been heart-wrenching. On the eve of Children's Day, Xinhua News Agency reporters came to the border areas of northern Greece and Macedonia to visit refugee children living and wandering in this area.

Over the past year, the northern region of Greece, centered on Idomeini, has been the main route for refugees from Greece to the rest of Europe via the Western Balkan countries, and one of the most concentrated areas for refugees.

The Lagadikia refugee camp, about 300 kilometers north of Athens, was established by the United Nations and the Greek government as a former barracks with 192 tents and nearly 900 people.

In his office, in a simple tin house in the camp's work area, Mohammed, a 9-year-old boy from Syria, is helping volunteers divide meal tickets, dividing breakfast, lunch and dinner tickets into stacks. His little face was a little dirty, but his expression was serious and focused. "1, 2, 3, 4..." He counted in Greek.

"He's a nice little boy," said Helen, a staff member. Muhammad couldn't understand English, but he read the compliments in Helen's body language and smiled happily.

Mohammed's father told Xinhua that his family lived in Aleppo and that they had fled from one place to another to escape the fighting. Muhammad did not go to school and did not have regular friends and playmates. His parents eventually decided to take him on a flight to Europe, where they landed on the Greek island of Samos, from where they traveled to Idomeini on the border between Greece and Macedonia, where he was finally sent to the Lagadikia refugee camp.

From his arrival in Greece, Muhammad began studying English, Greek, mathematics and other courses in the camp's schools. Although the school conditions were rudimentary and the curriculum was intermittent, it was started after all.

According to statistics, there are currently 5.5 stranded in Greece. Of the 50,000 refugees, about 2. 20,000 are children, who have been out of school for an average of 1.5 years.

Compared with Muhammad's family of three, the Aya family's experience is more tortuous.

Aya, 19, is the eldest daughter in the family, and her 18-year-old sister Eñas helped her mother Asma flee from Syria to Greece with her 4 sisters and 2 4-year-old twin brothers.

Aya's family lived in a village near Aleppo, and although life was not rich, the family of ten was happy until the outbreak of war. Aya's dad, who works in the construction industry, died in a blast 3 years ago, and the children's learning and life were severely affected.

"If there had been no war, I'd rather stay in Syria ... Above our village, at most 24 planes were flying, and bombs kept falling," Aya recalled her life in her hometown.

With no end in sight, Asma decided to flee to Europe with her children. After the death of her husband, life in the family became increasingly difficult. To raise money, Asma sold everything in the house, including clothes.

On the Syrian-Turkish border, Aya's family walked for 3 days and finally reached the Turkish coast. After handing over $3,700 to the smuggler, the family of nine, along with more than 30 other refugees, boarded a smuggling boat and reached the Greek island of Chios in heavy rain.

When Aya's family arrived on Chios Island at 3 a.m. on March 19, they were only 21 hours away from the EU's refugee deal with Turkey. Under the Agreement, reached on March 18, refugees and migrants arriving in Greece will be held in closed camps on various Greek islands from March 20 and will not be able to travel to the Greek mainland. Those who do not meet the requirements for refugee applications will be repatriated to Turkey.

After only one day on chios, Aya's family traveled through Athens and Thessaloniki, arriving in Idomeini on 21 March. By this time, the Balkan countries had closed their borders one after another, and they could not continue their journey to Europe. Idomeini was in poor condition, and the family came to the Lagadikia refugee camp in slightly better conditions.

Aya and her eldest sister, Enas, both had a good foundation in English and began teaching English, Arabic and math to children in refugee camps so that those who could not go to school because of the war could continue to receive education to some extent. Younger children can participate in activities such as singing, painting and play organized by the camps.

Conditions in the Lagadikia refugee camp are better than Idomeni's, but the tent where the family of nine lives is still very torturous. "Very hot in the tent in the morning and very cold in the evening. When it rains, the tent floor is covered with water, and clothes and blankets are soaked in the water," Aya said.

Despite the hardships of life, Aya and her siblings have not given up on their dreams: Aya wants to be a doctor, Arnas wants to be an English teacher in the future, 14-year-old Ravan wants to be an Arabic teacher...

Aya has two uncles in Belgium and two others in Germany, and the family hopes to go to both countries. But under the EU's Refugee Resettlement Program, they cannot choose their destination.

At the end of the interview, the reporter asked Aya about their favorite Arabic song. Thus, the familiar melody of "Happy Clap Your Hand Song" sounded in the small tent: "If you feel happy, clap your hands... If you feel happy you stomp your feet..." (end)