A refugee family's journey from Syria to north Cork
A man sits in the meeting room of the Patrician Academy, a secondary school in Mallow, Co Cork. He’s here to talk about his 16-year-old son.
The boy, an avid Real Madrid fan who likes to draw, isn’t here — his transition year class have gone for driving lessons, something he has been looking forward to.
Normally, a parent being summoned to his son’s school is a sign the boy has done something wrong, but not in this instance.
In fact, the man sitting at the polished wood boardroom table is here at his son’s request — to tell how the boy is the one who has been wronged, along with his whole family.
The man’s name is Ahamad Al Raai and he is here to tell how he, his son Ahmed, and the rest of their family ended up in north Cork, having fled from their home in Syria.
The Patrician Academy is one of a number of schools in the Blackwater Valley taking part in Operation Mayday, a community-driven initiative that aims to raise awareness of the consequences of the ongoing refugee crisis while raising money for Plan Ireland’s work in helping migrant children on the Mediterranean.
When Ahmed heard of his school’s involvement in Operation Mayday, he immediately volunteered to do something to help promote the events.
Ahmed and Ahamad’s family are one of eight Syrian families to have been relocated to north Cork since leaving their war-torn home.
The Department of Justice has yet to appoint the promised interpreter who is supposed to help these eight families integrate into an unfamiliar country — which is unfortunate, given his limited English.
Luckily one of his fellow countrymen has some English, and he acts as an interpreter for Ahamad.
Ahamad was a successful businessman in his home country —his company installed and serviced elevators. However his family of six left it, their extended family, and friends behind, to flee to Lebanon as the fighting between the Assad Regime and other factions grew closer to his home.
Ahamad says his children are traumatised by the rockets that flew over their heads and the explosions that hit just metres from their home in Baba Amr, on the outskirts of Homs. Their 2013 departure from Syria was complicated by Ahamad’s arrest.
He was caught outside Damascus by the Syrian Army when he was attempting to retrieve some furniture.
“They saw his ID and he wasn’t in Baba Amr. Because of this, they think he may be wanted. If he wasn’t from this area, they think he is dangerous,” his friend explains.
The consequences of this perceived misdemeanour made it all the more critical that the family made it out of Syria without getting caught away from home a second time.
The Al Raai family subsequently travelled for two days through the mountains to Lebanon, where they stayed for a year and a half before poor living conditions and a hostile environment prompted another move.
At this point, the UN intervened and secured them passage to Ireland. They left for Ireland via Istanbul, and ended up in the orientation centre at the Hazel Hotel, in Monasterevin, Co Kildare last September.
From there they came to North Cork, where they have been since the start of the year. Ahamad is entitled to work, and is willing, but his efforts are hampered by his poor English and lack of interpreter. He clutches a black A4 ring binder with picture stories and phrases to learn.
Occasionally he will wait until his friend finishes interpreting what he has just said, and chips in with a few words for emphasis.
So are the Ahamad family happy to be in Ireland now?
“He feels comfortable and safe, but he was very sad about his country,” his friend interprets.
“He lost everything. We have lost our friends, our relatives, our neighbours, our houses. All our memories. We lost everything,” he says.
Ahamad’s brother was killed during the fighting in Syria.
“It is very difficult. We are in a new culture, a new people, a new language, new country,” he says, adding that most Irish people he has met have been “lovely”.
So what are his hopes for his family now? What would he like to see Ahmed do in future?
He relays his answer to his friend, who repeats it back to him for clarity.
“He wishes for his son to be a doctor in the future, and his hope is to go back someday to Syria. It is his homeland. To work in a hospital to help the poor people and homeless.”
“It is my dream,” Ahamad adds.
