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Rukiye was eight months pregnant when she fled her home. A few months earlier, her husband had been arrested by the government for his political beliefs and associations. So Rukiye knew the police would soon be coming for her, too.

What should have been a joyous occasion, the birth of Rukiye’s second child, was instead a time of stress, fear, and anxiety. During her daughter’s first months, Rukiye could not risk leaving her hiding place. To avoid detection, she had to rely on trusted friends to bring her baby to the doctor for checkups and vaccinations. Sometimes, there was simply no avoiding the wider world – Rukiye suffered from chronic health issues including cancer, and she needed to seek medical treatment frequently. 

The release of Rukiye’s husband from jail a few months later made life a little bit easier. But they remained constantly at risk of harassment and arrest, and two years after her daughter’s birth, the police finally detained Rukiye and arrested her. It was the beginning of a terrifying ordeal for this mother of two. Despite committing no crime, she would face inhumane imprisonment and treatment, and witness worse among her fellow political prisoners. Eventually, Rukiye and her husband understood that their family had no real future or security as long as they remained in their native country of Turkey. So they risked their lives to escape their hardships and seek a better life.

“No one wants to leave our country or family or neighbors – no one wants this,” she says from her current home in Greece. “I am at point zero. I have to learn a new language, learn a new way of life in a new country. I feel like a newborn child.” 

Rukiye and her family are two of the thousands of people who have benefitted in recent years from Embrace Relief’s Refugee Relief program in Greece. Through the generous support of our donors, refugees in our program have been provided with housing, food, clothing, education and other necessities, providing these determined people the time, safety and stability they need to rebuild their lives.

Embrace Relief recently journeyed to Greece to meet with some of the refugees who are currently supported by our program. Speaking with us, they described the hardships they endured in their old lives, the risks they took in escaping those hardships, and the love, hope and faith that guided them through their journeys. Their powerful, emotional stories are reminders that we are all human. And their stories deserve to be told.

Mistreatment and abuse in prison

Rukiye’s story is sadly not a unique one. Many of the refugees who spoke with Embrace Relief have spent time in jail because of who they are and what they believe, enduring treatment that ranged from indifference to cruelty, and living in often-squalid conditions. Others described the sense of helplessness they felt as they heard the stories told by their imprisoned spouses.

The fellow political prisoners Rukiye met came from a variety of backgrounds. They were teachers, doctors, students; they are mothers, sisters, daughters. They included many children of the imprisoned, too – like Rukiye’s two-year-old daughter, who lived with her in jail for four months, because there was no one else to take care of her. She said guards would not even permit her daughter to have a toy to help pass the time.

“Before I went to jail, I was constantly thinking about how the teenagers, young women, older women, were in jail and how they were surviving,” Rukiye says. “The first couple of days in jail, I lived this myself and I met these women. Being in jail and meeting these women was like the river meeting with the sea.”

Rukiye told Embrace Relief of one woman she knew in jail who suffered severe burns and was not permitted to seek medical treatment. In order to stay warm overnight in her freezing cell during the winter, the woman had boiled water and put it in a plastic bottle, which exploded. Rukiye also experienced mistreatment firsthand while seeking medical care.

“It was very difficult to convince the guards in jail that I had cancer,” she says. “[Once I convinced them,] the doctor identified the area which had the cancer and told me he would have to cut off my whole leg. I could not accept the treatment plan the doctor gave to me. I refused to lose my leg.”

After eight months in prison, Rukiye was released while awaiting her sentencing by a judge. She was forced to wear an electronic monitoring device, which could only be removed – by a police officer – during the regular treatments of chemotherapy she received. Reunited with her husband, who had also been released ahead of his sentencing, the couple planned to leave the country as soon as they could. 

They were sworn to secrecy, not even telling their children in advance. And they had to move quickly, because police would be coming for them as soon as their sentences were handed down. Rukiye’s husband left first, fleeing towards the Meric River and Turkey’s border with Greece. When officers began searching for her husband, Rukiye felt an increased urgency. Finally, she could no longer wait. Rukiye gathered her children and fled, never looking back.

“Behind us were those who were persecuting us, but the Meric River is giving us a new way forward,” she says. “I will pass the river and leave this all behind me.”

 Starting over

The hardships Rukiye faced didn’t end on the day she reached Greek soil. True, she and her children could rest easy in the knowledge that they would not be persecuted. But with her husband having continued on to the United Kingdom, Rukiye would now have to provide the basics of life for herself and her children in an unfamiliar country with an unfamiliar language.

But though she was now by herself, she was far from alone. The refugee community in Greece, including organizations like Embrace Relief, have given thousands of people like Rukiye the support she needs to afford housing, food, clothing, education, and so much more. Because of this generosity, Rukiye and her children have been able to live safe, dignified, and free lives as they await the completion of the paperwork that will reunite their family.

“We are starting over,” Rukiye says. “I know it will take time. But when we meet, we will start a new life. My first life took 30 years from me. I educated myself. I made my life. Step by step, we will start a new life.”

For months, every time Hatice heard a simple knock on her front door, she felt a tingling sense of dread. At any moment, life as she knew it could be upended forever.

“Every night, every morning, every knock on the door, every bell ring, every time, we were very scared that someone has come [to hurt us], that the police have come [to arrest us],” she recalls. “My children, with all this fear, [it hurt] them psychologically so much, it was so bad.”

Hatice and her husband, then teachers in their native Turkey, were being targeted for persecution by the government for their beliefs and political affiliations. They had never harmed anyone, and had dedicated their lives to fostering education and peace. Yet they lived in fear, knowing that they could be detained at any moment. 

“I didn’t have a home for a long time,” Hatice recalls. “We lived someplace. It was a place. But we were hiding and scared. It wasn’t a home.”

For a time, the family was safe. But this wouldn’t last. One night, as Hatice reclined in her chair with popcorn and tea, preparing to watch a movie with her husband and their daughter, a dozen members of the government security force suddenly burst into their home. Hatice and her husband were arrested; she remembers the security forces laughing and joking as they carried out the arrest, mocking them in their moment of terror.

In that moment, Hatice lost her freedom and saw the end of her family’s old way of life. It was the beginning of a journey that would lead her to eventually flee Turkey for Greece, where she would begin anew.

Hatice and her daughter are two of the thousands of people who have benefitted in recent years from Embrace Relief’s Refugee Relief program in Greece. Through the generous support of our donors, refugees in our program have been provided with housing, food, clothing, education and other necessities, providing these determined people the time, safety and stability they need to rebuild their lives.

Embrace Relief recently journeyed to Greece to meet with some of the refugees who are currently supported by our program. Speaking with us, they described the hardships they endured in their old lives, the risks they took in escaping those hardships, and the love, hope and faith that guided them through their journeys. Their powerful, emotional stories are reminders that we are all human. And their stories deserve to be told.

Changed names, upended lives

Freedom is a primary motivator for many refugees. Before eventually making the difficult choice to flee the land of their birth, many lived normal, average lives as teachers, doctors, and other valuable members of their communities. But when their beliefs suddenly became a target, people like Hatice were forced into hiding.

Many of the refugees in Greece who spoke with Embrace Relief described the daily grind of life under persecution. Some changed their names. Others were forced to cut off all contact with family and friends. Still others avoided leaving their homes, even for necessary doctors’ visits, while their children were often forced to leave their schools and universities.

“You cannot get married, your family won’t speak to you, your neighbors don’t even want to see you. You are not valued,” Hatice says. “You go to the market and you’re humiliated. You go to the hospital, you’re humiliated.”

The knowledge that they could be arrested at any time, for arbitrary reasons, made the situation more miserable, a feeling Hatice describes as “a slow death.”

‘I breathed freedom’

After the night she lost her freedom, Hatice was sentenced to seven years in jail for her beliefs. She described living in dehumanizing conditions – at one point, she slept in front of a toilet because 26 people had been placed in a cell designed to hold 14 – and witnessed the same for her fellow prisoners. She vividly recalls a pregnant woman who failed to receive proper care, leading to a stillborn birth; there was another woman she remembers, a middle-aged woman who was denied treatment for her cancer, who died within months of her release.

Hatice was fortunate to be released from prison just one year into her sentence. Her children had been living with their grandparents, and Hatice’s daughter told Embrace Relief of the severe depression she and her brother had experienced while both of their parents were imprisoned. As of November 2022, their father remains imprisoned in Turkey, and could remain so for another decade. Hatice is unsure if she will ever see the love of her life ever again.

But after living through her ordeal, Hatice’s only path to freedom was to flee her country and seek refuge elsewhere. She arrived in Greece with “the two most important things I had the power to bring” – her wedding ring and her daughter – and is grateful for the warm welcome she’s received in Greece. A thriving refugee community, supported by organizations like Embrace Relief, is making the transition easier.

Eventually, Hatice plans to end up in Germany, where she hopes she will be soon reunited with her mother and son, and, one day perhaps, her husband. But wherever life takes her, she will live without the fear that formerly consumed her days.

“When we came here, of course it was something difficult,” Hatice says. “But, it was perfect. Because after however many years, I breathed freedom … just freedom.”

Zeynep clung to her two-year-old child as she gingerly placed one foot in the tiny boat. The fierce, wavy current of the Meriç River lapped at her heels as she took this last step towards freedom. But after a moment of struggle, she and her husband Mohammed realized that she was sinking into the river.

“There were so many waves, and it was so long and deep, and we cannot swim very well,” Mohammed recalled. “[This was] the first time we came so close to death.”

Zeynep and Mohammed knew that they risked their lives crossing the Meriç. It was a risk they took because the persecution they faced in their home country of Turkey was no longer bearable. But they also knew that, in the event that things went wrong, the only thing that mattered was the life and safety of their child.

That is why Zeynep gave her baby to a friend, the fourth member of their party, who had already entered the boat. As she did, she implored him: “Please just help us, just save our baby. We are not important. Just take our baby, please.”

Eventually, the danger passed. After a short while, Mohammed safely climbed into the boat. Then, he and the friend pulled Zeynep safely into the boat. They were far from safe. But they were together, and they were on their way to their new life.

Zeynep and Mohammed are just two of the thousands of people who have benefitted in recent years from Embrace Relief’s Refugee Relief program in Greece. Through the generous support of our donors, refugees in our program have been provided with housing, food, clothing, education and other necessities, providing these determined people the time, safety and stability they need to rebuild their lives. 

Embrace Relief recently journeyed to Greece to meet with some of the refugees who are currently supported by our program. Speaking with us, they described the hardships they endured in their old lives, the risks they took in escaping those hardships, and the love, hope and faith that guided them through their journeys. Their powerful, emotional stories are reminders that we are all human. And their stories deserve to be told.

An uncertain journey

For the more than 5,000 refugees who fled to Greece across this border river in 2022 – Meriç is its name in Turkish; it’s also known to the Greeks as the Evros, and to the Bulgarians as the Maritsa – danger is ever-present. The river is wide at points, and deep. The boats used to transport people across the river are small, and at risk of capsizing in choppy, rough waters like those facing Zeynep, Mohammed and their child. Hundreds of people have died making this very journey over the last two decades.

But turning back was no option. Facing persecution in their home country, Mohammed and Zeynep decided that their only choice was to accept the risk and pray, with faith that they would reach the other side safely.

“When I saw the Meriç, I knew it was the only way to freedom,” Zeynep says. “But there is always a risk of death which we have seen very closely.”

From beginning to end, the journey of a refugee is fraught with danger. All of the refugees who spoke with Embrace Relief described the sense of fear they felt living in their homes, facing both the official sanction of the local government and the unofficial (but no less heartbreaking) shunning from family members and friends.

Those who are able to leave face an uncertain journey. Walking on foot or squeezing into tiny boats, they are vulnerable, unprotected from dangerous weather and unfamiliar terrain. They are at the mercy of anyone they encounter along the way, ranging from kind strangers, to border patrols and military police, to dangerous bandits and gangs.

‘Don’t look back’

Mohammed and Zeynep’s journey had only just begun once Zeynep finally made it into the boat on that choppy fall day. After crossing the river without incident, they continued on foot. Their baby wailed as the party of four climbed up steep hills full of trees and rocks for several kilometers. Zeynep’s arms and legs were bleeding from the climb, and their baby’s nose began to bleed as well. 

Then, suddenly, they were spotted by a soldier. Carrying an intimidating baton, the soldier directed the group to come with him to the top of the hill, where a group of 10 soldiers guarded them. When they realized the soldiers were members of the Greek police force, it was a welcome moment of comfort.

“My husband told me to not be afraid because it was the Greek police, not a gang,” Zeynep says. “We [would] have one chance to explain ourselves well. We are trusting democratic Greece.”

After discovering that the soldier, like himself, spoke English, Mohammed felt assured enough to engage in an hour-long discussion, explaining the family’s situation and pleading for mercy.

“I told him, we are neighbors, we are not escaping a war, we are not escaping economic issues, or things like this,” Mohammed said. “We are coming for freedom, and if you deport us or push us back to our region, they will arrest us, maybe they will kill us.”

At this, the soldier put away his baton. As a smile came across his face, his voice turned kind and sincere. He said a sentence that Mohammed and Zeynep will never forget as long as they live:

“Don’t look back. Don’t look behind you. You are here, you are in Greece, and you are safe.”