Fleeing War At Home, Syrians Reach State Of Limbo In Greece
At the end of a weathered street lined with sooty apartment blocks and mini-markets, in a smoky budget hotel in central Athens, the refugees wait.
"This lobby is like Syria," says a small, green-eyed man who calls himself Muhammad and says he's from Aleppo. "That guy is from Damascus," he says, pointing. "That one is from Homs, that one from Latakia."
There are about 80 Syrians here, including six neighbors from Yarmouk, the Palestinian neighborhood in Damascus. They sit together at a table in the hotel's breakfast room, sipping sweet, hot Nescafe from tall glasses.
"We stayed at home as long as we could, waiting for some kind of end to the war," says Lulu, a 25-year-old scholar of Arabic literature. Like most Syrians interviewed here by NPR, she didn't want to give her last name because she feared for family members who remain in Syria.
"But the war is not ending, and we have to find another home," Lulu says.
She's small and intense, her long, thick black hair in a ponytail. She fled from Damascus to Turkey with her father, Saif. Then they rode in a tiny, crowded boat from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Kos.
"We were 13 people, at the night," she says. "I was very afraid, but I believe if I travel to [Europe], I can take my husband, my mother and my sister from Syria."
At least 2.6 million Syrians have fled the country since the war began three years ago, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Most are in refugee camps in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
i i