“We saw photos of the boats people were travelling in. And they said it’s nice to be on a ship.” Ayman recalls.
He contacted a smuggler, paid USD 8,000 and left for Alexandria with his family. They were staying in a house with many other families, waiting for the smugglers to take them on board. But they had to wait for a week, although they had been promised an immediate departure. Every day there were obstacles, the coast guard were on the alert, and they could not travel.
"Our turn came after seven days. From there we went to the smuggling site, the place where people go on the boats. Once again, they said there's coast guard, today is dangerous. We stayed on the bus for 24 hours without food and sleep.” He remembers.
There were three buses full of people, all Syrians and mostly families with children. They were driving back and forth along the coast, looking for a safe place of departure. Every time they were told that the coast guard were to be seen and they had to search for another place. Ayman and his wife had had enough. They left the smugglers and returned to Cairo. Ayman is relieved that they did not make it out to sea. He has heard stories about boats capsizing and realises that he was putting the lives of his children at risk.
