FEW teenagers have made such an arduous journey over dangerous and unwelcoming borders as 16-year-old Noujain Mustaffa.
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| Noujain Mustaffa talks to Australia lawyer Tirana Hassan. |
Fewer still have done so in a wheelchair, bumping through cornfields and sleeping in strangers’ tents before being arrested and shunted from camp to camp.
Noujain, who has cerebral palsy, has been through it all on her exhausting trek from Kobane in northern Syria across Turkey, Greece, Croatia and Slovenia, in an effort to reach her brother in Germany.
Fleeing her hometown after it was taken by Islamic State militants, the brave young woman travelled thousands of kilometres with her 25-year-old sister Nasreen and a family friend.
While she had never been to school, Noujain translated for those around her, speaking in perfect English, self-taught from the television. “I don’t see myself as different, it’s other people who make your life different,” she told the BBC’s Fergal Keane at the border between Serbia and Hungary. “You should fight to get what you want in this world ... it’s a journey for a new life.”
Her travels marked many new experiences for the young Kurd, including her first time on a train and on a ship, and she had tried to enjoy them. But there were also sleepless nights, fear and a heavy physical toll.
“I am a prisoner, so it’s not good,” she told the BBC film crew when they caught up with her again at a camp in Brezice, Slovenia, where she had been detained along with hundreds of other migrants and refugees. “I was afraid but I’m doing OK. As I said, I’m stronger than I look. Our country is not lucky enough, it’s not lucky at all. We’ve lost everything.”
Australian Tirana Hassan, director of crisis response at Amnesty International, told news.com.au she was struck by Noujain’s bravery when she met her at the border in Hungary. “They had lost their passports, so she wasn’t allowed to sleep in a hotel,” said the lawyer. “It was around midnight and they ended up having to spend what little money they had to get a taxi to be able to drive 20 kilometres back to the border. They had no tent and luckily a Syrian family let them into a tent so she had somewhere at least dry to sleep that night.
“Noujain’s is a story of immense courage. She was just this incredible young woman who, like thousands of others, was seeking safety. Going back to Kobane, going back to Syria, for anybody, let alone a child, and a child with a disability, just really isn’t an option.”
Noujain stayed hopeful, and eventually made it to Germany and had an emotional reunion with her brother in Germany. She has now applied for asylum in Dortmund.
Tirana believes Noujain “will achieve amazing things and make an amazing contribution to Germany.” But the human rights worker from Adelaide had harsh words for not only Europe, but Australia.
“I worked on refugee issues in Australia and I remember thinking then that I hope that this never happens again. It was a rather sad moment, to be honest, to think that here we are dealing with the same issues and we’re in a different country.
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| A man from Homs told Tirana the border chaos reminded him of Syria |
“I think unfortunately, Australia has set the low bar. We’re criticising Hungary for flouting its legal obligations, but countries like Hungary use Australia as a way to justify what they’ve done.
“Australia, sadly, in this instance, has played the same type of politics that we’re criticising Hungary for, in terms of xenophobic campaigns, fear-mongering and a blatant disregard for their obligations and for the fact that people have a right to seek asylum and seek safety and refuge.”
In Serbia, she watched thousands of refugees line up at the giant razor wire fence Hungary had built around its border, calling out to beg for entry into or passage through the country.
“All of these people were leaving places like Aleppo in Syria or Homs. These might be just names to people in Australia, but these are towns which have been ravaged by brutal conflicts.
“Hungarians were taking the incredibly hard line at the expense of their international reputation and the expense of their international obligations. They had fortified their country, they had sent out riot police. We found dogs, helicopters, it was a real excessive show of force.
“It was shocking because we were seeing people flout their legal obligations and it was shocking because it was a consequence of the paralysis that has taken hold of European leaders.”
While Malcolm Turnbull’s appointment as Prime Minister gave refugees and activists hope for a more welcoming Australia, the new PM has repeatedly made it clear there will be no immediate change to Government policy.
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