Ahmed Mohammed Alassaf

full interview

What type of housing do you live in? 
House!

Where? 
Metlin.

Is the house rented or at the expense of the organization? 
No rent.

Tell me about it from the beginning.
I live in a house in Metlin. It is not at the expense of an organization, I pay for it.

Describe your situation, your living situation. How is it? How can you describe it in general? 
great. We feel comfortable and we live a normal life better than we were in the camp.

Who do you live with? 
i live with my wife and son

Could you tell me about your daily routine, what do you mean from morning to night? Your working times. 
Until now we are not allowed to work because the Greek government does not allow us to. We want to work so we can depend on ourselves in order to live. We don’t want to rely on someone or something.

Is it possible to tell me how I spend my daily routine? 
I buy groceries, go out with my family to have fun and return. A normal routine, there is no work or anything extra to add to it.

Okay! What are the things that make you enjoy your day? 
My family and I go to a park or take my son to the game city that makes my son comfortable and have fun

Well, let’s talk about who you’ve come here until now. 
Yes.

What’s the good thing you’ve felt since you came until now? What is the positive thing you’ve had? 
From the European Union?

Generally. 
I didn’t get anything good from the European Union. I mean, they kept rejecting me, just rejections and appeals, and a second rejection. I tried to apply for Asylum for a second time. I mean, I didn’t see any interest in me, my family or my son. Nothing good happened to me!
We can say nothing good happened to me.
Nothing good happened to me from the European Union side.

Could you describe how living here made you feel? 
We haven’t felt anything rather than being safe. Due to the fact that we were threatened in Iraq. Thanks God, we are not threatened anymore! There are no immediate threats, this is the only good thing we feel.

You can tell me that the best thing you felt here is being safe. 
The only good thing here is being safe.

Okay. You have a family in Iraq, of course, haven’t you? 
Sure sure.

What is the feeling of being far away from them? What does it feel like to be away from your home country? 
It is difficult and hurts alot. Being away from your mother and siblings. Many things have forced us to leave our country. We aspire to work, you can say that for example, for development!

You can say that the feeling of being away from my family let me feel .. Could you say it in this way?
Yes, I did. being away from my family, my siblings and my mother made me feel weak. it’s hard to be far way from them but things have forced us to leave the country. 

How do you feel about not belonging? How do you feel if you are not from this country? 
Yes, sure

What does this make you feel? 
The rejections we got made us definitely feel this is not our country we are living in.

How do you feel about people’s judgment that you are not a ….. Have you ever imagined that you would suffer from such circumstances, that you would live in such circumstances?
No, I’ve never imagined, I never thought that one day i’ll have to leave my country. No, I’ve never imagined this! It happened suddenly and I was threatened. I was forced to get along and this is what I mean. I am forced.

So you were forced to get along with?
Sure, sure. Because I’ve never thought I would live like this.

Do you think you developed your ability to get along with this thing or you had this ability before? Endurance, patience and everything. You are able to ask the question and answer it again. 
Endurance and patience were already there. Thanks God. They were increased and we were able to understand the situation, I mean, live and be able to endure difficulties. We were destined to live and arrange our situation.

I mean you can say I’ve learned multiple things?.
yes i have learned multiple things

As a result of this journey?
yes as a result of this difficult journey.

Let’s talk about the last period of COVID-19, Corona virus. How has this topic affected you in terms of your life, living, luxury, coexistence and all.. What has it affected you? 
We have had difficult days with this disease. I mean, we are able to get through this stage. Thank God.

You are talking about Corona Covid, aren’t you? 
Corona yes yes. We were able to live with the situation and quarantine and we adhered to the decisions that were made. We were able to control the matter, thanks God.

I mean, has it affected your life, for example, on your mental health? 
No no, thanks God there is no effect. We adhered to the laws, quarantine and all the procedures that were required of us.

We can say that we have completed the questions about the current situation and your travel. Let’s go to the past. 
The past is awful, what do you want to know about it?

Why did you leave your home country? Why did you leave Iraq?
I used to work in security companies affiliated to the Ministry of Defense and we used to transport military equipment from the Kuwaiti border to American bases. I’ve been threatened by militias in Iraq affiliated with parties. Did you understand me? I’ve been threatened once or twice. We were beaten also.

This was the reason to leave Iraq, isn’t it?
Yes, as I told you we were threatened by the militias, and we were beaten. My group was killed by bombs. God saved us and we were able to get out of them hardly.

Can you describe how have you left Iraq? 
It was difficult, when you’re used to being around your family and people, and then you have to leave everything behind

This is the thing that made you… This was your feeling? 
Yes, yes.

How was your feeling while you were leaving Iraq? 
The feeling is difficult. I mean we couldn’t… As I told you it was difficult to leave our parents, our people and the life we were living in  

You traveled from Iraq and your trip to the EU, from here. Can you describe it to us? What was the experience for you? How did it affect you in particular? 
The experience is difficult. It’s arduous, you can’t describe it!

Describe your journey, I mean your journey and all your movements. 
It was difficult from the Turkish side, even by the European Union. We have not seen anything from the EU so far. Since ten months we haven’t gotten anything

I want you to tell me about your travel from Iraq to the European Union. Describe the way and how was the experience? 
It was a difficult experience and a journey because we traveled by the sea at that time and the waves were high and we were caught twice or three times, and then we were able to reach Greece, I mean, it was difficult.

What does it feel like I mean how do you feel about… With your illegal passage. How did you feel? What was the feeling? Was it fear? What? 
Yes, fear and horror. We don’t know what will happen to us. I mean, we were not sure what will happen to us, but we have experienced the most pressure, threats. It’s easier than it was before. Rather than losing you life in your homeland, at least you can come here to find a better life, but we haven’t found anything better!

This was the thing you were thinking about and feeling while you were crossing, I mean, while you were traveling. 
Yes, yes.

Can you tell us now what did you feel while traveling? 
We felt like traveling to the European Union, we were looking forwad to get good things, but it didn’t happen.

Are there any thing you’ve faced that time which you are still thinking about? What are the things you are thinking about until now? 
yes i still think about them and when i do i feel like my mind gets exhausted.

Can you answer the question? I mean.. 
Yes. I remember the things that happened to me and my mental health started degrading after that. I don’t want to go back. I mean, I want to move forward. One who does not go through life, I mean, must be consistent and to move forward, not going back.

We can say that whoever you think of can give you an incentive. 
Yes, yes. A good motivation!

Can we say that the situation you have experienced affects you till today? In what way does it affect you? how does the situation you have experienced affect you every day? 
Difficult. We’ve faced difficult circumstances.

Let’s say how does it affect you in particular? 
In particular, it affects the psychological incentive, personally, it does not affect my living. I mean, my days were normal, but it had a mental effect. After that, he replied saying that the situation I experienced affected me.

Describe the situation that you’ve been through.
The situation I’ve been through was tragic and exhausting

Have you imagined that you would deal with this situation? 
I have answered this question

What kind of mechanism have you followed in order to coexist? Was there a specific mechanism that helped you to deal with this situation? Have you done something like this?
Yes, yes. I have done this in order to deal with the situation I am. I am forced to live with the atmosphere and the situation. as if we used to live in a different world and we’ve come to another

Describe the type of thinking you changed or replaced. since you saw the situation. 
Since I saw this situation is different. You must change the mechanism to prove if you are diligent or not, I mean, like an example,if the state is providing for you, you must work, work hard to move forward.

What were you dreams and aspirations before the Iraqi invasion that led you to leave Iraq? 
My dream is to build a family, secure my children with housing and a job.

What is your dream in particular?
to build a stable life.

What is your dream in particular? Far away from everything, what is your dream in particular?
My dream is to be diligent in my work and life.

What was your job? 
a guard

What was your childhood dream? Let’s say that all of us had a childhood dream. As a child, for example, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut or becoming a doctor. What was your dream?
My dream is to become an officer to do justice. That was my dream and to help my country.

What was your strength before you leave your country? What was the thing that made you stronger in order to leave? Let’s say a strong incentive. 
It is a strong incentive to ensure a life for my son and wife away from problems and injustice. This was the motivation that motivated me to have a new life.

Entity
Entity

The whole experience you have been through, your travel, your situation before leaving your home country. Let us say everything in general that you have gone through in this year and the years you have gone through, has it developed mentally? Do you have something positive that you have taken from this whole experience? 
Sure. The experiences you go through will certainly give you an incentive or other point of view. This is certainly going to happen.

I want you to tell me how you have developed mentally. 
I have evolved mentally (matured) through living with different people. For example, everyone has his own way of life and his dealings. Some minds are fanatical minds and others are good. We have developed mentally in dealing with people, experiences we have experienced, many religions and many sects that we were not familiar with.

Can we say that you are mentally open minded now? 
Yes yes.

Tell me about this point. 
I told you we were able to be more open minded, dealing and many other things.

If I tell you we have finished this interview, do you have something to add? Can you describe your situation? Describe you in the future? Anything. 
I just want to build a safe life for me, my wife, my son and my new baby on the way.

What do you intend to name him? 
I intend to name him after my father, Muhammad. I wish there is a good reply from the EU to my family. So far we are not stable at the moment, our minds are thinking about something else. People say, like an example, that you have to be sent away or go back. The family is getting tired of this thing. Someone who ran away from injustice will certainly not return to injustice again.

What do you want to add at the end? Something we didn’t talk about in the interview? 
We talked about it as I mentioned before. I just need a safe life and to give us permission to work.We rely on ourselves, we do not rely on the state.

If you are going to become an example, you may be allowed to start a project, let’s say. 
Yes.

Do you have a project that you think can succeed here, or let’s say in the West in general? 
Yes, yes. I mean, like if you open a shop, I mean, there is a profit from it. I mean, I want jobs or work in a factory or something, I mean, there is no problem.

Do you have the ambition to do your own independent work? 
Yes. Sure.

What kind of work is possible? Let’s say if you have an ambition what? 
Such a big restaurant. We have experience in cooking and what is related to it

Nice. 
We have such experience!

Before working as a security guard or security companies, what you used to work before? 
I used to wash cars in a station.

Last thing, mention your name. 
Ahmed Mohammed Nayef Al-Assaf. Nationality: Iraqi.

It’s nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you too.

Thank you for the interview and thank you for your time.