“I’m here, I just don’t know where”: how a 15-year-old fled to Switzerland

Suddenly the truck stops. The loading door opens. “You can get out,” says the driver. Khaled Hussein pushes boxes aside and makes his way to the loading bay. He blinks in the bright light. When he gets out, his legs sag. Khaled lay motionless on the asphalt for 20 minutes – his body is so stiff. He focuses on. Find a landmark.

The tug has long since left. Khaled sees a way. Houses. gardens. And then he sees the red and white flag: “I did it.” His first thought: “I need to contact my brother.” But how? The smugglers took his smartphone from him.

There is a pay phone nearby. Khaled is happy that another refugee in Greece gave him change as a precaution. He throws in the coins. Hit the nine digits he repeated over and over during his year-long escape. It rings. His heart beats. When his brother takes off, Khaled chokes for a moment. “Where are you?” he asks. Khaled says, “I’m here, I just don’t know where.”

His brother tells him to ask someone for a cell phone. Khaled is walking down the street, a couple approach him. They are helpful and report to Khaled’s brother. He says: «You are in Geneva. Stay where you are. I’ll pick you up.” But from St. Gallen it takes three to four hours.

Khaled is waiting. Suddenly he feels the fatigue of flying. To this day he does not know how many days he was locked in the truck. The two of us in a small opening, with only water and fruit. When it is light it is day and when it is dark it is night. And then it’s light again, another day has passed.

The sound of the engine suddenly pulls him out of his thoughts. A car stops next to him. “I didn’t recognize you,” says a man. The two brothers have not seen each other for six years. “Last time I saw you, you were a little boy.” “You’ve changed too,” says Khaled.

The 21-year-old narrates the latest episode of his couch escape at his group home in Goldach, St. Gallen. At the age of 15, Khaled left his parents and the small village of Derik in the Kurdish part of Syria. He followed his older brother, who fled to Switzerland in March 2011 immediately after the outbreak of the civil war.

Khaled remembers his years-long escape like it was yesterday. But what he actually means is different. He is stressed: the final apprenticeship exam (LAP) is coming up next week. The Syrian will complete a two-year basic vocational training as a plumber this summer.

He already wanted to learn this trade in Syria. His eyes sparkle when he talks about his fascination for the trade of craftsman. Warm water, sanitation, service and contact with people. “It’s a fulfilling but demanding job.”

As much grit and perseverance as he showed during his escape, he approaches his new life in Switzerland with determination. In the asylum seekers’ center for unaccompanied minor refugees in Marienburg, St. Gallen, where he spends the first three years, he throws himself into school work and learns German and mathematics. Also important is the support of the St.Gallen Integration Projects Association (TISG), which receives refugees on behalf of the municipalities (see box).

After a year in Switzerland, Khaled gets serious. He typed in “Sanitary St. Gallen” on Google. The first hit becomes a direct hit for him. He does not hesitate and sends a blind application by e-mail to Rolf Meier Sanitair. To Khaled’s surprise, the ‘master’, as he calls his boss, invites him for a trial day. In the asylum seekers center they think he is joking.

The day becomes a week and that becomes an internship of a year. The balance is then good for both sides. Khaled is having a good time in the 5-man family business. And his brother lives across the street. The “master” is also satisfied. The company offers Khaled a four-year apprenticeship as a plumber. “If you want something, you have to work hard,” says the Syrian.

And the beginning is difficult. There is a problem with German, he doesn’t understand Swiss German at all. A strange experience for Khaled: “In language lessons you learn High German, but on the street everyone speaks a different language.” That should soon change – also thanks to his colleagues. Anyone who hears him speaking in the broad Eastern Swiss dialect today has to listen carefully to discover linguistic inconsistencies.

Yet Khaled soon realizes that the level at the vocational school is too high for him. Together with the work placement company, he decides to complete basic vocational training with a federal vocational certificate for the first time. After the summer he can stay in the training company. Since he got his driver’s license, he only goes to customer visits. “A good feeling,” says Khaled. But at the end he always takes a picture to show to the boss.

Not without reason: a lot can go wrong with plumbing, Khaled knows from his own experience. Once he has to shorten a line. However, he forgets to turn off the water. “So I start cutting with the tiger saw when all of a sudden a fountain sprays water out of the pipe.” Fortunately, the “master” is right next to it and reacts.

Education is also groundbreaking. The Syrian is the company’s first foreigner and refugee. What can his colleagues learn from him? “Maybe you’re going through some tough times,” says Khaled. When he told of his escape, everyone stared at him.

The descriptions are disturbing. He has been on the run for a year and crosses Turkey on foot and in buses. The most difficult stage is the crossing to Greece. The boat trip only succeeds the sixth time. Before that, Khaled was detained five times by Greek border officials, beaten, taken back by boat and finally thrown overboard on the beach on the Turkish coast. He then spends a night in jail. Then the whole thing starts all over again.

Does he regret the escape? “I had no other choice or I would have died in the war.” Khaled was in ninth grade when the school was closed due to the civil war. He is locked up at home and has to hide. Bashar al-Assad’s troops specifically comb Kurdish villages to forcibly recruit young men for the front. As the situation becomes more and more dangerous, Khaled decides to flee.

All of his nine siblings fled Syria. Three sisters live in Germany, two of his brothers in Switzerland. And three sisters and a brother have left the country for northern Iraq. Only his parents were left behind.

When Khaled talks about her, his eyes grow sad. He has a pang of conscience. His mother once told him, “I raised ten children and now there is no one to take care of me.” He would like to bring the parents to Switzerland to take care of them. “They are sick and dependent on medication.”

That’s the sad thing about escaping. When you leave, you leave your loved ones behind. Even a visit to his sisters in Germany is not possible. Khaled is not a recognized refugee but is temporary. Each year, the F license must be renewed for a further 12 months. And he is not allowed to leave Switzerland. Still, Khaled says, “Here’s my chance at a better life.” (aargauerzeitung.ch)