My blue country

My Blue country, I miss your mysterious color that was absent in the mirage. I miss your quiet night. I miss your blue sky. I miss your blue scent that flows with the air and perfumes the atmosphere.

Red shades

Where is your blue?. It has been replaced by the red shades of war. It doesn't matter how it was started. It doesn't matter what the reasons are. I only, recognize redness that overwhelmed our towns and roads, our buildings and homes. That redness that mingled our soil and water, our plants and air. That redness that crawled in daylight without timidity to pigment everything even our bodies and faces, and deeply mixed with our dreams and hopes.

Hope

For most of us, to escape from this suffering was the only blue hope which has survived from that red beast and has hidden deep inside our hearts. That night, I and others succeeded in crossing the roadblocks which lead to the sea coast, this came after our blue hope fought great wars within our minds and hearts. We were looking forward to be welcomed by our neighbors on the other side of the sea, but it seems; it is not.

Boat

On that boat, fate collected me with them. They are our neighbors who left their countries after shadows swept them over. On that boat, I heard someone telling the story of those shades of gray, others were whispering about those brown shades, but I noticed those silent people with curved necks, who were fleeing from the most terrifying shades - the black one.

Blue stars

During this accumulated sorrow and through this accumulated darkness, I noticed a blue light illuminating which was reminding me of my blue country. Are they the stars of the sky? No, these are blue eyes of this little boy on the edge of the boat sticking to his mother, he did not pass through this before.

Sinking

Suddenly, after moment of silence, the sound of the sea began to roar and its waves began to grapple. We started struggle again hoping to live.

Awakening

After moments on edge between life and death, I woke up to find myself lying on seashore and he was lying next to me in peace with his small body as if he was sleeping on his small bed. His blue eyes were closed, and took with them our blue hopes.

No words

Time passed but this picture never fades from my memory. It is saying what eloquent words unable to say, it is telling the story of humanity and summarizes the story of human beings. How did we get here?

A grain in desert

This short story is only grain in a desert filled with thousands of tragedies and sorrows. Thousands of incidents have happened and new incidents continue to happen ...

Incidents across borders

In the last 6 years, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded 5,506 incidents of migrants and refugees dying or going missing while crossings borders.

Certain death

These incidents resulted in the death or disapperance of 32,175 people.

1000 or more

The number of casualties varied from one to possibly more than 1000, depending on the incident.

Peak

2016 was the year with the most casualties, while 2018 had the number of total incidents.

Where

Incidents occurred across the continents of the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Death areas

The Mediterranean is the most intense region in terms of frequency and number of casualties, then the border between the United States and Mexico, as well as different parts of Africa, especially across Egypt, Sudan and Libya.

10 Regions

We can divide these incidents into 10 geographic regions: Africa, Middle East, Mediterranean, Europe, Asia, US-Mexico border, Central America, Caribbean, North America, and South America.

Sea of sorrows

Approximately 60% of all deaths and disappearances of migrants and refugees worldwide have occurred in the Mediterranean region, followed by Africa with 21% of the total number of deaths.

Drowned

When we look at the causes of death, we see that the leading cause is drowning, accounting for 64% of total deaths, followed by such causes as starvation, dehydration, sickness, among others.

Reality

These were some facts about those fleeing to death in the hope of life.

Never fades

And this picture is still talking, telling us the story of those ...

THE UNWELCOMED

An imaginary story that is based on actual facts and a real incident.





by:
Mohamad A. Waked
@Mohamad_Waked
www.alhadaqa.com