One migrant’s extraordinary journey from Syria to Europe

Abu Salah was a blacksmith in Syria before fleeing the country.

His home town Al-Rastan was one of the first to rise up against the Assad regime. In retaliation, it was completely flattened by the Syrian army.

Abu Salah had been documenting with his camera the daily atrocities that took place in Syria’s civil war in the hope of drawing attention to the bloodshed, and continued to do so after he left for Turkey with his wife and child.

“I don’t like to film here with the blood. Believe me, I don’t like it,” he says, as he records another war fatality. “It’s easier for me to film bombs than see the blood.”

Deciding the world wasn’t taking notice of the Syrian people’s plight, he stopped documenting the casualties and destruction in the war and decided to record his escape instead.

Leaving his wife and daughter in Turkey, he made the arduous journey from Syria to Belgium and recorded the events along the way.

Journey to Europe

Abu Salah captures his voyage alongside that of other refugees as they travel, braving the elements and authorities to reach their destination. The group sleep rough, risk injury as they travel by foot on railway tracks and shudder through the rain.

There is even a scene that sees Abu Salah – who has never been at sea before – piloting a boat to see 57 refugees safely to the shore of a Greek island.

“We need a life. We’re obliged to do this.” He says. “We have no choice.”

Whilst his journey is compelling, it is in no way singular. So far this year, over 560,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Greece – and over 350 lost their lives attempting the same.

“We need a life. We’re obliged to do this. We have no choice.”

Almost 140,000 people made it to Italy and Malta, with 3,000 people dying in the Mediterranean.

And though 4,000 people landed in Spain, more than two dozen perished making the arduous journey from North Africa.

In all, well over 3,000 have died in the process of making it to Europe. Abu Salah is one of the 700,000 people who made it alive and this is his story.