REFUGEE REPORTING
SUCAAD MIRE, 26
Sucaad Mire worked as a journalist in Somalia before fleeing to Kenya. Security concerns in Kenya forced to try and escape, and after a perilous journey, she is now living in Greece.
I needed to get away from Somalia to find peace. Everything was OK in Nairobi for a while, but then there were a lot of problems with police and Al Shabaab. Whenever I appeared in the media to talk I was asked why I had spoken and I was threatened, especially because I am a woman.
I could not work in Kenya without the necessary documents, and I was arrested nearly every month. Sometimes I would walk home from my television station and find soldiers waiting at my door to arrest me. I felt so afraid.
At the end of 2013, I fled to Iran. Then I crossed the border into Turkey, which was very difficult. I had to hide from soldiers and walk for three days. Sometimes it was so difficult that I was preparing to die.
After being in Turkey for three months, I tried to reach Greece. I tried twice by boat but was arrested by Greek police, beaten and had my money and my telephone stolen from me. Both times I was sent back to Turkey where I was detained again. But the third time I made it to Greece and I was so happy.
Now I am living in Greece illegally because I don’t have the right papers. If I get caught by the police I will be arrested and face a long time in jail. I cannot go anywhere, and if I need to leave my house to get anything I am filled with fear.
It is worse being a woman as well. I had to travel to Iran and Turkey with men that I did not know, and now I live with men and women I do not know, so I am always scared.
I don’t know what to do now. How can I go to another country? If I am always living in fear, then this is no life.