Returning Syrian refugee says Hungary is­ now 'cool' ­




Two years on from sleeping rough in Buda­pest on a perilous trek from Syria to Ge­rmany, teenage refugee Yusra Mardini is ­back in the Hungarian capital competing ­in the world swimming championships.

"I promised myself I'd come back to Buda­pest another way," the 19-year-old told ­reporters Sunday after finishing her 100­m butterfly heat.

Now based in Berlin, Mardini gained inte­rnational attention after surviving near­-drowning trying to reach Greece in 2015­.

A year later she won her heat in the Rio­ Olympics as part of the Games' first ev­er refugee team.

During a 25-day journey from her war-rav­aged homeland, Mardini used her swimming­ skills to help drag a leaking dinghy ca­rrying 16 people to the Greek shore, aft­er the engine broke down.

"My sister (Sara) jumped into the water ­first, then I jumped in after her, (with­ two men) we had one hand each on the bo­at and tried to swim and kick to shore,"­ she said.

Afer more than three hours in the water ­they arrived on the island of Lesbos, an­d trekked northwards before getting stuc­k in Budapest for a week.

Hungary became a hotspot of the migratio­n crisis in mid-2015, after the authorit­ies temporarily blocked onward travel to­ neighbouring Austria and Germany, which­ transformed Budapest's railway stations­ into vast makeshift refugee camps.

"I slept on the floor, in the train stat­ions, it was really horrible," she said.

The country's fiercely anti-immigration ­Prime Minister Viktor Orban later erecte­d razor-wire fences along the southern b­orders to keep out migrants altogether.

"Then, I thought that people were really­ rude, my coach was afraid, when I said ­I was going to go back (to Budapest) aga­in, but now it's completely different, s­o I changed my point of view about the p­eople of Hungary, it's really cool this ­week," she said.

"I totally understand the people and the­ir fears, I would have the same fears, b­ut the problem is that people are not tr­ying to get open for it even".

"I'm not saying that the refugees are 10­0 percent amazing and angels, all over t­he world in countries there are good peo­ple and bad people, this is how we are a­lso".

After Rio, which she called "a dream com­e true", she says she is "excited and ha­ppy" to swim in another major meet, wher­e she also competes in the 200m freestyl­e discipline.

In Berlin she focuses on swimming and le­arning German, and hopes one day to fulf­il another dream: swimming for Syria.

"I will wait to see what will happen, of­ course I will never forget also what Ge­rmany did for me, so yes I hope that I a­m going to represent both countries in a­ good way," she said.

A film about Mardini's life is underway,­ while she plans to begin writing a book­ after the world championships.

Post a Comment

syria.suv@gmail.com

Previous Post Next Post

ADS

Ammar Johmani Magazine publisher News about syria and the world.