Tailor kidnapped by I.S. reunites with family after 1-year ordeal
LESBOS (Greece): Nahil Alhelb was beginning to worry her toddler son would forget about his father, Mohamed, who had been missing for more than a year after being kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Syria.
But the family was happily reunited on the Greek island here after Mohamed escaped and embarked on a long, frantic quest to rejoin his wife and son.
“I only learned that my husband was alive three months ago. I couldn’t believe hearing his voice,” says Nahil, a 26-year-old ethnic Palestinian, with her son, Abdur, in her lap.
Nahil and Mohamed, a tailor, had been living in Jordan, where they had met in 2013.
But when Mohamed went to Syria to fetch personal documents to help his mother also make the journey, he was captured by IS and held for six months in Al-Bab, Aleppo.
“I was blindfolded as soon as I was detained. They took us underground to a small area, and when they removed the blindfold, it was pitch black.
“The room was so small I could not stand or lie down. I constantly heard voices of people being tortured. I, too, was beaten for not enlisting under IS.”
When Turkish forces pushed IS out of the area, the militants tried to get rid of their captives.
“They thought most of us were dead, so they took us to a mass grave. This is where I escaped,” Mohamed said.
It took him weeks to get into Turkey, trying to reach the area where he had left his wife and child with relatives.
He succeeded in crossing the border on his eighth attempt, but his family was gone. Nahil and her father, a sailor, had managed to cross from Turkey to the island here in November last year.
Mohamed followed in pursuit after hearing from relatives that his family was in Greece.
“Three times I tried to reach Lesbos, but the Turkish coastguard pushed our boat back.”
Mohamed eventually reached the nearby island of Samos, where it took nearly two months to persuade Greek authorities, with the help of the United Nations refugee agency, to let him rejoin his family here in August.
“They were waiting for me at the harbour. My son could walk! Ever since he saw his father, he is laughing, running about, playing with him,” said Nahil.
The family, whose tale could not be independently confirmed, has been granted asylum in Greece and will soon depart for Athens. AFP