Refugees who crossed Mediterranean in boat arrive in Sligo
“We came in plastic boat,” said former medical student Qais Khalaf, ( pictured top left) as he walked up Quay Street in Sligo last Friday morning.
“Me and my wife and family come from Deir al- Zour,” he told The Sligo Champion. It is the site of the deadly poison gas attack two weeks ago in Idlib province in which more than 80 died.
“There was a lot of violence, war, bombs, terrorists like ISIS, education stopped. We came to Europe last year but the borders closed in Macedonia and we entered the re- location programme and came to Ireland,” he said. “I crossed the Mediterranean from Turkey to a Greek Island with my family, in a plastic boat. It was very tough. We arrived in Greece on 19 February last year. After that Ireland accepted us,” he said.
Jenan ( 30) is here with her mother Sehan ( 62) and daughters Ahlam ( 10) and Jude ( 6). She said the bombs in Deir al- Zour were “very bad.”