Asylum-seekers choose wildfire over police, lose deadly gamble
As they traversed the harsh, wooded terrain in northeastern Greece, the 18 asylum-seekers were presented with an agonizing dilemma: Take the safer route through villages and over highways but into the arms of the Greek authorities, or travel through the forests and fields being ravaged by Europe's largest recorded wildfire.
They opted for the forests. On Aug. 21, around 9 p.m., the group of asylum-seekers burned to death in Europe's largest recorded wildfire. Their bodies, charred beyond recognition, were discovered the next day.
Greek authorities assumed the victims were migrants because no one was looking for missing people locally. And for more than a month, their identities, and the circumstances of their deaths, remained a mystery.
But over weeks of reporting, The New York Times was able to piece together previously unknown details about the group's journey in its desperate final hours. The reporting shows that at least 12 had already been captured once before by Greek border guards and turned back to Turkey.
Their decision to risk the wildfire was meant to avoid recapture at any cost. They were fleeing war-ravaged Syria, seeking what they hoped would be a better life in Europe.
Instead, they died on a rocky hillside, their ashes now mixed with the gray-scale landscape of Evros, where the climate crisis fueling ferocious wildfires collided with the migrant crisis that has long brought tragedy to this region.
Only one body has been identified conclusively through DNA testing, because most of the close relatives of the rest live in Syria and cannot travel to provide similar tests.
Even today, the father of one of the boys presumed to have died in the fire still holds out hope. “My heart tells me he is alive,” he said.
The dilemma: Face the police or risk encounter with wildfire
When Basel al-Ahmad and his older brother Qusai were growing up outside Aleppo, Syria, Basel had been the playful and mischievous one, according to one of their younger cousins, leading the gaggle of boys in epic stone-slinging competitions. But at 15, inspired by Qusai's studiousness, Basel underwent a transformation.
He finished his master's degree in engineering at the top of his class at the University of Aleppo, his brother said, and had spent the past few months aiding recovery efforts after the catastrophic earthquake in Turkey and northwestern Syria. But he felt the only way to build a life was to join his brother and cousins in Norway, where they had all been granted refugee status over the past decade.
Basel, 28, went from Syria to Turkey, and on Aug. 11, with the help of a smuggler, he crossed the border into Greece with 11 others. But three days later, the group was detained by border guards and sent back to Turkey, according to WhatsApp messages sent to Basel's brother and reviewed by the Times.
It was not an uncommon occurrence. Greece now has a record as one of Europe's most hostile countries toward migrants. In recent years, authorities have cracked down on asylum-seekers at the borders, often using violence and extrajudicial deportations, according to news reports, rights groups and internal findings by the European Union border agency.
On a second attempt with the same group, Basel crossed the border into Greece on Aug. 17, two days before the wildfire broke out in the forest he was trying to traverse.
Messages to his brother show that Basel and his group, to stay out of the sight of the police and the army, had to keep running on wooded paths and hope the fire stayed behind them.
On Aug. 20, Basel sent a voice message to Qusai: A driver was supposed to pick up the group from a spot outside the village of Avas, but the fire was raging nearby.
At 4 p.m. the next day, Basel sent Qusai a video of a helicopter dropping water on the fire, very near the group.
Another video, sent at 8:12 p.m., showed part of the group, including at least five minors, walking hastily away from plumes of smoke.
The group's last known location was near Avas. Basel was last online on WhatsApp on Aug. 21 at 8:18 p.m. In interviews, several local residents said the fire burned through the area between 8 and 9 p.m.
The next day, Greek authorities announced the 18 deaths, setting off panic among the families. Qusai began a methodical search for his younger brother.