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TA N Z A N I A ince 2014 Europe has witnessed the biggest a four-month period between early August and late BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN T E R R I TO RY migration crisis since World War II, with November 2017, more than 500 migrants and refugees A N GO L A people arriving on the succeeded in making the crossing from Turkey, often more than 1.8 million C O M O ROS continent. Many took the so-called ‘Balkan in dangerous sailing conditions. A further 800 were Z A MB IA route’, arriving by sea to Greece and then travelling caught en route and detained by Turkish authorities. overland through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary and The new influx was triggered by smugglers sending on to Austria and Germany, and I spentZ Imuch boats full of migrants and refugees directly from Turkey MBA BWEof 2015 Mozambique Channel M ADAG AS CA R chronicling their passage along this well-trodden path to Romania in order to test theM AUviability of a ‘Black Sea RITIUS B OTSWA N A into the heart of the European Union. But by MOZ March A MB I Q U Eroute’. When I arrived in Romania to cover the freshly 2016, additional border security had made the journey opened crossing I found the country unprepared for N A MI B I A next to impossible and I found migrants and refugees the new arrivals, with officials scrambling to perform making increasingly difficult and risky journeys, often sea rescues and to find temporary accommodation and placing themselves in the hands of people smugglers provisions. SO U T H to get across closed borders. O n 1 2 t h S e p t e m b e r 2 017, t h e Ro m a n i a n AFR I CA Romania had largely been bypassed by the flood coastguard’s surveillance system detected the season’s of new arrivals – until last year. While in 2016 only one fifth such vessel. An old fishing boat was caught adrift migrant arrived in Romania by sea, over the course of in strong winds and poor weather, 32 nautical miles
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N IGERIA A new report by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency suggests that E THI O P I A Laccadive crackdowns on the four main routes S . S U DA N into Europe have greatly reduced the number Sea of migrants and refugees entering Europe. But with the traditional avenues Gulf of SO M A L I A blocked, desperate people are turning to new ways to reach the continent. Guinea K E NYA Jodi Hilton reports on attempts to open the perilous ‘Black Sea route’ into D E MOC R ATstory IC Romania – and the tragic of one couple who took it in search of a new life R E PU L I C C ONHILTON GO // WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY:OFJODI
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“Our road always began AFRICA with darkness” TU N IS IA
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Mohammed Gholamipour and Parvaneh Khezernejhad in Romania
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offshore. By late that evening the vessel had been towed to land after a complicated rescue in which the coastguard came alongside the boat and tried to coach the passengers on how to pilot it while a tugboat was summoned. It was finally brought into Midia, a shipping port north of Constanța. The 157 passengers who had been tightly packed on board were moved to a coastguard facility where they were detained while the authorities attempted to establish who qualified for asylum and who was responsible for the smuggling. Among those aboard were a Kurdish couple, Mohammed Gholamipour and Parvaneh Khezernejhad, from Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province, which shares a border with Turkey. The pair were newlyweds and expecting their first child. After a long and terrifying voyage, they had finally arrived in Europe.
stall at the market and sold shoes; at another, he and one of his brothers tried petrol smuggling, a common occupation in the border regions. That job ended in tragedy. Mohammed’s brother, who he calls his best friend, burned to death after police shot at his vehicle and it burst into flames. After that, Mohammed found jobs at a pharmacy and a hospital, worked as a forklift driver in Iraq and with family members making cabinets. Eventually, he managed to save a stash of money, enough to run away with Parvaneh, and the couple concocted a plan to elope to Turkey and on to Europe. One afternoon when Parvaneh was at home alone, Mohammed came to get her. “I left without anything, no clothes, nothing at all,” she recalls. “I could feel my heart beating hard in my chest,” adds Mohammed. “We held hands and drove to the station, where t wasn’t war or economic privation we left the car and we took a taxi to that caused Mohammed and Tabriz airport, five hours’ drive away.” Parvaneh to flee to Europe, but As they approached the airport love. Mohammed first noticed his cousin in Tabriz, Mohammed switched his Parvaneh at his brother’s wedding. She mobile phone on. It started beeping was ten years his junior, with dark eyes with messages from his brothers and and shiny black hair. “Somehow I fell in cousins, pleading with him to turn back. love with her. I could understand her If the couple left, their families would Mohammed and Parvaneh on their in every way,” he would later tell me. turn against them forever. But they were wedding day Determined to win her hand, he determined, propelled by their desire went to speak to his aunt, Parvaneh’s to be together. mother, about his feelings. When the They held each other’s hands answer came back that Parvaneh was tightly as they boarded a flight to Turkey. attracted to him too, Mohammed was In Istanbul, they were met by a people“over the moon”. The next step was smuggler who promised to get them to to formally propose and obtain the Europe, where they would be safe from approval of Parvaneh’s father. But their family’s vengeance. But first they there was a major hurdle: Parvaneh wanted to marry. was promised to another man. On top In a mosque in the Aksaray district of that, there was bad blood between of Istanbul, known as a neighbourhood Parvaneh’s father and Mohammed’s dad of immigrants and smugglers, – the two were brothers-in-law – and Mohammed and Parvaneh became he refused to give his consent. husband and wife. After the ceremony, they strolled In the years that followed, Mohammed persisted, up to Sultanahmet, where they posed in front of the but his uncle continued to reject the marriage proposals. fountain at the Hagia Sophia. In photos they took on Secretly, Mohammed gave Parvaneh a mobile phone their mobile phones, the couple look blissful: 32-year-old so they could communicate. “After that, we started Mohammed, handsome with his shock of wavy hair, talking to each other and we started loving each other,” and Parvaneh, now 23, relaxed with her hair loose and says Parvaneh. But falling in love was dangerous for a wearing western clothes. young Kurdish couple in a tight-knit tribal community in The smuggler had arranged documents and a which honour is prized above all else. “My uncle could do flight for the pair to Tbilisi in Georgia. From there, they anything. He could even kill both of us,” says Mohammed. planned to fly to Germany. But at the airport in Georgia Over the years, Mohammed had worked a variety officials suspected their forged French passports were of jobs. His father was elderly and his mother ill, and fakes, since neither of them spoke French. They were the family sank into poverty. At one point, he rented a held for deportation then sent back to Turkey. Once back
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If the couple left, their families would turn against them forever. But they were determined
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The old fishing boat that carried Mohammed, Parvaneh and over 150 other asylum-seekers to Romania
in Istanbul, they found the smuggler had disappeared, along with the €10,000 they had paid him. Shortly after their return, Parvaneh discovered she was pregnant. Around the same time they were tipped off that her brothers were looking for her and Mohammed in Turkey. “They would have killed both of us,” she tells me. After two months in Turkey, their savings were diminishing rapidly and they believed it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. They considered their options. First they thought about heading to Greece, but changed their minds after hearing reports that the country was struggling to cope with the migrants and refugees who were already there. Another option was to travel to Italy, but that route was long and becoming increasingly difficult. Finally, a friend tipped them off that there were ships taking people to Romania. From there, he said, they could travel overland to Germany. They paid €2,300 each for the journey. When they arrived for their voyage, instead of the comfortable tourist ferry that had been promised, they found a rusty blue-and-yellow fishing trawler, its fishing gear removed and more than 150 people crammed aboard.
The 12-hour journey they had anticipated turned into a three-day ordeal, as the unseaworthy vessel was tossed about in rough waters and buffeted by strong winds. Parvaneh was terribly seasick during the journey, her symptoms exacerbated by the pregnancy. Romania offered little comfort to the couple when they finally arrived. They spent three days in a detention centre while officials tried to identify the people-smugglers who had organised the journey and piloted the vessel. The investigation’s outcome came as a shock: Mohammed’s fingerprints – along with those of two other men, an Iraqi called Bryar and a Turk called Essen – had been found in the boat’s wheelhouse and the authorities’ suspicions had fallen on him. Having identified their suspects, police wrestled Mohammed to the ground and handcuffed him in front of the other detained immigrants. Eight months later, a rust-coloured mark still remains in his left eye from the injuries he sustained that day. As her husband was manhandled, Parvaneh looked on, shocked and afraid. Her dream of a life together with Mohammed was disintegrating. “They acted like they were trying to catch a murderer,” she says. THE SLOW JOURNALISM MAGAZINE
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round Romania there are several premises used Parvaneh and I arranged to meet again two weeks to accommodate asylum seekers as they wait for later at the Constanța tribunal where Mohammed was their cases to be assessed. At one dormitory I scheduled to appear in court for his first hearing. By visited in Bucharest, migrants and refugees, including this time Mohammed and the two other accused men women, children and elderly people, were standing had been moved to a crowded pre-trial detention facility outside on a cold day, trying to warm themselves in the while Parvaneh had been relocated to a centre for asylumweak winter sun. They complained about dirty conditions seekers a few hours’ drive from Constanța. She travelled and bedbugs. One girl’s hands were covered in bites. by bus to Constanța in order to attend the hearings. Some of those I met had been granted asylum, while Since our initial meeting, Parvaneh had received others were still waiting. Others had been denied and yet more bad news. She had been taken to the hospital were appealing the decision. Many had plans to continue for a medical check where doctors confirmed what she travelling towards Western European countries including already suspected: she’d suffered a miscarriage. Germany and the UK. Mohammed’s lawyer Serban wouldn’t initially In one sense they were lucky to be there at all. grant me an interview, so the lawyer appointed to defend Crossing the Black Sea, with its strong Bryar and Essen became my guide to the winds and unpredictable currents, can process. Unlike Serban, who is formal be perilous. and evasive, Sergiu is talkative and According to Mircea Mocanu, head prone to expressing his grievances in of the International Organisation for a flood of colloquial English peppered Migration in Romania, “The Black Sea with profanities. isn’t called the Black Sea for nothing. Sergiu told me that the system is It’s a very rough sea, with strong winds stacked against people like Mohammed blowing in from Russia, whipping up and that it’s all but impossible for them waves that are several metres high. to get a fair trial. Court-appointed It’s a lot more dangerous than the attorneys only receive nominal fees, Mediterranean.” he explained, which is insufficient for Coastguard captain Captain Catalin Parashiv, who them to conduct a proper investigation Catalin Parashiv pilots a large sea vessel in the Romanian on behalf of their clients. On top of coastguard and has also worked with that, Sergiu thought the prosecutor in Frontex, the European Border Agency Mohammed’s case was keen to make in the Mediterranean Sea, is one of an example out of the accused and that those on the frontline of the Black Sea the judge didn’t want to appear “soft”. route. “We are obligated to secure [the The prosecution began to prepare migrants and refugees] and give them its evidence. After having gathered the help they are asking for,” he says. “We f ingerprints, the police took the are obligated to save them from the sea.” accused aboard the boat, now docked in Constanța. They asked the suspects arrived in Romania a week after to show them round the vessel. The Mohammed and Par vaneh’s prosecutor’s report shows photographs boat was towed into Midia. They of Mohammed and the other two had been transferred to the city of suspects in the wheelhouse and the Constanța, where I went to meet some of those who engine room, where the police asked them to pose for had been on board. Neatly dressed in a double-breasted pictures. coat, wearing her long hair parted in the middle and Bryar and Essen told the same story: the captain pinned at the sides, Parvaneh stood out among the other abandoned his post and they and other passengers were passengers, most of whom were dressed in second-hand left to try to pilot the boat. Mohammed later detailed clothes provided to them by volunteers. his own version of events to me, handwritten over ten Through a translator Parvaneh told me about her pages of lined notebook paper while he was in prison. life growing up in a large Kurdish family, with 11 siblings According to the notes, over the course of the journey and five half-siblings through her father’s second wife. many passengers fell ill, but Parvaneh was one of the She loved to learn and dreamed of becoming a doctor, sickest. She was in the early stages of pregnancy and but was forced to quit a year before graduating high vomiting non-stop. Mohammed was desperate to help school. Her father didn’t approve of women’s education. her, so he convinced the captain to let her lie on the floor
We are obligated to secure the migrants and refugees. We are obligated to save them from the sea
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The three accused men, from left, Essen, Bryar and Mohammed talk with Sergiu Comanita, one of the two court-appointed attorneys, in the Constanta Tribunal where the case is being tried
of the bridge, where it was less crowded. Mohammed stood over her, standing upright for the entire trip so his wife could lie down. “For balance and to avoid falling on my pregnant wife, I held on to the accelerator,” he wrote, “That’s how my fingerprints came to be left there.” He categorically denies any involvement in people smuggling.
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omania appears to be taking a page from the playbook used by other European countries in trying to show it is tough on human trafficking. From the six boats that arrived in Romania in 2017, 12 suspects have been arrested. In many cases in Europe, there’s a thin line between refugees and people smugglers. The real criminals in the smuggling networks don’t travel abroad and those most likely to be caught by authorities are low-level operators. In September 2017, The Intercept reported that in Italy a number of people serving sentences for trafficking were forced at gunpoint to pilot boats or even simply hold a compass during the journey. The reports followed its 2016 investigation which claimed many suspects were held in custody on the basis of hastily-executed interviews
and flimsy evidence gathered from other passengers who may have been trying to save their own skins. Cosmin Barzan, the chairman of the Civic Resource Centre, a Romanian NGO that has provided aid to the new arrivals in Constanța, has heard such stories from migrants and refugees. “They advertise a nice yacht but instead they get a rusty dump,” he continues. “[As they approach their destination] the driver will tell them that the engine is broken. Then the driver disappears, and another boat comes and picks him up, because if he is spotted by the coastguard he faces ten years in prison. He leaves the boat drifting. Whoever puts his hands on the wheel is accused of being the driver.” Captain Parashiv agrees this can happen but also warns of another common strategy used by traffickers: “All the people from the wheelhouse go down to the open deck, trying to hide between the others, in order to say they were refugees,” he says. Barzan is clear how tough things can be for those who are charged. “No one could expect a fair trial in Romania,” says Barzan. “This also applies to the alleged smugglers… Foreign citizens face even more difficulty, given that they need an official interpreter.” THE SLOW JOURNALISM MAGAZINE
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n November 2017 I was back in Romania for In late March, Parvaneh called me, her voice Mohammed’s trial. With some reluctance, his lawyer high-pitched. In the basic English she’d been learning Serban agreed to talk with me this time. He gave since coming to Romania, she shared some good news. me a rapid summary of the case against Mohammed “Mohammed free, Jodi! Free, Mohammed!” The court and his two fellow defendants while he was rushing had accepted the defence lawyers’ pleas to rehouse between trials, dressed in a black frock coat. “There are their clients during the trial and the three accused four charges, but only one of them is true,” he said. “They men had been transferred to the accommodation for are entering the country illegally, human trafficking, asylum-seekers in which Parvaneh was staying, where driving a boat without a licence and operating a boat they would remain, free to come and go, while their without emergency equipment.” cases were considered. The next day, Parvaneh went to see Serban When I finally met Mohammed in person ahead and talked at length about the case. Serban told her of his next court date on Monday 16th April his cheeks that the authorities had signed statements made by were sunken. He told me that he had lost 12 kilogrammes witnesses implicating Mohammed, while in prison. He offered me tea but that – while the signatures were and proceeded to show me the places different – the statements appeared to police had hit his legs and arms and have been replicated. “They are literally the handcuffs had dug into his wrists. all the same,” Parvaneh told me. Serban He told me that after the beating and advised Parvaneh to gather new written arrest, he was made to sign a document testimonies from the other people who in Romanian that he couldn’t read. were aboard, stating that Mohammed Then he laid out a collection of his and wasn’t the driver. He told them that the Parvaneh’s Iranian identification and trial should start soon. bank cards for me to see. “A smuggler In l a t e No v e m b e r 2 017, t h e doesn’t travel with his ID,” he told Romania Insider website reported me. “I’m not this person that they are Parvaneh speaking to her that a verdict had been reached in the looking for.” imprisoned husband Mohammed case of two other accused smugglers, spent the Sunday afternoon one Bulgarian and one Cypriot. They before Mohammed’s next court had travelled on a boat from Istanbul appearance roaming around that was carrying 69 Iraqis who came Constanța, an ancient city featuring ashore in Romania in August, a month remnants of Greek, Byzantine before Mohammed and Parvaneh. The and Ottoman architecture, with him men were found guilty and sentenced and Parvaneh. to three-and-half years in prison and Parvaneh held Mohammed’s a fine of €3,260. After serving their hand and teased him and they posed sentences, they would be banned from for a playful photo near the iconic returning to Romania. It didn’t bode Art Nouveau casino, abandoned after well for Mohammed. the fall of communism. They walked Finally, on 10th December 2017, through the streets of the old town and the trial of Mohammed, Essen and visited the Grand Mosque, where they Bryar began, convening about once a month over the winter and spring. In mid-January 2018, ascended the minaret’s corkscrew stairs to take in the proceedings were cut short when the court-appointed view of Constanța’s harbour, palaces and churches. At lunch, over kebabs at a Turkish restaurant, I translator had a heart attack and was rushed to hospital. Sergiu was further dismayed to learn that the defence asked Parvaneh if she saw any changes in Mohammed. witnesses, also asylum-seekers, had been transferred “More love,” she whispered to me, giggling. The next day a group gathered at the Tribunal in to another asylum centre located much further away. A bit of good news came in late January 2018. Constanța. Parvaneh and Mohammed were there, along Parvaneh had been granted in asylum in Romania and with the other two suspects, the two court-appointed wouldn’t face deportation. I wrote to congratulate her. attorneys and two translators. A witness was called for the defence and questioned She was excited and sent me an emoji of a girl holding a giant heart. Mohammed and the two other suspects by the judge. Through an interpreter he stated that the remained in pre-trial detention, crowded in ten to a room. boat’s captain disappeared while the boat was crossing
The authorities know that Mohammed stayed and that helps to prove that he didn’t have anything to do with smuggling
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Parvaneh buying a bus ticket at the Constanta bus station, in order to return to the accommodation centre for asylum-seekers
the Black Sea. He also testified on the record that he paid the fee for his voyage to another man, not to any of the suspects. Then the court was shown a video found on Mohammed’s mobile phone. In the video Bryar, the young Iraqi, was at the helm while Essen, the Turkish suspect, stood next to him. “At some point, [after encountering the Romanian coastguard] we realised that no one was driving the boat,” testified Bryar, in his defence. He explained that, upon hearing this news, a group of about eight men went up to the helm. He says that the coastguard gave them instructions on how to steer the boat. “I asked Mohammed to film me driving as a souvenir,” he told the judge, who raised her eyebrows sceptically. An IraqiKurdish translator later explained to me that smugglers sometimes force immigrants to pose as drivers for videos in order to cover themselves. The court was dismissed until May, when a judgement would be announced. Sergiu feared the men might be sentenced to several years’ imprisonment. He informed his clients that they would have ten days to file an appeal if they were found guilty. On 25th May his fears were realised. Mohammed and his fellow defendants were found guilty and
sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. On learning of the verdict, Bryar and Essen fled to Iraq and Turkey respectively, neither of which have extradition agreements with Romania. Only Mohammed remains. His appeal is scheduled to begin in October 2018 and could last months. While awaiting the new trial he has been allowed to live with Parvaneh at a camp for asylum seekers in Constanța and hold down a job in a factory. “I’m optimistic that the court will come back with a positive decision,” says Parvaneh. “The other two suspects fled Romania illegally after the guilty verdict. The authorities know that Mohammed stayed and that helps to prove that he didn’t have anything to do with smuggling.” Even if the court clears Mohammed, the couple’s future is far from certain. Mohammed’s request for asylum in Romania has been denied, so unlike Parvaneh he is currently not allowed to stay should he be released, but will most likely face deportation to Iran. Their plan is to marry again in Romania, where their Turkish religious ceremony is not recognised, in the hope that validating their relationship could help Mohammed reverse his asylum status. THE SLOW JOURNALISM MAGAZINE
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Sun 15th APR 2018
Celebrity tree count As the Daily Mail reports that Gigi Hadid ate two burgers in three minutes, we calculate how many trees were felled to bring us the rest of April’s celebrity gossip RESEARCH: MARCUS WEBB AND MATILDA MANNING
Kym Marsh touched a waxwork of Simon Cowell on the thigh
How it works: We measured the amount of paper used for each story and multiplied it by the latest audited circulation of the publication and the GSM (grammes per square metre) of the paper to discover the overall weight. Environmental impact estimates were then made using the Environmental Paper Network Paper Calculator Version 3.2 (for more information visit c.environmentalpaper.org), factoring in the specific paper type of each publication. All estimates are approximate and rounded to the nearest tree.
Greg James drank a can of Carlsberg in the bath Carol Smillie has tea and toast for breakfast Ed Sheeran's bodyguard has joined Instagram Paul Knightley did not like a cheese toastie Sam Faiers made for him Charlotte Crosby wants to get a forehead reduction
Mohammed and Parvaneh in Constanta, Romania, after he was released from pre-trial detention
It’s a situation poetically summarised in lines from a love letter Mohammed wrote to Parvaneh from prison while awaiting trial: My love, my soul, my breath, my black eyed one Every road has a beginning, Our road always began with darkness It was nothing like we expected Meanwhile the Black Sea route seems to have closed once more. On 22nd September 2017, 24 migrants drowned and 14 were reported missing when a boat bound for Romania capsized off the shores of Turkey.
Amanda Holden fell asleep on a plane
No successful crossings have been registered since. It seems the violence of the waters and the severity of the Romanian authorities have proved too much of a deterrent for smugglers. While asylum-seekers continue to trickle in overland from Serbia, the Romanian authorities’ fear of a steep rise in new arrivals has not been realised. For many of those who do come here, such as Mohammed and Parvaneh, the experience has taken its toll. “I don’t want to stay in Romania,” Mohammed told me before the trial verdict. “It would be better to be executed by hanging in Iran than to suffer this way in Romania. Romania has really destroyed me.”
Jude Law wore black even though it was sunny Kendall Jenner rode a horse past a French castle Linda Robson is comfortable in a swimsuit The Queen is sad that one of her dogs has died Binky Felstead is fond of her child
NOTES
On the blog To follow the outcome of Mohammed’s appeal, visit the DG blog at slow-journalism.com/ blog where you’ll also find all our coverage of the migration crisis including:
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Publications:
The Syrian City In Exile
‘The devil of the sea’
After the Jungle
The crisis in infographics
In 2014 we visited Jordan’s Zaatari settlement, which was then the fourth largest refugee camp in the world
At the height of the crisis in July 2015 we interviewed Tunisia’s most notorious people smugglers
After police tore down the notorious Calais camp, DG visited France to see what happened to the 7,000 people who used to call it home
In issue 20 we told the story of the migration crisis, from its roots in the Arab Spring to its impact across the world
Closer
Heat
Hello!
OK!
Taking covers
Celebrities whose image appeared on the most front covers of the big four gossip mags this month
Meghan Markle Six covers
Victoria Beckham Six covers
Cheryl Tweedy Four covers
The Duchess of Cambridge Four covers
Ferne McCann Four covers
THE SLOW JOURNALISM MAGAZINE
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