SOFIA, Bulgaria — Sherzad Ahmed, a 20-year-old Kurdish migrant decides to take the unbeaten path and walk all the way from Turkey to Bulgaria by himself instead of relying on smugglers as most others do.
Ahmed of the town of Rawanduz was arrested by the Bulgarian police near the city of Lyubimets after his 26-hour trek and put in prison with many other Kurdish and foreign migrants who had crossed illegally into the country.
“I was deprived of family love, that’s why I decided to migrate,” he told Rudaw from Lyubimets prison.
Ahmed’s mother died when he was only four, and his father remarried. He therefore grew up in his uncle’s home and worked from a very young age a variety of jobs to survive.
He decided to leave the Kurdistan Region in July and head to Europe.
With little support from his uncle he traveled to Turkey where he stayed for a week before heading out towards Bulgaria alone.
He searched the route on Google.
“I travelled from Istanbul to Edirne at 10:00 am, after seven days. I arrived at my destination at 2:00 pm,” Ahmed recounted the first leg of his journey.
Ahmed of the town of Rawanduz was arrested by the Bulgarian police near the city of Lyubimets after his 26-hour trek and put in prison with many other Kurdish and foreign migrants who had crossed illegally into the country.
“I was deprived of family love, that’s why I decided to migrate,” he told Rudaw from Lyubimets prison.
Ahmed’s mother died when he was only four, and his father remarried. He therefore grew up in his uncle’s home and worked from a very young age a variety of jobs to survive.
He decided to leave the Kurdistan Region in July and head to Europe.
With little support from his uncle he traveled to Turkey where he stayed for a week before heading out towards Bulgaria alone.
He searched the route on Google.
“I travelled from Istanbul to Edirne at 10:00 am, after seven days. I arrived at my destination at 2:00 pm,” Ahmed recounted the first leg of his journey.
“I ate something and then rested. I asked an old man some questions about the road. He advised me not to take the road alone or I will die. Two Kurdish brothers froze to death on this road last year,”
“I looked at the map, searching for the surrounding areas of Edirne. I carried my backpack and started to walk toward there.”
The real part of his lone trek began at the Bulgarian border where he stayed off the main road and kept watch lest he should be seen by locals who may report him to the police.
“The sky was dark, and the moon was shining,” Ahmed recalled. “I passed the village and reached a small forest outside. There was no one there. The forest sound scared me. A group of dogs suddenly appeared and came toward me. I defended myself and pushed the dogs back. I was feeling extremely lonely. My eyes were tearful. I, nonetheless, didn’t give up and kept going.”
After ten more hours of walking and passing through woods and farms he came up to the Bulgarian border fence and jumped it after a little rest.
The barbed wires ripped his bands and clothes and his hands bled much of the way.
Sometime after nine o’clock that night he decides to stop an oncoming car and ask him to take him somewhere. The vehicle turns out to be a taxi which takes him to a nearby café for 50 euros.
After a meal, he comes out and exhaustion catches up with him and he falls asleep in front of the café.
Taxi drivers try to exploit him for an expensive ride to the capital Sofia. He eventually finds a driver who is willing to take him there for 150 Euros, but first he asks to see his identity papers.
Upon learning he is an illegal migrant he calls the police on him who duly arrest him. Following a brief questioning they lock him up in Lyubimets prison.
He spends two weeks in that prison then released after taking his fingerprints.
His arduous journey and encounter with the police and prison do not dampen his determination to reach Western Europe and he is now waiting for the first opportunity to walk out of Bulgaria.
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