Merzad
Merzad is a 32 year old Afghan refugee who arrived in the UK in April 2008. He escaped Afghanistan by hiding in the back of a car. When he reached Iran he was hidden in a cellar with a group of migrants until it was safe to walk across the border into Turkey. During the night a group of Iranians came to the cellar with guns and stole all their money and documents. They were warned that if they complained, the smuggler would kill them.
"They took our money and they told us not to create any problems for the driver of the car as 'in the future that will be very dangerous for you and for other Afghan people [...]' We spoke to another agent and we told him that our money had been taken, and he replied 'don't complain because these men are capable of killing you..' "
He continued the journey by lorry from Istanbul to the coast where he boarded a boat bound for Greece. The boat was small and massively overloaded and experienced difficulties in reaching the Greek coast due to the bad weather. For five days he was trapped on the boat with 52 other people, as it was tossed about by the waves.
"Was small, 52 we've been together... everybody cried a lot and we were scared and 17 people they been in coma... the weather was very hot and we couldn't find any water to drink... the waves were very very high."
When he tried to contact the coast guard for help the smugglers threatened him with a knife.
"I spoke with the driver of the boat and I begged him ‘please come I can't speak English, speak with the police' and he switch off the telephone... and he said ‘oh, they will put me in jail for 12 years, we will reach Greece in 2 hours We spent 5 more days at sea... the Greek police called and asked ‘where are you? We would like to help you but we can't find you', we were surrounded by water for miles with no sign of other vessels or lands."
In total, the journey cost him $23,000 and nearly killed him.
"Everywhere was very dangerous and when I fighted in Afghanistan that was better than that journey which I came here. I was very scared and everywhere was very dangerous."
(Source: British Refugee Council)