Transit or death.. Victims of psychological suffering

By: salah laban

Zainab al-Bashir, a 33-year-old Sudanese girl who was a trauma victim, fled her home after being subjected to domestic violence. She was tortured by her family because of differences in her ideas and because of her respect for all religions.

On 17 March 2017, a history that is engraved in the memory of Zenab, witness the beginning of bitter experience, that day she decided to travel to Egypt in any way. After Friday prayers, she subjected to a torture ceremony by her father and two of her brothers, coincided with the date of the menstrual cycle. She received sporadic blows in her body in general, and in the abdomen in particular, to suffer hemorrhage as a result.

I met zenab in a small apartment, consisting of two rooms in the 6th of October City, paying its monthly rents in cooperation with two of her colleagues. She began telling the details of the incident: “They hit me that day after Friday prayers until evening at different intervals, without eating or drinking, I could not move, and then I entered into a fit of convulsions, accompanied by bleeding ».

Bashir pointed out that she received strong punches, especially from her brother, who was hitting her in the stomach with his foot, she continued; “I saw my blood on my parents’ clothes, and I feel they want to kill me, not change my thoughts,”

The Sudanese girl was able to reach Egypt, traveling by air through the help of her friends, as the Sudan requires the consent of the guardian of the girl who wants to travel, whether a father or a husband, which is inaccessible.

“Unfortunately, my family left me with a psychological effects that I cannot erase,”

Zeinab said. “With my menstrual cycle every month, I remember the torture, I enter a state of convulsions; I feel the pain of torture, as if it were happing now.

This have directed me to meet a psychological specialist and started my treatment trip with some exercises, and now I feel a relative improvement, and I continue to meet her».

The Sudanese girl is facing another crisis; she lives alone in Egypt, but whenever she remembers the torture she suffered, from her family, because of her passion for getting to know all religions, she finds herself in a better position.

Jawahar Hussain, a Somali girl who now lives with a family in the Maadi area, provides them with her services for a monthly wage to help her live. She kept the secrets of her story throughout the years she left her home, but finally decided to reveal the details of her tragic journey. She no longer tolerates silence.

Jawhar reports me « the path she has taken to escape from her state; “I resorted to brokers to help me travel from Somalia to Kenya, and I spent three months there until some friends told me about their intention to go to southern Sudan, I demanded to accompany them.”

The Somali girl points out that she was unable to cross the Ugandan border. She was imprisoned for three months after being caught because she was taking an illegal route.

After that period, the security told her that she had to leave the country within 24 hours. “We had two choices: either to go back to Kenya or to continue our journey to southern Sudan and we do not have intact papers, we were in great confusion” she said.

Jawahar maintained contact with a Somali merchant, who owned a truck transporting goods to southern Sudan, and asked him for assistance. He told her to manage herself until some young men were sent to help her cross the border.

“I hid with a friend, who accompanied me on the journey in a scary forest, until the young people came to us, we moved with them and we reached another forest, and there we fell into the hands of individuals who were not wearing clothes! They were naked, like monkeys, they were the men of the jungle, they ate the worms, and the leaves of the trees, they caught us and tied us with ropes.

Jawahar was eating something like corn, as she had not accept to eat the worms and leaves. She had been a hostage for two months, then she was released and everyone with her, she started the journey back to southern Sudan, finally was able to arrive by her friend’s truck and she received medical care at a hospital.

The thirtieth girl did not have any money, but the brokers asked her for 5,000 pounds for taking her to Egypt, prompting young people from Somalia to collect the sum, in order to help her to get from Sudan to Aswan.

Jawahar learned that the friend who accompanied her died, after they separated in southern Sudan, as she could not bear the

difficulty of the journey. This period passed like a nightmare. She then began registering herself at the Cairo Commission. She managed to obtain the blue card and to be recognized as a refugee.

The story did not stop at that point. Somali refugees told her that they would leave Egypt by sea. She asked them to communicate with the intermediaries and that is what happened. She told them that she did not have the money.

The answer was that she had to convince four other people to travel to accompany them for free and that what she did.

“We were more than 200 people of different nationalities, gathered together in a deserted, hall-like place, but the walls of the building were broken.” Jawahar described that place which is near the sea. She pointed out that she stayed there for seven days, having one meal in the morning, which was a dish of beans and a loaf of bread.

The group was unable to speak or move during that period except with permission. The phones were taken from them, and one bathroom was set aside for their needs. The most dangerous thing was when the gang placed them in a large truck wrapped from the top with a plastic sack when the police stormed the area.

Jawaher was arrested for a month before UNHCR intervened. She got out of the trouble and despite what she was subjected to, she repeated it, as she told us again, in less than 30 days later. They moved quickly by boat. After 24 hours, they were discovered, were returned to the port of Alexandria, and from there to the prison and the Commission intervened again.

Women who experience such adventures are overwhelmed by psychological and physical suffering. Their ears are familiarized to cursing, and their bodies are gotten used to being hit. They are forced to that as a result of the circumstances in which they are exposed.

Jawahar is a victim of the circumstances in some African countries, she says that she was forced to leave home after her country witnessed a war estimated to be as much as her age; thirty years. She ended her talk crying and said; “I tried to sell my kidney, but I did not find anyone to buy it.

In Esmat Abd Allah Street, in Faisal district in Giza, I sat with Nira Ibrahim, a pseudonym for an Eritrean girl. She agreed to talk to us, provided that hiding her face and changing her name for fear of her husband’s family. She did not want them to know details about her and get her children away from her.

Nira says that she left Eritrea, aged 19 years, six years ago, noting that her brothers traveled to Libya in search of work, but she lost contact with them completely, and do not know any information about them.

“I left my country when I was young. I had only one bracelet. I told the brokers that I would give it to them as soon as I arrive in Aswan. The journey was difficult, especially as I was walking with three children besides the pregnancy” said the Eritrean girl.

She pointed out that everyone accompanied her on the trip was paying in dollars, but they have taken pity on me. When I arrived in Egypt, I had great difficulty adapting to the Egyptian culture, which differed from us. I tried to be the father and mother of my children.

I registered myself with the UNHCR. After years, I got the blue card.

Nira says she has not received the monthly aid from the UNHCR for several months. When she asked why, they told her that this applies to everyone, and it does not concern her alone. “Thank Allah, I live with girls who let me eat with them.”

After that, I contacted the Ethiopian young man Ibrahim Saadane, who agreed to meet me at the Maadi Gardens area, at the headquarters of the Ethiopian community, where is a two-room apartment, one of which is a lecture hall and there was a board in which some mathematical equations were written.

The Ethiopian young man was hesitant to talk despite his prior consent. I told him that I would not get his story against his will, and while I was leaving, he told me that he had no objection to talk with me.

“I have had many problems in my country, including being imprisoned, so I decided to come to Egypt. It was a difficult journey. My friend Shamsuddin died,” Saadane started his talk.

He continued; “I paid $ 300 from Oromia to Metemma, paid $ 500 from Metemma to Khartoum and paid $ 700 from Khartoum to Aswan. The total amount I gave to the brokers was $ 1,500.”

He said that his trip lasted 3 days from Ethiopia to Metemma, 5 days from Metemma to Khartoum and 8 days from Khartoum to Sudan. I was walking all this way on foot because I did not have a passport.

Maysoun Obeida, a pseudonym for a woman from the Dinka tribe in southern Sudan, also suffers from a complex problem. She lives with her child in Egypt, while her daughter is getting care from her uncle, who refuses to hand her over to her.

The story is that the marriage customs of the Dinka tribe require that the groom pay the bride a money, a dowry, either to be a number of cows, or to pledge to offer it after a period of relationship with the girl he wants. This matter is customary and not governed by official papers. The divorce means the return of money, i.e. cows given by the husband.

Mason left the man who paid the money and did not continue with him, which angered the father. As he had to return the cows he had received for his daughter, so he asked Mason to come back to get married again, so that he would get cows from someone else and give the old ones to whom she had left.

According to the Dinka tribe, the daughter of Mason is entitled to her father and uncle, because when she grows up money would be paid for her.

The Sudanese girl does not want to be subject to the customs of the tribe, which affects her psychologically. She does not accept these customs, thus she went to a legal office to restore her daughter from her father and her uncle.

There is another story we knew during our journey in this world that is full of human tragedies, its hero is a Sudanese child: Omar Adam, who suffered a psychological problem, its incidents have taken place last year when he was 16 years old. While working with his uncle in a garage, he hit the woman, who was caring for him. He accidentally killed her while he was leaving with her car from the garage.

He carried the woman, and went to the hospital, but she lost life. The child became in front of the body of the woman, whom he loved, unbelieving that he caused the death of who honored him.

The mother of Omar used all legal means to prevent her son from being jailed. The child remained in prison for a month and a half.

He suffered from the bitterness of the prison on the one hand, and a psychological crisis that accompanied him in killing the woman, who was caring for him, on the other hand. Although the child prove his innocence, he still suffering from psychological trauma, did not find echo with his family, who did not expose him to specialists in the field of psychological rehabilitation.

Tragic stories have left their effects on these victims. Some of them did not find it difficult to submit to treatment under the supervision of a psychologist. Others refused treatment and going to doctors, left to the suffering … between rejection and response, the African refugee lives a difficult life in search of solutions, mostly he cannot handle it …

«Psychological rehabilitation of refugees»

A recent study, conducted by the Criminal Research Institute in Lower Saxony jurisdiction, Germany, found that refugees from Africa face a higher risk of trauma than from Arabs, noting that asylum seekers, especially those from Central Africa, suffer more from the stress disorder following trauma.

This study was our motive to know the way the African refugee think after his illegal journey, what obstacles prevent him from integrating into other nationalities? and how is he affected by the difficult circumstances he witnessed in his homeland?

I headed to Qasr El-Nil Street in central Cairo. I was heading to »Haq«office, which is responsible for following up on African refugee issues and providing psychological support to them.

Yasser Farraj, an Egyptian man, who lived in Sudan in his childhood and quickly assimilated into Sudanese society, runs it. Then, he got to know the Sudanese culture and now speaks their language.

He was president of the Union of Students in the High School, although the number of Egyptian students in the Sudanese school is only five.

Faraj provides legal assistance to all African refugees, he get specialized in that after an extensive study of cultures that characterize every African country so that he can understand their customs.

He sometimes provides free legal advice as he know the conditions of African refugees. When he discovers that the legal problem falls under psychological crises, he referring the refugee to a psychologist.

There are two psychiatrists in the same office.

The director of the”Haq” office says that African societies in Egypt are closed, afraid of integration into Egyptian society.

They find it difficult to deal with Egyptians. Thus, they have difficulty in getting work, and if they find it, they get low salaries. They also do not get work contracts and therefore there is no legal basis for obtaining their rights to work.

I talked enough to the man, who is fluent in African dialects, to sit with Dr. Tahani Kassem, the African psychiatrist in Egypt, who oversaw the treatment of Sudanese girl, Zainab Al-Bashir.

Kassem says that most of the refugees suffer from psychological trauma, but it is divided into levels A, a person with a psychological problem or one of his acquaintances, and level B, who is heard by one of his family that they had a problem.

Level C is a complex psychological crisis, as he suffered a crisis, and heard that his family had a problem.

Psychological specialist suggests that the effects of psychological trauma may last 40 years, if the

person is not treated, and I treat each refugee according to his culture, so the African refugee cannot be treated by a doctor who is not familiar with other cultures.

What is attractive in Dr. Tahani Kassem talk is what she says about being subject to a huge psychological harm when she left her country; “I was in a state of mental disorder, because I was forced to leave my country, I was afraid of integration into Egyptian society.

But I treated myself by treating others,” I also spoke to myself before my words were addressed to them.”

The Sudanese woman studied psychology in her country and gained considerable experience in her field after interviewing hundreds of refugees who suffer from psychological crises due to their harsh journeys.

She says that 75% of the refugees suffer from psychological trauma.

I concluded, from those two interview, adifferent point of view about problems that suffered by refugees. Whereas, the Arabs who come from Syria, Iraq and Yemen to Egypt have a close culture that enables them to work and integrate into Egyptian society.

On the other hand, there are African refugees who cannot find work due to the difficulty of coping with the Egyptians because of the different culture.