Migration

Ten years after Angela Merkel declared ‘We can do this’ at the height of the 2015 migration into Europe, Syrian refugee Somar Kreker looks back at his 44-day odyssey

The trip would be tough, Somar Kreker knew, but he was not overly fearful. It was the summer of 2015, and in a small flat in Amman, Jordan, this young Syrian’s only thought was how to turn a long and arduous journey into something more bearable. The engineering student had fled Syria three and a half years earlier after refusing to enlist in the brutal regime’s army. He was now ready to begin a new chapter of his life, starting with a new task: to reunite with his younger sisters, still trapped in Damascus, and lead them to Germany, where their brother was living.

“I was never worried or stressed about the trip,” says Somar, just 27 years old at the time. “I never had any thought about danger or failure. My only thoughts were how I could make the trip a happy adventure for me and my sisters.

Coastguard reports boat carrying about 160 people capsized in sight of town 50 miles north of Nouakchott

Sixty-nine people drowned when a vessel full of migrants overturned off the coast of Mauritania earlier this week, coastguard officials said on Friday.

The accident occurred late on Tuesday after passengers on the boat spotted the lights of a coastal town about 50 miles (80km) north of the capital, Nouakchott, prompting the occupants to press to one side of the boat, causing it to capsize, Mohamed Abdallah, the head of the coastguard, told reporters.