Abu Rami Story

My name is Muhammad Hussein Bakir “Abu Rami.” I was born in 1942, from Tirat al- Carmel.

We were displaced to Aleppo in 1948, like many Palestinians who settled in Syria. It was my first experience with asylum. I studied even under our difficult circumstances and took a baccalaureate in Aleppo. I came to Britain in 1962 and studied civil engineering. In 1972 I travelled to Kuwait and worked there as a civil engineer in a British company and as a consultant. I got married in 1975 and God had blessed us with six daughters. One of them died in the nineties.

After the Gulf war, we returned to Aleppo in 1990, and I worked there at the thermal power station in Aleppo and then at the military housing in Aleppo for ten years. My wife passed away in 2002, and I found myself in my current situation. I must stand with my daughters and raise them by myself, and my life was dedicated to them.

In 2015, we had to leave Aleppo because of the bad conditions, and we went to Turkey and from there by sea to Greece and travelled a distance between walking and trains to Sweden. I was 73 years old at the time, and I became a refugee for the second time in my life. My girls are spread out, two of them are with me in Sweden, two Germany and one in Jordan.

In Sweden, my daily life is with my daughters and my friends here in the mosque. I walk around the city and spend a lot of time with my grandchild, receiving guests and bidding farewell. Praise be to god, things are good and comfortable because my daughters are beside me.

I wish I could return one day to Aleppo, even just to visit, if I had a Swedish passport. I wish I could visit Tirat al-Carmel. Even when we want to dream, we see our childhood.