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Arrives in Austria Together

They had followed a self styled Pied Piper, who goes by the name Abu al Majd, out of the tent city in the underground concourse of Budapest Keleti train station on Friday. After urging the migrants stuck there to hit the road, he led them out of the train station, across the Danube and out of the city.

Their two sisters had stayed behind, worried buy canada goose jacket that the 109 mile hike along the M 1 highway to the Austrian border would be too much for them. Too late, they realized that two of their brothers had their passports.

He said he had come all the way from Austria to see his siblings for the first time in three years. He did not want to give his name, because people who knew him in Austria did not all realize that he had been a refugee, and he wanted to keep it that way.

There were things about Syria that he dearly missed.

Before the civil war, everyone was honest, he said. canada goose coats He had once left his small electronics repair shop unlocked cheap Canada Goose overnight, and no one took a thing.

Yet Canada Goose sale the war had shredded the civil society that he knew, so he fled, staying in Turkey at first then paying smugglers to take him to Germany. Canada Goose Outlet He remembered the bill exactly: Canada Goose Parka 8,350 euros for the smugglers, a total of 9,000 euros with expenses.

He wanted to go to Germany, but as he was being taken through Austria with seven other migrants, Canada Goose Jackets the police stopped the car and gave them a choice: Have your fingerprints taken in Austria and remain there to take your chances on receiving asylum, or be sent back to Syria.

About 40 minutes later, a woman came and cooked for them. He is still so touched by the memory of this kindness that canada goose store he keeps photographs of the dinner and the woman who cooked it in his cellphone.

When his two sisters and two brothers decided to leave canada goose replica Syria as well and arrived in Budapest, he could not wait to see them.

The first night in Budapest, he slept in a hotel. After that, he moved to the train station floor, next to his brothers and sisters. canadian goose jacket “I can’t sleep in a hotel with them on the street,” he said.

He caught up with his brothers just as Abu al Majd march turned Canada Goose online onto the highway, forcing traffic to detour around them. One brother was holding an umbrella, to shade himself from the noon sun. The other was holding up a color photograph of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

“This is my mom,” the second brother said. “I think she is the only one who cares about us.”

He did not mind giving his name, Ayaz Morad, 22, an English literature student from Qamishli. He and his brother had sold their house to pay for the trip. canada goose black friday sale Crossing from Turkey to Greece, they had spent 12 hours adrift in a dinghy off the island of Lesbos.

They were sure they would die, before the Greek coast guard rescued them. From Lesbos they took a ferry to Kavala, then made their way by land to Hungary.

At the Hungarian border, they joined about 20 other migrants who had paid smugglers 50 euros a head Canada Goose Coats On Sale to cut the barbed wire fence and let them through. Then they loaded canada goose coats on sale six people into a taxi, at a price of 250 euros each, and drove to Keleti station. He was in awe of how much money the smugglers had made.

By comparison, walking to Austria from Budapest buy canada goose jacket cheap seemed like good exercise. “A lot of people got canada goose thinner on this trip,” Mr. Morad said, patting his flat stomach. “But I was always like this.”

The three brothers marched together for a while. Then the brother who lives in Austria returned to Keleti, with his sisters passports. Hours later, the Hungarian government capitulated and allowed all the migrants to cross into Austria.

On Sunday morning, the brother who lives in Austria sent a text: “Say congratulations. We are in Vienna.” It came with a smiley face and a thumbs up.

Over the weekend, the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, published a photograph. In the foreground was Ayaz Morad. He was holding up the picture of his foster mother.

As the family crossed the Danish border from Flensburg, Germany, on Monday, the police stopped the train and took all the refugees Canada Goose Online and migrants off. Ahmad Majid, his brother Farid, their wives, children and other relatives traveling with them were taken to a makeshift detention center at a decommissioned school in Padborg, a truck stop town of little 2018 Canada Goose uk cottages near the border.

At the school, the Danes treated them with an iron fist in a velvet glove. The migrants were given thin foam mattresses, blankets, hot food and balls for the children to play with. But armed police guarded every door, sending a message that the migrants were prisoners there, not free to come and go as in the German shelter where the family had spent a night.

The police told them they had a choice: Stay in Denmark and apply canada goose clearance sale for asylum, or return to Germany. But they would not be permitted to cross Denmark to go to Sweden.

The Majids were still undecided about their plans when they got a taste of Danish justice. They were told that before they could go anywhere, all the migrants detained at the former school had to go to a police station for processing. The family was divided into two groups, the two brothers with their wives and children in one, the three young male relatives traveling with them in another. It was the first time they had been divided despite crossing many borders since their flight from Syria.

The group with the two brothers was taken by a police salecanadagooseoutlets van to a station far away, they said later. Ahmad Majid estimated that he and his family had traveled more than 200 kilometers, based on the amount of time they were on the road. They had no idea where they were. Once at the station, they were put in separate cells.

When Mr. Majid asked for food for the children, offering 100 euros to pay for it, a police officer gave him sugar cubes, he said, fishing the still wrapped cubes out of his jacket pocket.

The three young men were taken to another police station, also far from the Padborg school, based on the travel time. There they were ordered to strip naked and twirl around in front of police officers, they said. Then they were locked up in two cells.

Mr. canada goose deals Majid and his brother were shaking with anger by the time the police interviewed them about whether they wanted to seek asylum in Denmark or return to Germany. At that point, they said, the invitation to seek asylum in canada goose clearance Denmark seemed insincere, like a bad joke.

“Even if Denmark was made of gold, I would not want to stay here, ever,” Farid Majid said he had told the Danish police.