Thread by @AliaMalek

now up @NYTimesAtWar the 3rd dispatch from my long term reporting project following several families from #Syria rebuilding their lives in Europe (currently in year 5)
His Family Fled Syria. He Didn’t Cry Until He Heard About His Sisters. nytimes.com/2020/06/02/mag…

I met Yousef, his mother, and 2 sisters in #Kos #Greece after they crossed the Aegean Sea in an over stuffed rubber dinghy of folks mostly from #Iraq and #Syria - Yousef was 13. This picture is from when they made it safely ashore after stalling adrift

His single mother sold off everything to fund their journey from #Syria - to help, Yousef offered up what he had of value - a PlayStation 2. Their plan was to reunite with his other sister who had asked for asylum in the #Netherlands

A kid who only wanted his mom and sisters to be happy, he went along w all the difficulties & humiliations of being a refugee, never complaining. He read a Dan Brown paperback along the way

But the plan was derailed and the family was separated. When his Mom told him at a border crossing that his sisters had been arrested in #Germany & would have to ask for asylum there, he finally lost it, crying hysterically, tho he has no memory of that

He did make it to the #Netherlands with his Mom. And they reunited with one sister. Here they are seeing each other for the first time in a year since they all fled #Syria

He spent nearly a year being bounced around #refugee camps in the #Netherlands - criss crossing the country. He recounts “vomit inducing bathrooms” but remembers most the constant exhaustion and uncertainty. Here are pix of one of those camps that I took in 2016, w Youssef

Eventually, after losing a yr of school,he & his mom were resettled in #Vlissingen -quickly, Yousef, who had to learn Dutch in a yr, moved to top of his class.But he’s struggled to make a single friend at school. Here 2018 his cohort lunches all together, but he doesn’t join

While this is ostensibly a #Syria #refugees series that’s not how he describes himself. “I’m an introverted, Syrian-born Gen Z nerd of above-average intelligence living in the Netherlands.” Beyond that, he’s not actually sure who he is,quick 2add that too is a typical Gen Z trait

When asked to assess the success of his family’s escape to Europe & if it was worth it, his metric is always his sisters’ & mother’s happiness. Spread across 4 cities, 2 countries, this pic I took in 2019 #Berlin is one of their few reunions

Thanks as always to @Lkatzenberg and @cjchivers for championing this work for @NYTimesAtWar - and most importantly thanks to Yousef and his family for opening their lives to me, 5 years running. Read more about the series here nytimes.com/2019/05/17/mag…

you can read about Suhair, Yousef's mom, here nytimes.com/2019/05/16/mag…

and about his sister Souad, here nytimes.com/2019/09/18/mag…