Hara Hotel: A Tale of Syrian Refugees in Greece

by Teresa Thornhill

Overview

A first-hand account of a Greek refugee camp—and the stories of the refugees staying there

Syrian Kurd Juwan Azad left his home and family in Damascus in 2011 to flee military service under the al-Assad regime. After several troubled years as a refugee in Turkey, he arrived in Greece by sea, on the route taken by hundreds of thousands of his fellow Syrians seeking a safe haven in Europe. But as borders closed across the Balkans in early 2016, Juwan and his fellow Syrians found themselves blocked from travelling any further.

Teresa Thornhill volunteered at Hara Hotel, a makeshift camp on the Greece–Macedonia border. An Arabic speaker, she met Syrians from all walks of life as she distributed clothing and organized activities for children. One of the Syrians was Juwan, who would later walk through the mountains of Macedonia to safety in Austria.

In Hara Hotel, Thornhill interweaves a narrative of daily life at the camp with Juwan’s extraordinary story, the recent history of the revolution in Syria, and an account of the ensuing civil war, painting a vivid picture of the predicament of Syrians trapped on Europe’s borders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786635228
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	711 KB

About the Author

Teresa Thornhill is a linguist, writer and child protection barrister with a special interest in the Middle East. She holds a Masters degree in Middle Eastern Studies from SOAS. Her previous publications include Sweet Tea with Cardamom: A journey through Iraqi Kurdistan; The Curtain Maker of Beirut: Conversations with the Lebanese and Making Women Talk: the Interrogation of Palestinian Women Prisoners by the Israeli General Security Services.

Table of Contents

Maps ix

Introduction: A Man Wades out of the Sea, January 2016 1

List of Abbreviations 9

Part I Greece, April 2016

1 Hara Hotel and the Family from Homs 13

2 'We didn't risk our lives for this' 25

3 The Assad Dynasty 48

4 The Engineer from Damascus 63

5 A Young Helper 85

6 Children's Corner and a Smuggler 101

7 A Burning Summer 110

8 Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran 123

9 'Here, have my boots!' 135

10 Rice Pudding 148

11 'Why won't the UK let us in?' 174

12 Skype Calls Go Unanswered 189

13 Rain and an Encounter with the Greek Secret Service 204

14 Farewell to Hara 226

Part II Austria, August 2016

15 Refugees Are Welcome Here 257

16 A Long Walk in the Mountains 261

Part III Greece, January 2017

17 Freezing to Death on Europe's Doorstep 291

18 Sunlight on Snow 312

Epilogue: And the War Goes On 328

Acknowledgements 333

Notes 335

Editorial Reviews

The intimate, deeply felt account of a volunteer who worked with Syrians during the years they were stranded in Greece, which, unlike so many stories of the refugee crisis, does not shy away from speaking about the forces that tore those refugees from their homes.”
—Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood

“A vivid first-hand account of Europe’s failure to protect the refugees at its borders, and a tale of solidarity that points to how things could be different in future.”
—Daniel Trilling, author of Bloody Nasty People

“Eminently readable … The author’s humanity jumps out on every page. She tells both the very human stories of individual refugees, and through them, the story of the disintegration of Syria that has led them to flee. Strongly recommended!”
—Professor Richard Black, Pro-Director (Research & Enterprise), SOAS

“Thornhill overlays the wrenching refugee sagas with her personal quest to understand why Syria began its alarming unraveling in 2011. What she learned … will certainly enlighten casual followers of that nation’s bloodshed. A brave, affecting book about a continuing humanitarian crisis.”
—Kirkus

From the Publisher

2018-01-10
Thornhill (The Curtain Maker of Beirut: Conversations with the Lebanese, 2011, etc.) offers a personal account of her time volunteering in Greece as refugees arrived from Syria and other nations beset by strife.A British child protection barrister by profession, the author, like countless other citizens of the world, had been moved by the plight of mostly Middle Eastern refugees who seek better lives in Europe but instead end up herded into camps like cattle. Taking stock of "what skills I could offer," Thornhill thought that her middling ability to speak Arabic might help. She made arrangements to assist through an organization of volunteers based in Norway and received an assignment to report to an encampment in northern Greece dubbed the Hara Hotel. Arriving there in April 2016, the author became acquainted with a Syrian Kurd refugee named Juwan Azad, who was driven away from a war-torn section of Syria. Azad spoke English fluently, which gave Thornhill the opportunity to learn from him in-depth. Later, hoping to establish a permanent life away from the refugee camps, Azad risked his life hiking through Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary to cross into Austria. Thornhill learned of Azad's journey, reuniting with him near Vienna to gain compelling material for this book. In January 2017, the author re-entered Greece for just over a week to find out what had happened to the refugees who were temporarily stranded at Hara Hotel, among other sites. Although not every refugee was despairing for the future by early 2017, what the author uncovered contains far more darkness than light. Thornhill overlays the wrenching refugee sagas with her personal quest to understand why Syria began its alarming unraveling in 2011. What she learned might not feel revelatory to knowledgeable diplomats, but it will certainly enlighten casual followers of that nation's bloodshed.A brave, affecting book about a continuing humanitarian crisis.

Kirkus Reviews