A decade on, the broken dreams of the Arab Spring

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In this file photo taken on January 23, 2011, inhabitants of the central Tunisia region of Sidi Bouzid demonstrate in front of the government palace in Tunis. (AFP / FETHI BELAID)
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Libyans celebrate during the speech of Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Chairman of the Libyan Transitional Council, at the Martyrs' Square, in Tripoli on September 13, 2011. (AFP / Mahmud Turkia)
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This file handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network on August 21, 2013 shows bodies of boys and men lined up on the ground in the eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus, whom the Syrian opposition said were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces. (AFP file photo)
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Protestors carry a flag with the slogan "Leave, Egypt is bigger than all of you" in the crowd after Friday prayer in Cairo's Tahrir square n November 25, 2011. (AFP / File photyo)
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Updated 23 November 2020
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A decade on, the broken dreams of the Arab Spring

  • Participant in Libya protests says it was necessary for the Qadaffi regime to be dismantled
  • In Syria, protests for reforms was met with unremitting violence, which spiraled into a civil war

TUNIS: “The revolution showed me that everything is possible,” says Ameni Ghimaji, remembering the heady days of the Tunisian protests that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings a decade ago.
She was just 18 when Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fell from power, the first casualty of wave upon wave of demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa which saw some iron-fisted leaders tumble, some brutally cling on and nations convulse in years of upheaval, conflict and civil war.
“We had no plan for the future, but we were sure of one thing: anything has to be better than this,” added Ghimaji.
Ben Ali was ousted just hours after she was photographed, shouting and pumping her fist in the air, at a massive Tunis anti-regime rally.
Her picture swept the front pages and she became an iconic image of the youth in peaceful revolt.
The Tunisia protests were triggered when an impoverished street vendor set himself alight on December 17, 2010, weighed down by despair.
His shocking act of self-violence ignited long simmering tensions among young people, angered by Ben Ali’s corrupt, nepotistic regime and hungry for new opportunities.
Less than four weeks later, Ben Ali had fled into exile, ended his 23-year rule and, drawing courage from his ouster, protesters began gathering elsewhere.




This combination of pictures created on November 8, 2020 shows Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (L), Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (2nd-L), and Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh (R); and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi (2nd-R) . (AFP)


No magic potion
Today across the Arab world, the 2011 uprisings have been blamed for opening the floodgates to violence and economic ruin, leaving millions of refugees and displaced, while countless others have had their lives blighted by chaos.
But for those who were there, the early demonstrations were times of exhilaration and hope.
On January 14, 2011, social networks were flooded with footage of lawyer Abdennaceur Aouini defying a curfew to stand in the iconic Avenue Habib Bourguiba of central Tunis, shouting: “Ben Ali has fled!“
It felt like “revenge. Since I was 18 I’d been hassled and imprisoned,” Aouini, now aged 50, said.
But today, he admits he feels “disappointed.”
“There is always hope. But I was in a dream, today I have come to my senses,” added Aouini.
Despite the political freedoms Tunisians have won, they still face grinding unemployment, inflation and inequality.
“People thought that Ben Ali’s departure would fix things, but that will take 20, 30 years,” said lawyer and activist Houeida Anouar.
“I’m not sure that within my lifetime I’ll see a Tunisia with a political scene worthy of the name, but I’m optimistic.”

Libya's revolution “was necessary”
While Tunisia does have a hard-won constitution, a flawed but functioning parliamentary system and free elections, state repression has descended again on Egypt after a brief flirtation with democracy.
“Ten years on, you can see that the hopes are still there within the younger generation, a generation that were little kids at the time of the uprising,” said Mohamed Lotfy, 39, executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.
But “the government is doing everything it can to kill that dream of January 25” 2011 when thousands marched in Cairo and other cities, demanding the departure of president Hosni Mubarak and “bread, freedom and dignity.”
Worse still is the situation in Libya, Yemen and Syria, where initially peaceful uprisings sparked civil wars that have laid waste to cities and killed hundreds of thousands of people.
But that’s not how it started, according to Majdi, a 36-year-old Libyan, who took part in protests against dictator Muammar Qaddafi a decade ago.
“We were watching what happened in Tunisia and Egypt,” he said. “It was our turn, change was inevitable.”
Protesters’ demands were “just a bit more freedom, some justice and some hope for the young people who didn’t have any,” he said.
Initially “there was no talk of overthrowing the regime.”
But the regime’s bloody response provoked a call to arms.
Qaddafi’s killing while on the run in October 2011 plunged the country into a decade of violent chaos.
“With hindsight, I don’t think we knew how much damage Qaddafi had done to the foundations of the state,” Majdi said.
Yet he insists he has no regrets: the revolution “was necessary, and I still believe in it.”




In this file photo taken on March 29, 2008, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) shakes hands with Libya's late leader Muammar Qaddafi at the opening session of the Arab Summit in Damascus. (AFP / HASSAN AMMAR)


“Syrians were only calling for reforms”
“We were only demanding reform,” said Dahnoun, a Syrian.
He joined some of the country’s first protests against President Bashar Assad, and recalled “no chants were calling for division, or fighting, or war. On the contrary, it was very peaceful.”
“I remember, we used to chant ‘freedom, freedom, freedom’ and nothing else,” Dahnoun told AFP by phone from Idlib city.
But the movement was met with unremitting violence, including on some occasions the once taboo use of chemical weapons by Syrian regime forces, charges that Damascus denies.
“During that first protest we were attacked by regime thugs and security forces,” said Dahnoun, who was 15 at the time.
As in Libya, the worsening situation in Syria drew in outside nations, seizing both an opportunity to boost their sway and minimize regional turbulence.
“We were played by foreign powers, and now Syrians have zero say and external players have the last word,” he said.
“I don’t have hope... Syria is not ours anymore.”
A crushing 2015 intervention by Russia to prop up the Syrian regime saw Damascus claw back swathes of territory that had been held by opposition forces, and Assad now controls over 70 percent of the country.
But a brutal economic crisis, accentuated by Western sanctions, has seen the government criticized from all sides, even those who did not support the revolution.
Abu Hamza, a teacher from Daraa where the first demonstrations of the Syrian revolution began, says people have “no loyalty” toward the regime.
“When you are hungry, you have no more fear,” the father-of-three told AFP by phone from Daraa.
“I’m dead either way. I’ll either be killed by tanks or by hunger.”


Displacement of Palestinians from embattled Gaza confronts Egypt with array of challenges 

Updated 54 min 28 sec ago
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Displacement of Palestinians from embattled Gaza confronts Egypt with array of challenges 

  • Egyptians feel morally obliged to help Palestinians but wary of a mass influx through Rafah
  • Officials in Cairo see large-scale expulsion by Israel as death knell for Palestinian statehood

CAIRO: More than 1 million Palestinian refugees have found their last refuge in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city on the Egyptian border, where they grimly await a widely expected Israeli offensive against Hamas holdouts in the area.

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians, many of them with the help of family members already outside Gaza, have managed to cross the border into Egypt, where they remain in a state of limbo, wondering if they will ever return home.

For its part, the Egyptian government faces the prospect of a mass influx of Palestinians from Gaza into Sinai should Israel ignore international appeals to drop its plan to strike Hamas commanders in Rafah.

Egyptians had been sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians, despite their own economic woes. (AFP)

Although the Egyptian public is sympathetic to the Palestinian plight, shouldering the responsibility of hosting refugees from Gaza is fraught with security implications and economic costs, thereby posing a difficult dilemma.

Furthermore, despite taking in refugees from Sudan, Yemen and Syria, the Egyptian government has been cautious about permitting an influx of Palestinians, as officials fear the expulsion of Gazans would destroy any possibility of a future Palestinian state.

“Egypt has reaffirmed and is reiterating its vehement rejection of the forced displacement of the Palestinians and their transfer to Egyptian lands in Sinai,” Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Egyptian president, told a peace summit in Cairo last November.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi (C) and regional and some Western leaders pose for a family picture during the International Peace Summit near Cairo on October 21, 2023, amid fighting between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (Egyptian Presidency handout photo/AFP)

Such a plan would “mark the last gasp in the liquidation of the Palestinian cause, shatter the dream of an independent Palestinian state, and squander the struggle of the Palestinian people and that of the Arab and Islamic peoples over the course of the Palestinian cause that has endured for 75 years,” he added.

Additionally, if Palestinians now living in Rafah are uprooted by an Israeli military offensive, Egypt would be left to carry the burden of a massive humanitarian crisis, at a time when the country is confronting daunting economic challenges.

Seen on a large screen, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi (R) welcomes Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas to the International 'Summit for Peace' near Cairo on October 21, 2023. (AFP)

Although Egypt earlier this year landed its largest foreign investment from the UAE, totaling some $35 billion, experts believe that the economic crisis is far from over, with public debt in 2023 totaling more than 90 percent of gross domestic product and the local currency falling 38 percent against the dollar.

Salma Hussein, a senior researcher in economy and public policies in Egypt, believes Egypt is not in the clear yet.

“We are slightly covered but we will need more money flowing in and bigger investments,” she told Arab News. “We also have large sums of debt we need to pay back. The IMF pretty much recycled our debt and we have interest rates to cover.

“In times of political instability, we see a lot of dollars leaving the country in both legal and illegal ways. This happened in 2022 and it also happened during the last presidential elections in 2023.

“I think the same thing will happen again now due to what’s happening in the region. This is all a loss of capital which can affect us.”

She is confident foreign assistance will be offered. And although the cost of hosting refugees will be high, there are many economic benefits to be had from absorbing another population — even for the Arab world’s most populous country.

“Egypt is too big to fail,” said Hussein. “There will be a bailout of its economy when it’s in deep trouble. And while investments and loans might not turn into prosperity, they will at least keep the country afloat. This is where we are now.

“As for the presence of a growing number of Palestinian refugees, I don’t think any country in the world had its economy damaged by accepting refugees. On the contrary, it might actually benefit from a new workforce, from educated young people, and from wealthy people who are able to relocate their money to their country of residence.”

However, it is not just the economic consequences of a Palestinians influx that is unnerving Egyptian officials. This wave of refugees would likely include a substantial number of Hamas members, who might go on to fuel local support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

FASTFACTS

1.1 million+ Palestinians who have sought refuge in Rafah from fighting elsewhere in Gaza.

14 Children among 18 killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah on April 20.

34,000 Total death toll of Palestinians in Israel-Hamas war since Oct. 7, 2023.

Hamas shares strong ideological links with the Muslim Brotherhood, which briefly controlled Egypt under the presidency of Mohamed Morsi in 2012-13 and has since been outlawed.

Since Morsi was forced from power, the country has been targeted by Islamist groups, which have launched attacks on Egyptian military bases in the Sinai Peninsula. The government is concerned that these Islamist groups could recruit among displaced Palestinians.

The decision might be out of Egypt’s hands, however. Several members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition government have publicly called for the displacement and transfer of Palestinians in Gaza into neighboring countries.

Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, previously said that the departure of the Palestinians would make way for “Israelis to make the desert bloom” — meaning the land’s reoccupation by Israeli settlers.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of security, also said: “We yelled and we warned, if we don’t want another Oct. 7, we need to return home and control the land.”

Up to 100,000 Palestinians live in Egypt, many of them survivors of the Nakba of 1948 and their descendants. Their numbers steadily rose when Gamal Abdel Nasser came into power in 1954 and permitted Palestinians to live and work in the country.

However, matters changed after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Palestinians became foreign nationals, excluded from state services and no longer granted the automatic right to residency.

The precise number of Palestinians who have arrived in Egypt since the Gaza war began after Oct. 7 has not been officially recorded.

Those who have made it to Egypt, where they are hosted by sympathetic Egyptian families, fear they will be permanently displaced if Israel does not allow them back into Gaza. Many now struggle financially, having lost their homes and livelihoods during the war.

For host families, this act of charity is an additional burden on their own stretched finances. “We feel for the Palestinians but our hands are tied,” one Egyptian host in Cairo, who asked to remain anonymous, told Arab News.

“I am struggling financially myself, but I cannot bring myself to ask for rent from a man who lost his entire family and now lives with his sole surviving daughters.”

On the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, trucks carrying aid and consumer goods are idling in queues stretching for miles, waiting for Israeli forces to permit entry and the distribution of vital cargo.

Many of the Egyptian truckers waiting at the border are paid to do so by the state. “We get salaries from the government and they provide us with basic food and water as we wait here,” one driver told Arab News on condition of anonymity.

Israel has been limiting the flow of aid into Gaza since the war began, leading to shortages of essentials in the embattled enclave. Although Israel and Washington say the amount of aid permitted to enter has increased, UN agencies claim it is still well below what is needed.

Meanwhile, the truck drivers are forced to wait, many of them sleeping in their cabs or carrying makeshift beds with them. “I’d do this with or without a salary,” the trucker said. “Those are our brothers and sisters who are starving and dying.”

With events in Gaza out of their control, all Egyptians feel they can do is help in whatever small way they can — and hope that the war ends soon without a Palestinian exodus.

“It is unfathomable to me that we are carrying life-saving equipment and food literally just hours away from a people subjected to a genocide, and there are yet no orders to enter Gaza through the border,” the truck driver said.

“It shames me. I park here and I wait, and continue to wait. I will not leave until I unburden this load, which has become a moral duty now more than anything.”
 

 


Biden and Netanyahu speak as pressure on Israel’s planned Rafah attack increases

Updated 28 April 2024
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Biden and Netanyahu speak as pressure on Israel’s planned Rafah attack increases

TEL AVIV, Israel: The White House on Sunday said US President Joe Biden had again spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as pressure builds on Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a ceasefire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza.
The White House said that Biden reiterated his “clear position” as Israel plans to invade Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah despite global concern for more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there. The US opposes the invasion on humanitarian grounds, straining relations between the allies. Israel is among the countries US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit as he returns to the Middle East on Monday.
Biden also stressed that progress in delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza be “sustained and enhanced,” according to the statement. The call lasted just under an hour, and they agreed the onus remains on Hamas to accept the latest offer in negotiations, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to comment publicly. There was no comment from Netanyahu’s office.
A senior official from key intermediary Qatar, meanwhile, urged Israel and Hamas to show “more commitment and more seriousness” in negotiations. Qatar, which hosts Hamas’ headquarters in Doha, was instrumental along with the US and Egypt in helping negotiate a brief halt to the fighting in November that led to the release of dozens of hostages. But in a sign of frustration, Qatar this month said that it was reassessing its role.
An Israeli delegation is expected in Egypt in the coming days to discuss the latest proposals in negotiations, and senior Hamas official Basem Naim said in a message to The Associated Press that a delegation from the militant group will also head to Cairo. Egypt’s state-owned Al Qahera News satellite television channel said that the delegation would arrive on Monday.
The comments by Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari in interviews with the liberal daily Haaretz and Israeli public broadcaster Kan were published and aired Saturday evening.
Al-Ansari expressed disappointment with Hamas and Israel, saying each side has made decisions based on political interests and not with civilians’ welfare in mind. He didn’t reveal details on the talks other than to say they have “effectively stopped,” with “both sides entrenched in their positions.”
Al-Ansari’s remarks came after an Egyptian delegation discussed with Israeli officials a “new vision” for a prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, according to an Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss developments.
The Egyptian official said that Israeli officials are open to discussing establishing a permanent ceasefire in Gaza as part of the second phase of a deal. Israel has refused to end the war until it defeats Hamas.
The second phase would start after the release of civilian and sick hostages, and would include negotiating the release of soldiers, the official added. Senior Palestinian prisoners would be released and a reconstruction process launched.
Negotiations earlier this month centered on a six-week ceasefire proposal and the release of 40 civilian and sick hostages held by Hamas in exchange for freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
A letter written by Biden and 17 other world leaders urged Hamas to release their citizens immediately. In recent days, Hamas has released new videos of three hostages, an apparent push for Israel to make concessions.
The growing pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire deal is also meant to avert an Israeli attack on Rafah, the city on the border with Egypt where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is seeking shelter. Israel has massed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles. The planned incursion has raised global alarm.
“Only a small strike is all it takes to force everyone to leave Palestine,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asserted to the opening session of the World Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia, adding that he believed an invasion would happen within days.
But White House national security spokesman John Kirby told ABC that Israel “assured us they won’t go into Rafah until we’ve had a chance to really share our perspectives and concerns with them. So, we’ll see where that goes.”
The Israeli troop buildup may also be a pressure tactic on Hamas in talks. Israel sees Rafah as Hamas’ last major stronghold. It vows to destroy the group’s military and governing capabilities.
Aid groups have warned that an invasion of Rafah would worsen the already desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza, where hunger is widespread. About 400 tons of aid arrived Sunday at the Israeli port of Ashdod — the largest shipment yet by sea via Cyprus — according to the United Arab Emirates. It wasn’t immediately clear how or when it would be delivered into Gaza.
Also on Sunday, World Central Kitchen said that it would resume operations in Gaza on Monday, ending a four-week suspension after Israeli military drones killed seven of its aid workers. The organization has 276 trucks ready to enter through the Rafah crossing and will also send trucks into Gaza from Jordan, a statement said. It’s also examining if the Ashdod port can be used to offload supplies.
The war was sparked by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 into southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, who say another 250 people were taken hostage. Hamas and other groups are holding about 130 people, including the remains of about 30, Israeli authorities say.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Hamas has killed more than 34,000 people, most of them women and children, according to health authorities in Gaza, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally.
The Israeli military blames Hamas for civilian casualties, accusing it of embedding in residential and public areas. It says it has killed at least 12,000 militants, without providing evidence.


UAE field hospital in Gaza provides prosthetics for wounded Palestinians

Updated 28 April 2024
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UAE field hospital in Gaza provides prosthetics for wounded Palestinians

  • The hospital revealed plans to distribute 61 prosthetics to wounded people over several phases

RIYADH: The UAE field hospital in Gaza has begun the process of fitting prosthetics for individuals who lost limbs during Israel’s war on the encalve, Emirates News Agency reported on Sunday.
The hospital revealed plans to distribute 61 prosthetics to wounded people over several phases, with each phase accommodating 10 individuals for the fitting process, coupled with physical and psychological rehabilitation support.
Established last December, the UAE field hospital in Gaza boasts a capacity of 200 beds and operates with a medical team comprising 98 volunteers from 23 different countries, including 73 men and 25 women.
Since then, the hospital has conducted a total of 1,517 major and minor surgeries, catering to over 18,000 cases necessitating medical intervention.
Their services range from initial first aid to life-saving surgeries, provision of essential treatments and medications, intensive care, and ongoing medical consultations and support.
 


Blinken to visit Israel, Jordan on new Mideast trip

Updated 28 April 2024
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Blinken to visit Israel, Jordan on new Mideast trip

SHANNON, Ireland: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and Jordan on a trip through Wednesday, the State Department announced, after the US and Israeli leaders discussed hostage-release talks.
Blinken will travel to both countries, a State Department official confirmed as the top US diplomat refueled Sunday in Ireland.
The trip was announced after President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone about ongoing talks to halt Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip in return for the release of hostages.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate a new truce between Israel and Hamas for months, as public pressure mounts for a deal.
Biden also reiterated concerns about Israel launching an operation in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million Palestinians have taken shelter.
The State Department did not immediately announce details of the two stops.


Migrants eyeing Europe bide their time in Tunisia

Updated 28 April 2024
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Migrants eyeing Europe bide their time in Tunisia

EL-AMRA: Thousands of sub-Saharan migrants have huddled in Tunisian olive groves for months, living in makeshift tents and surviving on meager rations while keeping their hopes alive of reaching Europe.

Around 20,000 are in isolated areas near the towns of El-Amra and Jebeniana, some 30 and 40 kilometers north of the port city of Sfax, humanitarian sources say.

Sfax is one of Tunisia’s main departure points for irregular migration to Europe by boat, and was once a hub for sub-Saharan migrants.

After being forcibly removed from the city last autumn, migrants set up camp in neighboring towns as they awaited their chance to make the perilous crossing.

One weary 17-year-old calling himself Ibrahim said he had left Guinea more than a year ago, hoping to reach the other side of the Mediterranean “to provide for his sick mother and little brother” back home.

He said that after walking for three weeks from the border with Algeria, he arrived in El-Amra in midwinter, about three months ago.

“It’s really difficult here,” he said, adding that he and other migrants feel trapped on the sidelines of society.

“Even shopping, we have to do it in secret ... You can go out looking for work, but when it’s time for your employer to pay you, they would call the police,” he said.

Last year, anti-migrant violence broke out and hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans were kicked out of their jobs and homes.

Tens of thousands embarked from Sfax in 2023 because of its proximity to Italy, the closest European country.

“We are only a few kilometers from Europe,” said Ibrahim of Lampedusa island some 150 kilometers away.

Near El-Amra, in tents made of tarpaulins and rods, groups of five — and at times even 10 — share the same sleeping space.

Men, women and children, mostly from Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Sudan, congregate by language.

The women cook stew as men remove the feathers of inedible-looking yet indispensable bony chickens.

The winter “was very cold, but we managed to survive thanks to the solidarity we have as African brothers,” said Ibrahim.

“If someone has food and you don’t, they give you some,” he said.

“We bought the tarpaulins with our money,” which relatives managed to send them, “or by begging.”

Some 7,000 migrants received their first food aid in months from NGOs earlier in April, but they said this was not enough and called for more help from Europe, which has ramped up measures aiming to curb irregular migration.

According to Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman of the Tunisian NGO FTDES, the North African country “is turning into a de facto detention center because of border control agreements signed with the EU.”

Hygiene is a pressing concern at the encampments. “There have been many births and sicknesses,” said Ibrahim.

One humanitarian source said there had been one migrant birth per day in recent weeks at a hospital in Jebeniana.

Salima, 17, said she had no diapers for her four-month-old baby and had to use plastic bags instead.

While awaiting the resumption of departures for Europe, delayed because of bad weather, Salima said she was still determined to make the crossing.

Tunisian authorities raided several encampments recently, tearing down tents and kicking out some migrants, after locals allegedly reported thefts.

Near Jebeniana, journalists saw used tear gas canisters, bulldozers and destroyed tents — some of which were already being put back up.

“We’re very tired of the police,” said 22-year-old Sokoto — also a pseudonym — who left Guinea three years ago and entered from Algeria last January.

“Just yesterday, I was chased from shops” in the town of El-Amra, he said.

Mohamed Bekri, a resident of El-Amra, said he often brings food and water to the migrants for “humanitarian” reasons.

“There are babies who are three and six months old,” he said.

Despite the tensions and the dire situation the migrants find themselves in, none of those interviewed said they wanted to return to their countries of origin.

“The reverse gear is broken,” said Sokoto. “I left to help my family and I suffered a lot to get here.”