My sister whom I have not seen for more than two years, told me over the phone that she would cross the ocean in a boat. Then she hung up.

She did not want to hear my opinion. She contented herself with laying her three sons in the most emotional way if she were to drown. A few minutes later, I tried to call her number, but the line was dead. Suddenly, innumerable pictures of our childhood went through my head. It is not easy to say goodbye to half a century of your own life and to wait for those who love you to drown. Cold crawled into my arms and legs, my head was empty, but I had no strength to discuss. What could I say to a woman who has lost her home and all her possessions and who, in order not to lose her children, has dragged the boys in search for a safe haven through the whole of Turkey? Since the situation in Turkey was not easy for a woman like her, who, like millions of other Syrians, had no special abilities, she only had the hopes of asylum – even if that meant putting herself in a dinghy. I already knew the message she wanted to tell me: The Syrians have no other hope but the sea.

Read the full article on Spiegel.