GoT
She’s survived
al-Shabaab’s fatal attraction and the murder of her father, two-days crammed
aboard a boat adrift in the Malacca Straits, weeks living off handfuls of rice,
shattered dreams of safety abroad, years in limbo under IOM’s care in Indonesia
and most recently, a bout with cancer. Unshakable in her faith, eyes forward
and a smile on her face, Asma Mohammed Hashi is ready for what she hopes will
be a final struggle, for health and safety and relevance in a foreign land.
Just 22, Asma has
seen a lifetime’s worth of upheaval that began in the streets of her war-torn
hometown, Kismayu, a gritty Somali port city where the Jubba River empties into
the Indian Ocean. She grew up under siege. During the country’s prolonged civil
war the city of 180,000 fell to Islamist militants who imposed their own
austere brand of the faith on the population.
It’s there, in
2011 that al-Shabab soldiers, one of the patchwork of militias that had emerged
over the years of conflict, arrived at her door. It wasn’t the first time.
“They told my
father that I had to go with them to be married,” she recalls. “He told them
‘No, she will not go with you’.”
A short time
later her father and uncle were murdered by al-Shabab.
Asma fled the
city for an uncle’s home in Mogadishu but there was no safety there. The
following year, the same al Qaeda-affiliated militiamen again came knocking,
looking specifically for her.
“My uncle told
me I could not stay there any longer; his own family was in danger. He found
the smuggler who took me out of the country,” she says. “He accompanied me to
Malaysia.”
She spent a
harrowing, stormy two days aboard a small fishing vessel in the Malacca Strait
along with roughly 20 other Somalis desperate to travel to Australia via
Indonesia. Together they flew to Makassar where the smugglers promised a boat
was chartered to take them to Australia. They waited together in a small
beachside home for weeks, surviving on a bit of rice and a handful of water,
terrified they’d be arrested if they ventured out, but no one showed up.
“It was the
Eid, (Eid ul Fitri is the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan) and we had
so little to eat,” she says, tearing up. “For us it is supposed to be a joyful
time… but it was very hard.”
Dreams dashed
and out of money, Asma and her companions reported themselves to the
authorities and, after uncomfortable weeks sleeping on the floor of an office,
were processed into the local immigration detention centre, where she first
encountered IOM staff. A short time later she was released to stay in a rooming
house.
“There are many
Somali people in the detention area; we are a big group. We cared for each
other,” is all she offers about that trying period.
It can take
many years for irregular migrants like Asma to be resettled to a third country.
Ultimately, she was determined to be a refugee and a cousin in the southern
United States was located who was prepared to support her should she be
approved for settlement there.
“We have never
met but she sent me pictures of my room in her house on Viber (social media),”
she says with a gentle smile. “I have learned not to lose hope. We must be
patient and pray for a brighter future.”
Finally a light
had appeared at the end of the tunnel only to be dashed when she fell ill in
early 2015; the young woman who had endured so much was diagnosed with a
malignant form of cancer.
With IOM’s
assistance and donor support from the US Bureau of Population, Refugees, and
Migration, she underwent surgery at a leading Jakarta cancer hospital to have a
tumor larger than a softball removed from her abdomen in July.
“Throughout
these difficult times Asma received close support and care from her compatriot
Ms. Sadiya who stood by her like a loving sister and helped Asma maintain her
positive spirit, optimism, hopes and dreams despite her diagnosis,” says IOM
senior migration health advisor Dr. Sajith Gunaratne.
“She’s a
shining example for people affected by conditions that drain hope from life
itself. She has shown a strength of human spirit that is boundless. With
further treatment, she will hopefully have many more productive years ahead of
her.”
Though she
faces further treatment, her humanitarian resettlement to the US was approved.
Just a week after her release, Asma was strong enough to meet the IOM escort
who accompanied her on the momentous move overseas in early August.
“I always
believed I have a future. I know only God can heal me so I relax and I pray and
I don’t lose hope,” she says when asked how she has remained positive in the
face of so many storms.
“I think when I
get to America I want to be an oncologist… Math and science were my best
subjects in school; now I want to help people like me.”
IOM Indonesia
http://weblog.iom.int/survivor
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