'A storm is coming': One migrant family's bid to reach Europe

SUMMARY

More than 35 lakh Syrian refugees now live in Turkey as a result of a conflict that has raged since 2011. In 2015, more than 800,000 mainly Syrian and Afghan migrants took to the seas off Turkey to make the short but perilous trip to Greece.

By ReutersSept 10, 2019 3:10:25 PM IST (Published)

Palestinian-Syrian refugee Ahmed, 27, walks into the water for his first swim in Aegean Sea, Izmir, Turkey. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

Palestinian-Syrian refugee Ahmed, 28, packs life jackets for his family on the day he expected to travel to Greece, in Izmir, Turkey. With migrants only allowed one backpack each on the smugglers' boats that carry them from Turkey to Greece, Ahmed, his wife Hanin and her family packed a few possessions and sent the rest of their belongings to friends. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

Ahmed, 28, a Palestinian-Syrian refugee talks to a friend on the phone, planning how to get back the money he paid to a smuggler who never got in touch, in Izmir, Turkey. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

Money belonging to Ahmed, 27, a Palestinian-Syrian refugee, is set aside as part of the payment for a smuggler to take Ahmed, his wife Hanin and Hanin's family to Greece on a dinghy, at their home, in Izmir, Turkey. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

Turki, Hanin's mother, a Syrian refugee, goes to the beach in Gumuldur, Izmir, for the first time in Turkey. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

A television plays in the corner of a shop owned by a Syrian refugee in Ikicesmelik, Izmir, Turkey. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

Palestinian-Syrian refugee, Ahmed, 27, makes a phone call at a bus stop during a 20-hour ride from Izmir to Kilis to meet his fiancee Hanin for the first time, in Kilis, Turkey. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

Hanin, 19, a Palestinian-Syrian refugee, looks at her phone at her family's apartment in Izmir. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

A Turkish flag hangs from the window of an abandoned factory in Hilal, one of the poorest areas in Izmir. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

A Syrian man poses for a photograph in a shop run by his family in Izmir. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files

Children play on the streets of Kilis, the border city of Turkey and Syria, in Turkey. REUTERS/Ekaterina Anchevskaya/Files