News
Louis Dor
Sep 08, 2015
On 16 August, Laith Majid was photographed crying and clutching his family on the shores of Kos, Greece.
The image, captured by photographer Daniel Etter for the New York Times , made an impact around the world.
(Photo: Daniel Etter/New York Times)
We are now pleased to pass on that Laith and his family are living in Berlin, Germany.
(Photo: BILD-Zeitung/Marion Hunger)
Laith, 44, his wife Neda, 43, and their sons Mustafa, Ahmed and Taha, 18,17 and 9, and daughter Nour, 7, are now living in the former Schmidt-Knobelsdorf barracks in the Spandau district, as reported by the German newspaper Bild.
When Etter's picture was taken the family had narrowly escaped drowning, having travelled from Baghdad to Turkey to the Greek Island of Kos.
The dinghy which they used lost air during the 20km voyage.
Sometimes Nour has nightmares about the sea. Her father told Bild:
We will never go to the sea again.
Mr Etter said last month that the family were Syrian and had fled the city of Deir ez-Zor, a government stronghold besieged by Isis.
But speaking to Bild, the family received they are Sunni and had received death threats in Iraq, forcing them to sell everything and flee.
Neda, speaking from a refugee centre converted from a barracks, said that 13 countries had tried to register the family but they chose Germany:
We heard there is help for us here, schools for the children.
The leader of Germany, Angela Merkel, is a very good person. She is like a mother to us.
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