ABSTRACT
Alima (34) was born in Eritrea and came to Turkey in 2008, after working in Saudi Arabia for three years and in Syria for two years. ‘I could send money to my mother but in those places, there is no freedom for migrant workers. I decided to go to other places […]. The entry to Turkey was difficult, we walked from Syria to Antakya; it was a long, tough walk.’ Alima paid her smugglers around 500 dollars to cross the border and another 500 for the bus ride from Antakya to Istanbul. She was held by the smugglers in a safe house, a ‘shock house’ as they call it. As she was unsure about going to Europe, Alima refused to pay to cross to the EU and managed to get rid of the smugglers, fighting with them until they eventually let her go. She first found a job in an African restaurant in Kumkapı (a neighbourhood in the tourist area of Istanbul, known for large numbers of migrants). ‘This is where I met the father of my baby. He is from Nigeria, we moved in together and lived in Kumkapı, Avcılar, Fatih, in different places.’ The first time I met Alima, the father of her baby, whom she refers to as her husband, was arrested for selling drugs while she was pregnant. ‘He says that he was just next to his friends and was not doing anything wrong but nobody listened to him.’ Alima had her baby in 2010 and expected that she and the baby would become Turkish citizens. She later realized this was not the case for her or her child. Before the birth, she was advised to apply to UNHCR. ‘I applied for birth, I gave birth in a hospital and the church paid for it.’ Alima was able to rent a house with the help of a faith-based charity organization in the Tarlabaşı neighbourhood, right next to Taksim Square, where groups of internal and international migrants reside. ‘Then, they sent me to my satellite city, to Antakya. I stayed there 3 months and came back to Istanbul. I was called a couple of times by the police in Antakya.’ Alima was able to leave the city by convincing the police that she had to visit her husband in prison or by saying that her baby was sick. She felt guilty for lying and prayed to God that her baby did not really get sick. She shared the house in the Tarlabaşı area with other Nigerians, the ‘brothers’ of her husband. Alima could not work after the birth of her child and mostly relied on humanitarian aid from the church and other humanitarian NGOs. She later found a job as a translator for an NGO. She was able to leave her child in church-run daycare while she worked. She travelled many times between Istanbul and Antakya while applying for asylum and finally got refugee status. Currently, Alima is in a satellite city, waiting to be resettled in a third country. She still keeps her room in Istanbul and sublets it while she is away.
