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Sunday 18 May 2008

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Middle East

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Ibrahim Sayyid, Syria, “You have to study hard to escape life in a tent”
		"When my father began to receive death threats from a Shia militia, we decided that living in the desert was safer than being Palestinian in Baghdad. He bought a tent and we left along with my four siblings in the summer of 2006." full testimony
Abed Akkawi, Lebanon: "I couldn’t pay the full bill so they wouldn’t let my wife leave the hospital"
		Eventually I told the [hospital] authorities I had divorced my wife because I knew that was the only way they would stop coming after me. The hospital let Wafa go and she moved back to Syria and divorced me." full testimony
Ahmed Hassan, Lebanon: "It felt like a kind of resistance to celebrate and dance despite everything"
		When we celebrated our engagement during the 2006 July War, the Israelis bombed Abdeh, on the edge of Nahr al-Bared and we ended up in the shelters. Then the fighting delayed our wedding. full testimony
Hekmat Abu Halima, Gaza: "007 was the worst year ever"
		Sanctions imposed in the Gaza Strip in recent years, which reached a peak of severity following the Hamas takeover of the impoverished enclave in June, meant farmers could not export their goods, whilst on the domestic market prices plummeted because of over-supply. full testimony
Fadumo Abdullahi: "Staying in Mogadishu was worse than dying"
		In mid-November, Fadumo Abdullahi, 30, fled fighting in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and is now living in a cramped, makeshift camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Bosasso, the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia. full testimony
Mohammed Hassan Ali, Somalia-Yemen: “What can I do with this kind of life?”
		On the night of 10 October, as our boat was approaching the Yemeni coast, smugglers threw me into the sea along with 110 other passengers. I could hear some female passengers crying as the smugglers were beating us with sticks to leave their boat. full testimony

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