Syrian refugee: ‘I’m scared of the way they look at us’
Along the railroad from Greece to Macedonia: Refugees share their hopes, fears and expectations for a future in Europe.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees are making their way to Europe.
Although this number is smaller than the millions pouring into Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, it is a crisis dividing Europe.
Many Europeans are uneasy and concerned about what they feel is a lack of control and wonder who is coming and whether their societies can cope.
I don't think someone who travels all the way here risking his own life comes to cause problems. They are going to a country that recognises their identity, humanity.
So what are the refugees seeking in Europe? And what do they have to say to Europeans who do not want them to come to their countries?
Along the railroad from Greece to Macedonia we meet Sam and Heaven, twin sisters from the ISIL-controlled Syrian city of Deir Ezzor.
We speak to a 27-year-old man from Iraq, and on a train we meet Samaar, a Syrian mother travelling with her four daughters to Germany.
In Thessaloniki we speak to a Greek citizen, Sofokles, who has watched thousands of people pass by and voices concern.
As European countries apply stricter controls, Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid finds out what messages refugees have for Europeans. And while the future is difficult to predict, all the people we meet have a good idea of how they want their new lives to be.