Ahmad Basal: "I don't want to be a refugee always waiting for help, I want to build my future"

The smell of sesame, caramel, chocolate and nuts sweetened with honey invites passersby to enter the small bakery named after the Syrian city of Palmyra. This establishment has taken its name from Syria, the taste of its traditional cakes and the kindness and generosity of its people. Kind and generous is the Syrian refugee Ahmad Basal, 26 years old, who gives smiles and gives out cakes to taste to everyone who enters the bakery that he has just opened on Ballesteries street in Girona. It is the Syrian way of doing things, says Ahmad, and it is also a way of thanking the help he has received from the people here, who, as he never tires of repeating, have allowed him to rebuild his life and believe again in his dreams, cut short by the war.

Less than a year ago, you arrived at Girona station in the early hours of the morning, after a 45-day trip through nine European countries. You were carrying only a small backpack and a hat, and a dream to fulfil: opening a bakery.

After fleeing Syria at the end of 2014, I settled in Turkey and worked as a pastry chef, which is the job I had always done in my country since I was 15, as I come from a family of pastry chefs, although I wanted to study law. In Turkey, where I worked to raise the money to pay for the trip by boat to Greece, I met Rafat Sarajjedin [a Syrian who has been living in Salt for 15 years and who now welcomes him into his home, along with a dozen other refugees]. Rafat had come to Turkey to bring humanitarian aid and offered me to come to Salt. And he promised me that when I arrived he would help me set up a pastry shop.

The dream has come true: last Saturday you opened your bakery in the heart of Girona's Barri Vell, less than a year after arriving in the city. Few refugees are so lucky.

I don't think it's just luck. I had that in mind when I left Turkey and I've done everything I could to make that dream come true. I was clear that I didn't want to be a refugee always waiting for help. I wanted and want to build my own future.

Have you ruled out studying law?

By family tradition I have always been a pastry chef, but I have always wanted to study law and I do not give up on any of the challenges I set myself. During the months I have been in Salt I have studied Catalan and my high school studies have already been validated. I have decided to enter the University of Girona to study law. The work permit has allowed me to open the pastry shop and now I hope to be granted an international protection permit, which will give me greater stability. My idea is to continue working in the pastry shop and at the same time study law.

You have paid mafias to get on a boat, you have seen boats sink near you, you have hidden in the woods, you have slept in the open and you have crossed borders at night with fear in your body. Do bad memories haunt you?

When you embark on a journey like this, and if you are young and alone, there is no room for fear, nor for sadness. You feel that you must be happy, that you must fight to keep going without sinking. I was travelling like a blind man towards my goal and I knew that nobody would stop me from achieving it. On my first trip by boat to reach Greece, for which I paid 1,200 euros to the mafias, the police caught us and sent us back to Turkey. I did not feel like a failure. We all know that this can happen and we all try again and again, until we succeed. It was also hard when they prevented us from entering Macedonia and Hungary, blocking our way with fences. It was dramatic to see how entire families with children and grandparents suffered. They treated us very badly. In Hungary I tried to cross unsuccessfully several times, and finally, on the third day, I managed to do it at night. Then began the journey through Austria, Germany, France and other European countries, always with the fear of being caught at any moment. Until I arrived in Girona. I got off the bus at 4 in the morning, and Rafat was waiting for me there. Then I breathed a sigh of relief, relieved and very excited. I had the future ahead of me.

Do you feel sad about the West's role with refugees?

I am extremely grateful to the people here, who help and do everything they can with the refugees. The problem is with the governments. If the great powers wanted to, the war in Syria would have ended already, but there are too many interests involved. They mourn our tragedy but at the same time they continue it. They do not do what they could do to stop it. And it is heartbreaking to see how they are dealing with the refugees. It makes me angry to see the images of people from my country suffering, surviving in inhuman conditions waiting to be able to cross the borders that close off access to a better life. I have experienced that suffering and I know what it feels like.

Did you leave family in Syria?

There are no family members left now. The war has separated us all. My father and one brother are in Saudi Arabia, another brother is in Ethiopia, and my mother, with a sister and two other brothers, are in Lebanon. I have not seen them for more than two years. We were all bakers and had several shops, but we lost them because of the war. I hope that one day we will all meet again in our country and be able to start a new life there, but for now it is impossible. Our city, Aleppo, has been largely destroyed by bombs. At the moment I do not know if my parents' house is still standing or is a pile of rubble.

Would you have left Syria if it hadn't been for the war? Maybe to study law in another country?

I don't know. What I would like to make very clear is that we Syrians who are now leaving our country are not leaving so that we feel like it. We are forced to leave because of the war. We Syrians have not had the habit of emigrating from our country, except to go study abroad, but never under force.