Facade portrait: Khalil Koto
Khalil Koto
* 1971 in Kara Kol / Syria
Immigration to Bremerhaven: 2014
“Kurds carry their homeland on their backs. When you leave, your country goes with you. And the memories remain in your heart.”
“Kurds carry their homeland on their backs. When you leave, your country goes with you. And the memories remain in your heart.”
This is a life lesson that his grandfather Khalil Koto imparts when he flees from Syria to Germany with his Kurdish family in 2014.
Khalil Koto in his hometown Karagoule near Afrin, 2003.
When the civil war in Syria began in 2011, the Koto family lived in Afrin in northwestern Syria, where the electrical engineer Khalil Koto managed a branch of the Ministry of Energy. Soon, peaceful protests against the Assad regime erupted into bloody battles between insurgents and the government. More and more people were killed, and hundreds of thousands chose to flee. In April 2014, the Koto family decided to leave their homeland. There was hardly any food, water, or electricity left in Afrin. Moreover, Khalil had lost his job more than a year ago. The government wanted to transfer him back to Aleppo. For Khalil Koto, this was unthinkable:
“How could that work? There is war in Aleppo. Our old apartment is ruined. Then they fired me.”
Initially, the family went to Turkey to Khalil Koto’s mother, who lives in Istanbul. But there, too, Khalil Koto found no work, and so the family decided to flee to Germany in July 2014. This decision was influenced, among other things, by his brother, who was already in Europe and lived with his family in London:
“He told me it would be very good for my family if I went to Germany. They would take care of me, and based on my certificates and work experience, I might find a job – maybe.”
The family spent six months initially in refugee camps in Bulgaria before applying for asylum in Dortmund and being assigned to Bremen. Since November 2014, the family has been living in Bremerhaven. The children attend school or are completing vocational training. Khalil initially worked in wind energy in Bremerhaven and Cuxhaven. He is now pursuing further training in the field of electrical automation. He and two of his children have a residence permit.