Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina most often without timely and systematic action. It was the same in the case of the migrant crisis that shook our country for years. Citizens did what the government needed. Because of their humanity, Ahmed Faisal from Pakistan, who has been living and working in Italy for four years, now comes to our country as a tourist. Instead of his native Pakistan, he came to Tuzla. He decided to visit the people who helped him when he spent seven months on the plateau in front of the bus station in Tuzla. The meeting was witnessed by the team of the Federal Television.
About one hundred thousand migrants in the past four years spent some time in Tuzla, considering that it served as a transit station for them in order to reach one of the countries of the European Union. Among them was Ahmed, who, although in inhuman and unacceptable conditions, found a better life. His life path from Tuzla took him to Italy.
In Italy, he finds a job, gets documentation, an apartment and starts living off his work and making good money. After four years, he decides to visit not his native Kashmir but Tuzla and his friends. And he pays for a bus ticket for two places to travel more comfortably. He rented a room in the most expensive hotel, and decided to spend part of the money earned as a tourist in our country.
Regardless of the fact that he slept in front of the bus station for seven months, Ahmed still talks about the goodness of our people, is grateful to everyone and has fond memories.
“I have family here, I have good friends. They won my heart and that’s why I came here. While I was in Tuzla, Senad helped me at every moment. After Tuzla, I’m going to Italy. I got a passport, a job. I came here to see where I was”, he tells us.
Volunteer Senad Pirić helped these people day and night. Their stay in Tuzla was very difficult, often exposed to hate speech and prejudice. Senad was the link between the people in the movement and the local community.
“This is one of the happiest days in my life – when I know that he has achieved his dreams. He came here on vacation instead of going to his home in Pakisan. That tells you enough how I and all my colleagues treated these people,” Senad points out.
Azra Alibegović often fed thousands of people on the move for years in her restaurant within the Bus Station, which no longer exists. Most often, for free.
“Everything I did, I did from the heart. Everything I did, Dear Allah knows best. I never charged. But I was happy when I saw that those people who left here managed,” Azra tells us.
But not all of them. Some tragically died trying to swim across the Drina river, some died from the consequences of freezing. In memory of all of them, Senad planted nine seedlings at the bus station in Tuzla. Not everyone was as lucky as Ahmed from the beginning of our story, who now says: “Believe in your dreams!”
