VOA常速英语:经历史无前例的逃亡，叙利亚残疾难民与家人在德重聚

An epic three-year journey for a family torn apart by war, are now reunited in joy.

Alan Mohammad and his sister Gyan have muscular dystrophy.In 2014, IS fighters were approaching their hometown of Al Hakasah in Syria, when they fled.

The family tried to reach Turkey, but say they were fired on by border guards.They crossed over to Iraq, but again IS militants forced them to flee, and the family was split up.

Their father and sister were able to reach Germany, for Alan and Gyan, the journey was far more tortuous.The siblings crossed the mountains into Turkey strapped to either side of a horse.Their mother, brother and younger sister pushed their wheelchairs behind.They paid smugglers 750 dollars each to put them on an inflatable dinghy to Greece.

“Every time I look around I see babies, children crying inside the boat, it was a very difficult moment.”

The family arrived in Greece just as the route to Western Europe through the Balkans was closed.They remained stranded in a refugee camp for several months.Amnesty International highlighted their situation, and they received thousands of support letters.

“This is unfortunately not the only case that Amnesty International has met about people with disabilities, vulnerable people,that arrived in Greece after a very, very difficult and dangerous journey, because there is no other way to arrive in Europe.”

In September, the family was moved to a hotel, then last week they were told to pack their bags for a flight to Germany.

“I remember in one occasion Alan telling me ‘so if I close my eyes, what I can see is, my dream is to see me with my father again.’And finally in this case, this has happened.But this is not the case for like thousands of families that are still stranded in Greece waiting for Europe to accept them and to welcome them in other countries.”

Relocating refugees from Greece and Italy remains well behind schedule.But, the European Union says its resettlement process in which refugees are given safe passage to Europe from camps bordering Syria, is making good progress.The European Union says nearly 15,000 people of being given asylum under the program.

Henry Ridgwell, for VOA news, London