In December 1978, I was forced to flee to Kuwait through the desert on a camel, in a Bedouin caravan with 8 other people. I left my country with nothing but a bundle in which I put a few things. Among them were two documents. One of them was my nationality identity certificate, and the other was a document of military service. In addition to the documents, I was also carrying a suit, which I intended to wear once I arrived in Kuwait.

After five days on the Iraqi-Kuwait-Saudi border, we arrived at some small trees. There we met with another caravan, which contained smugglers and fugitives. Among them there were Syrians and Palestinians waiting to be taken to Kuwait. We had to wait two days. We finally found a driver with a water tanker. He would smuggle 20 of us across the border by hiding us in the tanker; the journey lasted 5 hours. We stopped when two of the group began to suffocate. We had to drag the 2 men out of the tanker and stretch them out on the roof so that they could breathe. One day before this journey, we had received news of another group, who were also smuggled in a tanker, and had all died due to suffocation.

ABDUL KARIM GASSAD, poet living in London