Fleeing the war in Sudan as a child, the 19-year old is now prosecuted in Greece for boat driving. His trial will be on 01.09.2025
Suleiman Mazen is a 19-year-old from Sudan. In April 2023, the war forced him to flee his country, tearing him away from his family — to this day he does not know if they are alive. His path took him through Egypt and Libya, where he worked tirelessly just to pay for a dangerous sea crossing.
He survived, but instead of finding safety in Europe, he was arrested and imprisoned in Greece.
Suleman wants to share his story with you:
“My name is Suleman. I am 19 years old, from Sudan.
In April 2023, I was forced to leave my country because of the war that destroyed it. In that chaos, I lost my family, and to this day I do not know if they are alive or dead. Under the sound of gunfire, I ran toward Egypt without looking back, hoping to find a safe place to live (…) But life in Egypt was not easy, and I could not start over or find my family. I decided to continue my journey (…).
When I arrived in Libya, I worked any job I could find (…) saving every Libyan dinar I earned to pay for my trip to Europe. In one Sudanese neighborhood, I found a smuggler (…) He took me to a place like a storage room, where I stayed with dozens of other passengers for two weeks without enough food or clean water.
One night, they took us to the sea. The boat was overcrowded and ready to depart. I had never been close to a boat engine or touched anything on a vessel before. I was worried for my life the whole day, praying and asking God: ‘If this is the time You have chosen for me, I am not ready to die before I know whether my family is still alive or has died.’
At last, I arrived in Greece, overwhelmed with hope, believing that God had given me a new life. But my hope did not last even one hour — I was arrested by the Greek police and sent to prison. My life became dark again, with no one to lean on and no one to help me. I have lost hope in humanity and in the world.
If the world cannot speak about what is happening to refugees like us, then we will remain silent forever. I ask anyone who sees this message to be my voice and to help Sudanese refugees and young men trapped in Greek prisons. You are my voice and my strength. We are only human beings trying to survive in life.“
Suleman is one of thousands of refugees criminalized for (allegedly) steering a boat or taking on another task during the journey. According to international and Greek law, refugees must not be criminalized for their own irregular entry. Yet Greece systematically violates this principle by treating war survivors as criminals instead of recognizing their right to protection.
Many young Sudanese boys and men currently detained in Greece did not mention the war in their home country at the time of their arrest as they probably thought, it would be common knowledge that the conflict in Sudan and South Sudan is among the deadliest in the world.
Yet, Greek authorities appear either to disregard this fact or to be unaware of it, treating these boys not as the asylum seekers they are, but as criminals.
Thanks to your support, Suleiman will be represented by an experiened lawyer at his trial on 01.09.2025.
We demand that all charges against Suleiman be dropped!