In order to save a bit of cash returning from Syria BEIRUTSTATEofMIND decided to catch a ferry back to Lebanon from the unremarkable Turkish port of Tasacuc, rather than splash out on the combined air fair of a domestic flight to Istanbul and an international connection on to BEIRUT. On the ferry I found myself somewhat of an anomaly amongst 200 Syrian refugees fleeing civil war; and a hitch-hiking French farmer with a peculiarly high-pitched laugh...
Ali paces back and forth, nervous energy palpable in his movement. He scratches his shortly cropped hair and spits into the Mediterranean.
"Have you got a Lebanese mobile," he enquires with a certain urgency. "Can I use it when we get to Lebanon?"
Before I have time to reply Ali turns to a friend. I overhear him saying he'll throw me overboard if I don't let him use my phone. His friend laughs. Ali laughs too. I also laugh. They are joking.
"I can't swim," says Ali delivering the closing piece de resistance of his joke before bursting into hysterics.
Ali, 24, from the city of Raqaa near the Iraqi border is one of 200 Syrian refugees upon the commercial ferry from the unremarkable Turkish port of Tasacuc heading to Lebanon in search of job opportunities and a standard of living unavailable at home. On arrival he will become one of over 650,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Syrian and Palestinian refugees now account for over a quarter of the Lebanese population...
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