Sixteen year-old Aamir is currently living in a shelter for unaccompanied children in Central Athens.
{"Image ImageWidth": "5760", "Image ImageLength": "3840", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "Sixteen year-old Ahmad is quiet amid the noisy, laughing boys in the recreation room at the Unicef/SOS Village shelter in central Athens. Slight and subdued, he walks with a painful-looking limp, the effects of a degenerative bone disease that, Greek doctors say, can only be addressed by specialist paediatric surgery in the UK. All his hopes are pinned on that happening; he has applied to come here as a particularly vulnerable child under Britain\u2019s \u201cDubs law\u201d. In a city full of sad stories, of childhoods warped by conflict and fear, Ahmad\u2019s stands out. He has been travelling for so long seeking help and shelter, he can hardly remember his home in Afghanistan. He has never been to school and he has seen everyone close to him die. The only moment in our talk when Ahmad brightens up is when he speaks of his desire to learn the piano. \u201cI was searching on YouTube for calmer music and then I found it. I looked for more. Calm music that I\u2019ve never heard before. So I want to make it myself. I can learn the piano if I try: slowly, slowly, I will manage.\u201d The shelter houses, feeds and supports 19 boys between 13 and 18: Mohammed Vahedi, himself a refugee from Afghanistan when he was 16, is the manager. Vahedi says a specific programme has been developed for Ahmad, who has been in the shelter for two months waiting to hear if his application to come to Britain will be successful. \u201cGiven his difficulties, Ahmad has erected a wall around himself. We\u2019ve made a specific plan for him - including psychotherapy - so we can help him climb over the wall a bit. \u201cWe don\u2019t measure the programme by whether the children stay in the shelter, but whether we have managed to help them meet their needs, express them to us, and become something more like regular children. A month ago four children came to discuss with us their plans to leave Greece for northern Europe [paying a smuggling gang], and we were able to discuss the options and the risks with them. Two decided to stay here. That they confided in us is a success.\u201d Sitting in the shelter\u2019s little schoolroom, where the children learn Greek and English, we get to know Ahmad a little. At first he is monosyllabic, eyes lowered, fearful of anyone who looks like they are in authority. But eventually he relaxes enough to tell us his story:\u201cI left my family three years ago, then I went to Pakistan to get to Iran. Then I went Turkey and then here. At first I went with my grandmother. My grandfather was dead; she said we had to leave. [Though he does not speak about it, we know that his parents, members of the Hazara ethnic group, had been killed by the Taliban, who target Hazara for religious reasons.] I left Afghanistan with my grandmother, but when we were Iran she died, and I had to bury her. Then I worked in Iran for a year, sewing in a workshop under the ground, to raise money for the rest of the journey. We came to Greece last winter [January 2016].\u201d\u201cThe boat from Turkey was so small, you felt if anything touched it, it would break. We were 65 people. I was with two friends I\u2019d met in Iran. When I could, I left Iran, because there was no one there, and I needed to get help because my bad leg was getting worse. The doctor told me when I was young, when I first had the pain, that the bone in the leg was not growing properly.\u201d\u201cWhat do I miss about home? Nothing from that time, only my grandmother and my grandfather. She cooked really well, I remember that  - I miss her meatballs and kuku sabzeh (a Persian dish of fried eggs, herbs, potatoes and onions). I learned to cook it on YouTube - now I cook in the kitchen here. It\u2019s not difficult.\u201d\u201cWhen I first came to Greece, I went to Idomeni [Near the Greek/Macedonia border]. I lived in a tent there for two or three months, not in a proper camp. It was very difficult, it was raining a lot, and some days it was very cold. During the day it could be very hot. There was enough food, we got it from organisations two times a day. But to light a fire was difficult and we had to go a long way to get water. So we didn\u2019t often get to have a shower.\u201cI lived with three friends in the tent, and we helped each other. I don\u2019t know where they are now, one went to Crete, to try to get to Italy. I couldn\u2019t leave, I had no money to pay the smugglers for the crossing to Macedonia. And walking was hard because of my leg - I couldn\u2019t go on my own. The main thing we did in the camp was waiting. Waiting in line to get food, waiting in line to get clothes.\u201d\u201cIn the shelter now my main activity is to go to school, to do lessons. It is good here, good to be with people my age; everyone here really tries to help and support us. For the moment, I feel safe.\u201d\u201cWhat I want is to go somewhere to heal my leg, to have a quiet life, and to study. I want to learn English - if I have to stay here I want to learn Greek. I\u2019d like to be a doctor, or become a cook, and I\u2019d like to play the piano.\u201dUnicef\u2019s partner Babel is ensuring Ahmad has psychotherapeutic support, and specialist doctors have examined the distortion to his pelvis and femur, which  is causing severe pain and could mean permanent disability.The specialists\u2019  verdict is that Ahmad needs urgent surgery immediately, but the necessary operation on the bone and joints cannot be done in Greece until he has finished growing. This is one of the factors that has brought him to apply for asylum in UK under the \u201cDubs law\u201d, passed in March 2016. It permits 3000 particularly vulnerable refugee children to be let into UK. However the process is slow - it three months since Ahmad\u2019s application went in to the British government, and he has heard nothing yet.", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark III", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2017:02:09 15:22:18", "Image Artist": "Caroline Irby", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "\u00a9 Unicef/Greece/Irby17", "Image ExifOffset": "6224", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "6912", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7026", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4523", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "9/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1000", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "1000", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:01:31 17:41:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:01:31 17:41:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "61/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "13/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "1", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "35", "EXIF SubSecTime": "49", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "49", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "49", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5760", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3840", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6880", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1920000/487", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "320000/81", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "383023001243", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[35, 35, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF35mm f/1.4L USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}