“My hope guided me”: the story of the 11-year-old Ukrainian boy who fled alone to Slovakia

Hassan al-Khalaf, 11, clung to hope as he went through Ukraine alone and arrived safely at Slovakia after joining the masses of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their country.

SIGHT: The 11-year-old Ukrainian boy who arrived in Slovakia alone with a number written on his hand

Hassan arrived in Slovakia in early March and attracted media attention after local police posted his story on their Facebook page, calling him a “hero” after his long journey by train and on foot from Zaporizhzhie in eastern Ukraine.

“I was hoping for my mother, who wanted me to leave,” Hassan said in an interview before appearing as a guest at a pro-Ukraine rally in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Friday.

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“My hope led me on my way”he said through an interpreter.

Hassan’s widowed mother could not leave his grandmother at home, so she sent the boy alone on a journey of more than 1,500 kilometers to Slovakiawhere his older brother studies. He arrived with nothing more than a plastic bag, passport and a phone number written in his hand.

Ukrainian refugees walk across a bridge in the buffer zone to the border with Poland at the Zosin-Ustyluh border crossing, western Ukraine. (Daniel LEAL / AFP) (DANIEL LEAL /)

Hassan is one of the more than 2.5 million refugees who fled Ukrainemainly to Poland, but also to Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, to reach the European Union.

At least 176,000 have crossed the border of Slovakia in an exodus that the United Nations has described as Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.

“I want to say a big thank you to the volunteers, because they are helping people they don’t even know,” said Hassan, who is hoping to see his mother again. “I think there will be a happy ending.”

Hassan al-Khalaf when he arrived alone in Slovakia. (Slovak Ministry of the Interior).

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Source: Elcomercio