A Land of Permanent Goodbyes

Part 3 picks up Tareq’s storyline again. Tareq goes to Izmir, as the Turkish man suggested, in hopes of finding more affordable deals for getting to Greece. Musa stays in Istanbul. Fayed and Susan meet Tareq in Izmir. The city has become a hotbed for smugglers and desperate refugees. Many shops sell life jackets, advertising in Arabic instead of Turkish to better reach their target audience.

Fayed, Tareq, and Susan talk to other refugees, hoping to get the contact information of a trustworthy smuggler. It’s clear that the smugglers are not trustworthy people, all hoping to make money off the refugees’ desperation. They meet Ammar and Rania, a couple from Damascus. They connect the family with Abu Laith, a Syrian smuggler. After some negotiating—they don’t have enough money for all three of them to cross—they decide that Tareq and Susan will go. Fayed will stay behind.

Tareq doesn’t want to leave his father but Fayed insists. Fayed wins him over by noting the importance of getting Susan to safety, saying “This isn’t a place for young Syrian girls. […] Too many bad things happen to our people here, especially our women and girls.