My dad was 14 when he was smuggled out of Iran by an organisation named HIAS. He left Tehran to go to a town on the border of Iran and Pakistan. He flew to this town where smugglers picked him, my grandpa, his cousin, and his Aunt up. They stayed at the smugglers house until sundown. Then they entered a van that my grandpa was driving, the smugglers told them when they saw a car come behind them and give you high beams to pull over. After an hour of driving down the highway on the border a pickup truck came behind them and gave them high beams. Three smugglers came out of the truck and took my dad and his cousin without giving them time to say goodbye to my grandpa and his aunt. They grabbed the bags out of the van then they ran across the desert for five to ten minutes then went to the camels that were there and rode them overnight across the desert into Pakistan and to another border town. They were then transported to a town called Koita which took two days to get there. Since they were Jewish they were given political asylum. From there they flew to Karachi which was a capital city and stayed there for three months. They flew my dad to Vienna then my grandmother, my aunts, and my uncle came to him and stayed another 8 months there. Then they came to Long Island. My dad took the GED exam to finish school and then became a plastic surgeon.

– JT

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant