Tripped Syrian refugee builds a new life in Spain
You'll remember them as the Syrian refugees, father and son, deliberately tripped by a Hungarian camerawoman, Petra Laszlo Nemzeti, who worked for Televizio (N1TV) on September 8, 2015. The story of Osama Abdul Moshen and his young son Zaid, then seven-years-old, went viral after photos and video of the incident in the Hungarian village of Roszke, that sent the two sprawling, were seen globally.
The uproar over what happened helped bring Moshen, who used to coach a first division soccer team in Syria, to the attention of a soccer training school in Getafe on the outskirts of Madrid, which found him work as a liaison officer. Zaid, now a year older, as well as 17-year-old Mohammed, who was in Germany at the time, live in the neighborhood with their father.
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Osama Abdul Mohsen walks along a street with his son Zaid on their way to take a train in Getafe, outside Madrid, April 14, 2016.
Mohsen is thankful his soccer links helped him find work in a country where unemployment still runs at over 20 percent
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Mohsen celebrates victory with his junior team's players after a soccer match in Villaverde, a neighborhood in Madrid, April 24, 2016.
He hopes his experience coaching in Spain will one day benefit Syria as well.
"Maybe in future I can take this information for my country," Moshen smiles.
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Mohsen and his son Zaid watch a soccer training session in Villaverde, April 14, 2016.
"I see my future here," says Mohsen, whose eyes light up when talking, in broken English, about the local junior team he sometimes helps train, Villaverde-Boetticher.
Zaid Moshen & Cristiano Ronaldo
Zaid smiles as he stands next to Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo before the Spanish first division soccer match against Granada at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, September 20, 2015.
The family's love of soccer has brought them some solace as they wait for the entire family to be reunited.
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Osama Abdul Mohsen and Zaid at home in Getafe, March 22, 2016.
The apartment that well-wishers have housed them in is adorned with someone else's trinkets, including rows of encyclopedias in Spanish, a language Mohsen still struggles to speak.
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A pennant of Getafe soccer school (L) hangs on a wall inside Mohsen's home outside Madrid, April 21, 2016.
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Mohsen whistles during a training session with his junior team in Villaverde, April 14, 2016.
He hopes his experience coaching in Spain will one day benefit Syria as well.
"Maybe in future I can take this information for my country," he smiles.
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Mohsen gives instructions to players before a soccer match with his junior team in Villaverde, April 24, 2016.
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Mohsen attends a Spanish lessons at a YMCA social center in Getafe, outside Madrid, April 21, 2016.
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All the attention he has received has not yet helped Moshen reunite his whole amily. "I need to relax more, I'm very tired," he says.
Spain's government said at the end of last year it would accept more than 17,000 refugees as part of EU-wide efforts to resettle asylum seekers.
So far it has only taken in 18 of those of 200 it pledged to welcome from Italy and Greece, according to the latest European Commission data, though more are expected to arrive from this month.
Spain will also take in 100 Syrian migrants from Turkey following a new EU pact to block the flow of migrants entering illegally through Greece and process them directly with Ankara instead.
It is unclear how that EU deal will affect Mohsen's situation.
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Mohsen talks with his young son Zaid, as older son Mohammad al Ghadabe, 17, is reflected in a mirror at their home in Getafe, March 22, 2016.
Mohsen's wife and two other children remain in Mersin, southern Turkey, even though he says he has filed all the paperwork to apply for their visas. The family left the war-torn Syrian town of Deir el-Zor together around four years ago.
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Mohsen warms up a goalkeeper before a soccer match with his junior team in Villaverde, April 24, 2016.
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Mohsen and Zaid sit on a train on their way to a soccer training session in Villaverde, April 14, 2016.
The father is proud of the way his sons have settled into school and learned good enough Spanish to help translate for him.
Syrian refugees
A Spanish encyclopaedia, a model of Santiago Bernabeu stadium and Spanish homework papers are seen on a table inside Moshe's home in Getafe, April 21, 2016.
Syrian refugees
Mohsen poses for a photograph after a training session with his junior team in Villaverde, April 14, 2016.