The family of Osama Abdul Mohsen, the man who was tripped by a camerawoman as he and his son fled from police near the Hungarian border village of Röszke earlier this month, are on their way to Spain thanks to some international generosity.
Miguel Ángel Galán, president of the CENAFE soccer school in a Getafe, Spain, was inspired when he saw the video and learned Mohsen had been a soccer coach in Syria. He reached out to a journalist to help locate Mohsen. Galán then offered to fly Mohsen and his son Zaid from Germany to Spain, where the soccer school will support the family until it can get back on its feet, including helping to find Mohsen a new job.
CENAFE has taken care of the cost of travel tickets, renting a home in Getafe and the "maintenance" of the family until it can "live within its means," according to a statement.
In a tweet, the school thanked Spain for showing "solidarity" in bringing Mohsen and his son to the country.
Muchas gracias a toda España con la solidaridad con Osama y su hjijo Zaid, a las 0.00h d la noche llegan a España con nuestro alumno Mohamed— ESCUELAS CENAFE (@EscuelasCenafe) September 16, 2015
The school sent Mohamed El Laubrozzi, an Arabic-speaking alumnus, to serve as an envoy for Mohsen and his son as the travel to Spain from Munich. Galán, the CENAFE president, also plans to bring in Mohsen's wife and two other children who are currently in Turkey, according to reports.
"I want to go right now. Spain would be a dream come true," Mohsen told Marca.
"The first thing is to get him settled," said Luis Miguel Pedraza, another staffer at the school in Spain. "First we're giving him a hand as a humanitarian gesture. Later we'll look for something. He's interested in our school."
The school also plans to help Mohsen apply for asylum in Spain. Last week, the country agreed to take 17,680 refugees from Syria and other countries under a plan set up by the European Commission.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have flooded countries in the European Union seeking asylum. Over 2,200 Syrian refugees have applied for asylum in Spain in 2015.