Shahla Palany from Iraq is Kurdish and decided to leave her country after years of living in insecurity and war. Shahla stresses that she is not an economic migrant but just want to live in peace. She used to work as a teacher in primary school. She left her country alone, while her brothers and sisters remained in Iraq.

Shahla traveled alone, and has a difficult journey like many other migrants. When she arrived to Turkey she spent a few days in jail and finally managed to continue her journey from Turkey to Greece on foot.

When she arrived to Croatia she spent a few days at Slavonski Brod WRTC and soon after she was transferred to the Detention Centre in Ježevo where she spent another six days. She was not satisfied with the living conditions in Ježevo. After applying for asylum she was transferred to the RCAS in Zagreb.

She has been living in Croatia for three months and is very happy with the living conditions at the RCAS in Zagreb. She finds Croatian people very friendly and would like to live and work in Croatia. She already started to learn Croatian. If she will be granted asylum, she plans to open a restaurant to offer a variety of tasteful dishes from her country to Croatian people.

She appreciates support received by IOM and is very happy with culture orientation and creative workshops for women in which she actively participates.

SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities