⚠️🌍🚨 Very Important: My story in detail before and after the work accident! Everyone must know it!!! ⚠️

My name is Maher Souriti from Tartous – Syria. I worked on commercial marine vessels around the world from 2003 until 2014.

In 2015, I sought refuge and moved to Germany 🇩🇪 because of the wars in Syria. I studied the German language in schools and also volunteered in the German relief organization THW.

In 2016, I felt slight pain in the right side of my back. I went to the doctor only once and I got better.

Note: The right back pain has nothing to do with the coccyx and pelvic fractures caused by the work accident in 2019.

In 2018, I started an official and legal work contract with a German company that exploited me under the pretext of “professional training” to save money instead of paying me the salary of a “regular worker”, despite my long experience on ships. I worked for them on three river vessels.

The company always called me back whenever they sent me home during rest periods, to work on their other vessels without enough rest. This was clearly driven by xenophobia. This extreme pressure caused the return of the right back pain due to the very exhausting work and lack of rest.

When I returned home for rest, I went to a doctor because of the right back pain, and he gave me physical therapy treatment. But when the company found out, they refused to let me go to the physical therapy sessions and immediately called me back to the ship to work before my rest period ended!

I returned to the ship without rest and without treatment, and after a week of hard work, on the morning of 08.02.2019, while the ship was sailing from Amsterdam to Stuttgart, I was cleaning the ship’s deck from coal. Then the sudden accident happened:

I suddenly slipped and fell on my back on the iron surface, and the coccyx and pelvis were fractured. The employer was watching me from the wheelhouse and speaking to me through the microphone. He deliberately ignored the accident when I informed him about it. I stopped working due to severe pain, and when I asked him to send me to the hospital, he shouted at me and said: “I saw nothing” and ignored me again.

On the morning of 09.02.2019, when we arrived at Stuttgart port, I informed him again via WhatsApp that he must send me to the emergency room and then back home to continue physical therapy. But they sent me to the train station instead and told me: “Do not go to the hospital,” and gave me a travel ticket to my home, then ran away as if escaping responsibility!!!

I went by myself to the hospital immediately due to the severe pain caused by the coccyx and pelvic fractures. When the doctor examined me, he confirmed it was a work accident. When he contacted the company, it became clear that they had not registered me in the insurance! So they fired me immediately and left me without any protection.

After that, I ended up with three types of pain:

1. Fractures and bruises in the coccyx

2. Fractures and bruises in the pelvis

3. Right back pain due to work pressure

When I returned home, I went to the police immediately, and they advised me to hire a lawyer. But the first lawyer refused to file a complaint against the company because it is a “German company.” The doctors also refused to continue my treatment and merged the coccyx and pelvic fractures with the old back pain to defend the company!

Knowing that I lived four years in Germany before the accident, and I used to attend German language classes sitting on normal chairs, and now I cannot sit without a special cushion because of the fractures. I was also a volunteer in the German relief organization, and it is impossible that they would hire me if I had disabilities before the accident!

Then I hired another lawyer, but he held on to the case without taking any action. After that, the German company that violated the law appointed accident insurance companies to be against me as well, instead of treating me and rehabilitating me, and they claimed that I was not on the ship and not working at all, to escape responsibility.

Everyone began to play with my case, neglect me, and intentionally mistreat me wherever I went, and they defamed my reputation and image in front of people, until I became homeless, with a disability and chronic pain until now.

Despite submitting several appeals in German courts, they kept the case intentionally in the first-degree courts for more than six years so it would not reach higher courts… instead of treating me and rehabilitating me.

Today, I am living homeless, with a permanent disability, chronic pain, without insurance, without rehabilitation, and without any compensation due to the deliberate and continuous physical neglect until now…

And all of that — in my opinion and based on my personal experience — was done to save money, exploit people, and protect the German company because I was a Syrian refugee. As a result, I ended up living without shelter, with a disability and chronic pain until this day, despite my full commitment to the law and respect for my work.

For more than six years, the deliberate and repeated physical and emotional neglect has been trying to exhaust me, silence my right to justice, and damage my reputation and image — instead of treating me and applying the law!

Today, I share my story to affirm that my rights are not something to be ignored. I have the right for my humanity to be respected and to receive justice and medical treatment, not neglect and silence.

How can any human being live after what I have been through?!!!

That is why I will continue demanding my rights through every legal means available, until justice is served and the law is applied. ⚖️

🙏 A Call for Support – Help Me Live with Dignity and Safety

Dear friends and kind-hearted people,

I am reaching out to you today with honesty and hope.

Since 2019, my life has changed completely due to a legally documented work accident that occurred while I was working on a German ship. Unfortunately, the company failed to register me for insurance, despite my legal right to be covered.

As a result of this accident, I suffer from physical disability and chronic pain. Since then, I have been living without a monthly income, without health insurance, without rehabilitation, and without any compensation. I have also experienced homelessness and ongoing instability, not because of my choices, but due to serious neglect and injustice.

Today, I am simply asking for support so I can:

• Live with dignity
• Have basic safety and stability
• Cover essential living and medical needs
• Begin rebuilding my life step by step

Any contribution, no matter how small, can make a real difference in my life.

If you are unable to donate, sharing this post would also mean a great deal to me.

👉 You can support me by donating through my PayPal account named “ATLAS”, which is my personal account and belongs to me, Maher Souriti:

https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=LN4RRPDW3HNVL

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your time, compassion, and support.

Your kindness gives me hope. 🤍