Refugees-as-guides a hit at Berlin’s museums

Mohamed Al-Subeeh, who used to work in the Mosaics Museum at Maaret Al-Numan in Idlib province, Syria, is now a guide at Berlin’s Bode Museum. Photos: AFP

Mohamed Al-Subeeh was a senior restorer at Syria’s best-known mosaic museum, but as war swept deeper into his province, destroying artefacts and threatening his and his family’s lives, he was forced to flee.

The 64-year-old from Idlib province never dreamt that he would ever work in a museum again, certainly not in Germany, to which he had fled in a 23-day journey that involved a rubber boat ride across the Mediterranean, endless bus and train rides and hours of trekking on foot.