Editor's note: This story contains explicit language.
This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's June 6 World Football Issue. Subscribe today.
It was amazing, really, how quickly he escaped the war zone. That's what struck Jassem al-Nuwaiji after he had finally left his home. His trip to the border had been long, 267 miles by car and foot, but at the moment he arrived, it was simple. He just approached the fence and looked for the hole. It was right where the smuggler said it would be. A wide swath, easy to walk through: on one side, Syria; on the other, Turkey. He stepped across the line.
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