Refugee crisis brings out best and worst in Europe: Nahlah Ayed

Hawkar Ali Fattah and his friends carefully weighed the dangers and costsand stillchose to walk away from the uncertainty of life in northern Iraq to the safety of law-abiding Europe.

What they wouldn't have expected, or accepted, when they made that decisionwas the physical and verbalabuse or the time in detention they say they ultimately endured along the way.

• LIVEBLOG| Refugee crisis escalates on multiple fronts
• ANALYSIS | Refugee crisis makes for strange sights on Lesbos: Margaret Evans
• Read the latest news on the refugee crisis here

Theirs is the kind of story we've heard recounted repeatedly this past weekend as many thousands of asylum seekerssought to express their gratitude toAustriaand Germany forallowingthem to crosstheir borders no questions asked.

Countless people in both countries and beyond have been lending a hand atwelcome centres, offering shelter, clothing, medical services or just applause as therefugees began arriving at their destinations.

For the asylum seekers, thatexperience stood in painful contrast to the surprise ofdiscovering that in some parts of Europe, people like them could expect to bemistreated even at the hands of the authorities.

For many refugees, watching ordinarycitizens this weekendgenerously give rides to some of the thousands ofpeoplewalking west simply didn't square with the taxidrivers who refused to pick them upor with the vendors who wouldn't sell themfood even when they showed they had the money.

The lineup of politicians offering to shelter refugees in their own homes fromScotland's Nicola Sturgeonto Hungary'sformer prime minister,FerencGyurcsany clashed with the refusal of police in some places to provide the mostbasic supplies while detaining them.

• ANALYSIS | Most seeking asylum in Europe are refugees not migrants:Nahlah Ayed
• Europe's moral quandry: the migrants who risk all for freedom

'Thank God we arrived here'

Fattah says he was detained in Sofia, Bulgaria, locked up and even hit by police officers.

"It was 15 days in the prison. No waterand no bread," he said, moments afterarriving at a welcome centre at the Austrian border with Hungary.

"I am unwell and very hungry. Thank God we arrived here. Thank God."

There was no immediate way to confirm Fattah's story, but several asylum seekersinterviewed by CBC News spoke of similar experiences in a number of countries.

One young man, Ismael Adel, from the Syrian town of Kobani, said he, too, was denied food andwater during the nearly three days he spent in Hungarian detention.

"A policeman told us, 'You are not human. Animals,'" he said.

Parts ofSerbia werealso particularly unwelcoming, andsome refugeesendured beatings while traversing the country.

Several countries have been criticized for their treatment of the refugees crossing their territory called out for everything fromforcing them into holding centresto using tear gas to subdue themto not doingenough to combat far-right groups that have been vocal in opposing their presence.

One Syrian mother from Aleppo, who is a lawyer by training, told CBC News her family was travelling from Turkey to Greecewhen their dinghy was picked upby what she described as a Greek military ship. Rowa'a Meirej said the personnel on boardsearchedher and her family, destroyed their mobile phones, threw out their belongings and then left themintheir dinghy drifting in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

They were rescued by Turkish coastal authorities and returned to the Turkish coast.They tried to make the crossing again and this time succeeded. She said she made the perilous journey for the sake of her children"because the future is over in Syria."

Small acts of kindness

In some respects, the crisis has brought outthe worst in Europe: the repeated acts of arson at refugee shelters in Germany, the Czech Republic'sdisturbing (and now abandoned) practice of writing identification numbers onto the arms ofdetained refugees a move that for many recalled the Nazi system of branding Jewsin concentration camps.

It has also sown serious division between European nations on how to approachwhat the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherinisays is a crisis that is not going away.

But it has also brought out some of the best inEurope.

On the border between Austria and Hungary, a nervous middle-aged man drove upto a small Syrian family walking on the highwayand offered some water to theparents and their kids.

They asked him how to get across the border, which was just down the road.

He tried to explain. Then he did what so many others are doing despite the possibility of getting in trouble with the law: he offeredthem a ride.

He didn't have to. But he bundled them into the car and drove off.

For many of the refugees making their way across the continent on foot, that is the Europe they had imagined.