Refugee refuses to leave his husky behind

Many of the tens of thousands of Syrian war refugees flooding into Europe are only able to carry a few belongings. Some carry sunscreen, a change of clothes, a lemon to combat sea sickness or a mobile phone. For 17-year-old Aslan, it was Rose, a small husky he refused to abandon.

“I love this dog, I need him” Aslan said in a widely shared video produced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. According to the video, Aslan fled Damascus and traveled more than 300 miles on foot to the Greek island of Lesbos. En route he was told he could not take the dog.

“They said, ‘You can’t take a dog,’ ” he said in the video. “I have food and I have water” for the dog.

Somehow — it’s unexplained — authorities relented and let him take the dog.

A spokesperson for the UNHCR told the Independent that many refugees from the Middle East carry their animals along with them to Europe.

Since the video was first posted Saturday, it has received more than 5.2 million views and more than 70,000 Facebook likes. “People are really connecting to Aslan and his dog, but he is just one of scores of Syrians who have made similar journeys,” Ariane Rummery of UNHCR told ABC News. “They take those risks because the situation they have fled is even more dangerous than the journey they’ve have taken.”

Rummery said the video was an attempt by UNHCR to “humanize” the crisis. At the close of the video, the interviewer asks Aslan why he took the dog on the journey, all Aslan could say over and over was “I love my dog.”