SYRIANS REFUGEE CRISIS STILL A “LIVING NIGHTMARE” A DECADE AFTER THE CRISIS BEGAN
Husna Sari
April,19,2021
The Syrian refugee crisis remains the world’s largest refugee and displacement crisis of our time, entering its 11th year.
Abdulrahman Matar came to Canada from Syria as a refugee in 2015. The 55-year old first tried fleeing to Turkey, but like many, couldn’t start a new life there.
“I couldn’t get anything from Turkey to support me and my wife’s life. I also couldn’t work because the government didn’t give me a work permit,” he said. “Once I applied for a Canada visa, I couldn’t get it. I travelled to the U.S, and the second day, talk with my friend who has hosted me. I will go to Canada.”
He is working for Magnet factory as an employee after fleeing the horror of the Syrian civil war.
“It is hard work in the night shift and not easy for me all my life have worked as a journalist, writer and researcher,” said Matar, who is also a member of PEN Canada.” You can’t get any chance to work in the media; every company asked me for Canadian experience.”
The regime now wants Matar — who has spent 10 years in Syrian jail — because of poems and articles that called for the freedom of expression and outlined his positions on issues of freedom and human rights.
“Our first challenge in Canada is language. When I went to school again to learn English at my age, It was not easy to learn a new language,” he said.
The city went into lockdown due to covid-19 and forced them to stay at home once they started to adapt to their new life in Canada.
“First time when they said to stay home, I felt like I am in prison,” he said. “It came to back all my bad memories.”
UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned COVID-19 pandemic has pushed thousands of Syrian refugees in the Middle East into an ever more desperate situation.
The refugees who were settled in countries in Syria’s neighbourhood experience difficulties resulting from the global pandemic. Many refugees have lost incomes and forcing them to cut down on the most basic needs, including food and medicine.
The Syrian refugee crisis has begun with the civil war on March 15, 2011. According to UNCHR, Over 5.6 million people have fled Syria since 2011, and they are seeking safe places in Turkey, Lebonan, Jordan and beyond.
Bayan Al Hammadi left Syria in 2014, travelling first to Turkey and later making his way to Canada.
"After 3 months arrived in Canada, we faced many challenges such as language, finding a job, and adapting to different cultures, he said. "My kids started to ask me why we are here. I said to them we live in safe now ."
He was a Lawyer, and with bombs falling around in Daraa, North of Syria, Hammadi and his wife carried their four young children fleed to Turkey.
"I had no other option but fled. My lawyer friends are now in jail, and the Syrian government fired me from lawyer bars due to attended protest against Assad," he said.
In 2017, Private sponsorship through Lifeline Syria, a non-profit organization, helped the family come to Canada, where they learned English and build a new life in Newmarket.
"I made an application through Canadian Embassy in Turkey, and then we do an interview in Ankara with embassy official," he said. "When we arrived in Canada, Sponsorship did everything for us such as give us home, my child take care to school."
After a year, Al Hammadi found a job in a Car Dealership company in the barks department. The company closed their doors and faired all employees when the Pandemic started.
"Once we heard going to the lack-down all in Canada, I was so afraid because we didn't know what we can do. It reminds us of Syria memories," he said.
Syria’s civil war is still a “living nightmare,” and people continue to suffer as much as ever after 10 years.
1,000 refugees were resettled in Canada as “urgent cases” since the beginning of the pandemic. Still, many vulnerable refugees urgently need to be resettled in Canada.
Syrian Refugee families have a more acceptable condition in Canada than other countries that host many refugee groups. Access to education, food, household and job opportunity is better than the others.
The Canadian government doesn’t offer a typical Refugee camp. The government directly resettled them to start over a new life.
According to the IRCC record, Canada resettled more than 44,620 Syrian refugees from Nov. 4, 2015, to Oct. 31, 2020. The Syrian refugees came most likely from camps in Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon. Also, some families arrived in Canada from Greek.
The government takes some precautions before resettled the people in the cities, such as the screening process weeks or months in advance.
Priority for the Canadian government was given to families, women at risk, sexual minorities, or LGBTQ members. Canada did additional screenings above the UN procedures.
Private sponsors across the country also help resettle refugees to Canada. Many Canadian citizens are still being Sponsoring a refugee family from Syria. There are some procedures to provide by sponsorship that bring any Syrian family or single person, such as ensuring the costs.
Most Syrian Refugees don’t have health cards and work permits in Turkey and coping with discrimination.
Eyas Al Muhammed arrived in Turkey less than 7 years ago with his wife and son. Before coming to Turkey, Eyas spent years working as a journalist and his wife Shami as a teacher in Bab As-Salaam, Northwestern Syria.
“Currently, I am still working as a journalist for a Syrian newspaper from Turkey. However, we are still spending our saving money, “Eyas said. “Syrian refugees can not get any money from the government or any other organizations anymore.”
They walked with days to achieve Syria- Turkey border building a new life in the neighbouring country; however, the hopes become a challenging life.
“All of us see there is no future in Turkey,” he said.
When the Al Muhammed family resettled in Turkey, they rented a small apartment.
Turkey established build “Temporary Accommodation Centers,” such as Kilis Oncupinar Accommodation Facility instead of regular refugee camps. Also, the Turkish government permits asylum people to settle in some of the urban areas.
According to the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social services in Turkey, only 31,185 Syrian refugees were granted a work permit in Turkey till 2020. However, Turkey host over 3.6 million Syrian refugees across 81 cities.
Eyas said many Syrian have to work under the minimum wage as illegal related to lack of work permit.
“Most Syrian refugees in Turkey don’t get a job, and they live in very poor situations and work with Turkish people is very hard,” he said.
Eyas said health care is not given to Syrian refugees, and there is no exception during the COVID-19. “We are afraid to be sick now, and we have to pay for doctor and our medicine even in the pharmacies.”
Turkey’s economic circumstances are not enough to protect them and provide basic life requirements. Indeed, many of them want to start a request to resettled in any other country, according to the 2020 Refugee Rights Violation Report by Human Rights Association. Or They will try to cross the sea to achieve Europe despite death.
“Some of our friends want to go to Europe. They say it’s much better than here, “Shima said.
“If I have a chance to go Germany, Holland or Canada, I will do and not stay here. Just for my son’s future, “Eyas said. “There is huge discrimination here. The school kids said to Syrian children, ‘You have to go back and defend your country, fight your enemies, here is not your country’ like this.”
Omer Celik, the AKP spokesperson, said they would not stop refugees’ attempts at Europe across to the sea.
“Turkey can not move the new refugee’s edition; we said that Turkey’s capacity is now full. Therefore, the resulting pressure is no longer being managed on the Turkey side. The attack on both Turkey in the cellar towards Europe. As a result, both There is a correct movement of Syrian territory to Turkey. Our refugee policy is the same, but there is a hard situation; we are no longer in a position to keep the refugees,” he said in a statement.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated the poverty and joblessness faced by refugees in Turkey.
SYRIAN PEOPLE BECOME A REFUGEE IN THEIR HOMELAND
The civil war divided the country into three regions. The Syrian Kurdish forces dominate around a quarter of the country in the northeast. Al-Qaeda-linked groups hold the northwestern Idlib province, and the rest of Syria remains in Assad’s grasp.
Turkey entered the fray in 2018 when it occupied Afrin, a city and Kurdish stronghold in northwestern Syria.
About 120,000 people were forced to move out of the Afrin and into five major refugee camps within the northern Shahba Canton, a neighbouring area east of Afrin, Azaz and Aleppo, which are controlled by Syrian democratic force
Salih Muslim, the co-chair of the main Syrian-Kurdish movement, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told on a zoom meeting they are also continuing the fight with remnants of ISIS. At the same time, the refugee crisis has become a critical problem, with 120,000 displaced Syrians in a camp with an increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
“We have many camps; most of them are displaced people from the Afrin areas,” he said. “The United Nations is also not coming to help them.”
He said the UN is able to help Syrian refugees living in other countries, but not within the war-torn nation.
Muslim said non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are non-profit organizations that operate without any government funding, try to assist, but Turkey won’t allow supplies to travel through it. The only way to get supplies in is to ship needed supplies through Kurdish-controlled border points.
REFUGEES FACE THE CLOSURE OF CAMPS IN IRAQ
Safeen Dizayee, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Foreign Relations and a former senior spokesperson, said on a zoom meeting, Iraq hosting 1 million Syrian refugees, and the Kurdish government has financial problems to hosting them.
“Refugees escape from ISIS and Syrian Government, they came to us that increased our population by 30 percent, in a matter of six months, although many items have gone by, even today, we have almost 1 million refugees,” he said.
At the same time, Iraq copes with rising international tension, tit-for-tat attacks between U.S. and Iran-aligned militias. Security is a major problem.
Currently, Nearly 2,400 families face leaving their camp in the northern Nineveh province during the global pandemic.
“Unfortunately, Iraq Federal Government is trying to close some of IDP camps, which we feel is not the right thing,” he said. “People should be able to go back voluntarily, and they should not be pushed to go back to an area where there is no security of services. And obviously, there is no accommodation,” he said.
Dizayee told some of the refugees already back in their homes; however, they couldn’t stay there long time due to a lack of the right atmosphere of security.
“Many of the Christians, Ezidy, Turki and Arabs all these small communities, they left Syria today they are trying to live with peace and tranquillity,” he said.
89 PER CENT OF THE SYRIAN REFUGEE LIVE BELOW EXTREME POVERTY DUE TO THE ECONOMIC CRISIS IN LEBONAN
Lebanon hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, almost half of them children.
Currently, The country copes with the economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Lebanon’s human rights record on Jan.18, The COVID-19 pandemic made a dire situation worse for Syrian Refugees due to accessing healthcare became such an impossibility.
The discrimination issue is rising during the pandemic. A group of Lebanese men set fire to an informal refugee settlement near the town of Bhanine on Dec.27, 2020. The flames tore through tented shelters housing which was living 370 Syrian refugees. In the middle of the winter, dozens of children and families stayed with no shelter or possessions.
Most Syrian refugees do not have legal residency, and less than 1 percent of Syrian have work permits. They are living in fear of deportation.
According to a UNICEF report, the economic crisis with the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed 89 per cent of the Syrian refugee population below the extreme poverty line in Lebanon.
Human Right Watch reports show that half of the Syrian population is food insecure from 2016 to 2020; however, the number climbed up during the Covid 19. The report also pointed that 29 percent of 15 to 17-year-old children were enrolled in school in 2020.
WHO IS REFUGEE
Many people have to flee from their country due to violence, war, hunger, extreme poverty. Forcibly displaced people need to find a safe place.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), 80 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide as of mid-2020.