After reading the background information from Refugee Deeply, I learned much more about the refugee status than I did before. The crisis that we know of now, started in World War I. The refugees fled their homes because the governments were invading and torturing the people either out of their homes or out of their countries. The reading states, “The 1951 Convention defines a refugee as any person who is outside his/her country of origin or habitual residence and is unable to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group”. A refugee may enter a country and claim asylum as an individual or group fleeing violence. One may claim asylum in any country outside of their own. A host government may not force asylum seekers to return to their country where they fear prosecution.
Refugee Crisis
Syria Crisis
I learned a lot when reading "Quick facts: What you need to know about the Syria Crisis" that I was unaware of before. The crisis began in 2011 when the government began to crackdown. They are killing many civilians by bombing territories leading to scarce materials such as food and clean water. The UN claims that 6.6 million people are internally displaced in Syria alone. The airstrikes at ISIS in Syria are killing civilians and causing innocent people to flee. Many Syrians are fleeing to Jordan and Lebanon where MercyCorps are setting up refugee camps to help them survive. Many are also fleeing to Turkey, but it is tough to live and stay alive due to the limited amount of money they have. They are living in friend's houses on tough living standards, in abandoned houses and storage sheds. They cannot find jobs because they are not legal to work in those countries as well as the difficulty with the language barrier. Many of the refugees are under 18 with the displacement of their family. The young children are confused and hurt and the older children are forced to grow up too fast to take care of their siblings. It is important for not just surrounding countries, but for all countries to understand the drastic measures of this crisis and to help out and donate as much as possible.
Syrian Refugees in Norway
I was very interested when reading the article "Syrian Refugees Start a New Life in Norway through Resettlement". I found this interesting because there are many articles we read that discuss resettlement in Turkey or refugees fleeing to the United States, but I thought it was interesting that this couple and their child was able to resettle in Norway and be happy. Hennan, his wife and their son lived in Aleppo, Syria where they recall a very dangerous neighborhood that they were placed in. They once witnessed a man shot dead carrying a loaf of bread over his head and a woman scurrying to pick up the bloody pieces of bread for her hungry children. Also, they witnessed their neighbor killed because they thought he supported Syrian's president. Although life was dangerous there, it was still their home. They had jobs, they had family and friends, and they had hobbies like playing the flute. When their son was born, they were told he was blind and the only medical help they could get was to revisit Aleppo for monthly checkups. They then relocated to Turkey so that they could do this. When they received the phone call from the UN stating that the Norwegian government wanted to interview them for resettlement, it was very exciting. They now live there very happy with their son in school making new friends.
"Why I bought four children..."
This article was about an American who drove by a woman selling four children on the streets of Beirut. A Syrian woman was trying to sell the children because their parents had been killed in the war in Aleppo. The women brought the children to Lebanon but did not have the money to keep and care for them but did not want to leave them on the side of the road so she was selling them. She had no identification so she could not register with the UNHCR. The American brought these four children back to the apartment and fed them American food and Ethiopian homemade food. The children met other children to play with and finally felt at home. This article is interesting because he bought the children – it is scary to see that any children can just be up for sale on the streets of a country without parents to care for them. Throughout this article he mentioned many statistics about the amounts of children that die from starvation, children that are exploited by their work staff and exploited and abused.
Syria : Fleeing from One Place to the Next
This article is about a 20-year-old girl who wakes up every morning to go to school and then she spends her afternoons working in a hospital with little to no experience in which an American doctor should have six years experience in the field. She works on the smallest injuries to the large ones such as surgeries. She is a female in the work place and works under a male colleague in which she is told what she can and cannot do at times. She hates her life here and she is seeing a psychologist that is telling her she is depressed. She tells her parents she wants to flee.
She flees to Damascus in which she finds out her life is going on normal, until she hears of an attack in her hometown. She then can only see and think about the planes that are going in and out carrying hundreds of dead people back and forth. She cannot speak out in Damascus - she must keep quiet whereas back home she was allowed to speak out about the revolution. Months later - she decides to flee to Europe. She feels that her dreams have been stolen, her friends have been killed and life is over as she knows it. She is still unhappy away from "home".
Detained, Deceived, and Deported: Experiences of Recently Deported Central American Families:
This article explains how thousands of women and their children have fled and arrived throughout the United States in hopes of finding protection. But for many of the deportees, their attempts to escape merely resulted in detention, deportation and extremely difficult reintegration in Central America. The conditions they face upon being repatriated are worse than those they tried to escape in the first place.
We learn first-hand accounts from Central American women and their family members who reveal the dangerous life that women and children faced upon return to their home countries.
Most of the women interviewed for this report revealed that upon return home they were forced to live in hiding as a way to protect themselves from violent groups. Upon being sent back home, the women interviewed explained how vulnerable and unprotected they felt. They were unable to live their normal lives without having to seek refuge at a family member’s house or paying for “private security” services.
This article is upsetting because they are basically stating that these women and children have no set lives yet more moving around looking for shelter and safety.
Uganda: A Widowed Father
Gabriel fled violence in Uganda and went to a UN Compound. In April 2014, an armed mobbed attacked the compound killing 61. Gabriel's wife is one of them. The killing of his wife was very crushing on him and traumatizing on his children. He;s a single father of 5 - the youngest two months - oldest 14. They fled again to Uganda. They took shelter in the Reception Center. It;s difficult to rely on these five children and no school. They don't understand the morals of a human being, They are helping provide blankets and milk - but he worries about the other needs for his children. He hopes for more assistance and education for his children. But for now, it's just a new smart with a better future.
World Focus: Rape as A Weapon of war in Congo
Throughout this short film we learn that people in Congo are using rape as war. War tears families apart because they are worried about diseases and they are humiliated. In this story, Georgina was carrying wood back to home when she was attacked and raped by two men. She then went home to tell her husband whom then had to leave her because of the dishonor and fear of disease. Georgina now lives at home in her shack alone while her husband lives in a displacement camp. They often see each other but only pass by with a common hello and nothing more. Her husband claimed he was humiliated and had been taunted by his friends because she was raped. The people of Congo do this on purpose. The women are then left to fend for themselves. Synergy for women is an organization that offers healthcare and help for women. They have many infants because the mothers are sex slaves with armed groups who run for help. Synergy houses women who have been raped. They spend months and years there while learning to sew and talk about their problems to overcome trauma. War has crippled Congo's justice system. Since just 2003 there have been 8000 cases of rape with only 68 court rulings on the rape charges. A young teenager "Zawati" was raped by her neighbor and now seeking shelter at Synergy. The man who who raped her is now released from prison. She believes that they pay their way out, but now that man is seeking to find Zawati and her family. We are seeing that rape has become the norm in Eastern Congo - noticing that not only armed groups are committing rape, but civilians as well. These women are left hurt and alone and often very poor and difficult to make ends meet.
One family's story of Congo...
This story is shared by Clement Shomani and his wife Aline. This story is emotional and he explains how life was in the Democratic of Congo. He explains that women are not considered in the society – with no voice. In the family girls are not supposed to go to school before the boy. Clement believes that women should be able to have a voice and he wants to help ladies face life and stand and talk for the rights of other women. His wife, Aline believes that women should be integrated into society and that they are important. She states that they work for a nonprofit organization for human rights and helping women and girls. It is a bit difficult to understand them as they speak because English is a second language. I think this interview was so emotional because of the personal stories and first account stories that they’ve seen. The couple is strong, but Aline becomes emotional throughout this story. The family left with support of their pastor and priest and fled by foot. With five children they began their long journey of three nights through many countries. This was a difficult story to tell because of the personal traumatization’s that incurred.