Struggles of Syrian Refugees

Amane Anderson        821                                                        10/9/16

Struggles of Syrian Refugees

According to the article “The refugee crisis: 9 question you were too embarrassed to ask”, “The world is experiencing a crisis more severe than anything it has seen in decades – and we are just beginning to wake up to what that means.” This is referring to the refugee crisis that people all around the world are facing. There are currently 19 million people in the world who are considered refugees. About 4 million of these refugees are from Syria alone, fleeing a devastating Civil War. The war, now a Middle Eastern separatist war, began in 2011, when the long-disadvantaged Sunni Arabs, clearly unhappy with the country’s issues, began to protest against the Syrian regime. Slowly but surely the protests grew violent, and as the war grew larger, outside groups such as Iran’s Shia government and Sunni extremist groups such as ISIS joined the war. However, this all out war for independence has come at the cost of the lives of million of Syrian civilians. These men and women, along with their children, flee the devastating war in their home country, hoping to find a safer home. Hundreds of thousands have made refugee camps in host countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, and Europe their permanent home. These refugees face various struggles, such as the inhumane living conditions of refugee camps, and the rejection from entering countries as they flee Syria.

        One of the various struggles that Syrian refugees face as they flee the country is the inhumane and terrible living conditions in refugee camps. For instance, many refugee camps are severely overcrowded and congested. In the article “Zaatari refugee camp: Rebuilding lives in the desert” it states, “Two million people have fled over Syria’s borders to escape the bloody internal battle engulfing the country… 130,000 of them are now living in a three-square mile piece of the desolate Jordanian desert.” This statement demonstrates how overpopulated refugee camps are, hosting 130,000 people in a small 3 square-mile area. These men and women are forced to live with almost no privacy, and multiple studies show that overpopulation causes an increase in crime rate, putting these refugees at risk. Additionally, the article “As Others Flee to West, Most Syrian Refugees Remain in Region” reads, “Underfunded aid agencies and overburdened host countries have been struggling for years to support them.” Underfunded agencies and overwhelmed host countries such as Jordan, home to one of the largest refugee camps, struggle to provide the necessary resources for refugees, forcing them to ration out supplies and other resources. This further exemplifies the inhumane and barbaric conditions that refugees are forced to live in while at refugee camps. All in all, refugees are clearly forced to live in crude and unyielding conditions at refugee camps.

        Furthermore, refugees face the fear and reality of rejection from host countries as the flee Syria. For example, the application process for getting into another country when fleeing Syria can take extensive amounts of time. In “The refugee crisis: 9 questions you were too embarrassed to ask” it states, “The US process for applying for resettlement can take up to 24 months for Syrians, due in part to extensive background checks and enormous paperwork requirements” These large background checks result in a long period of time before the acceptance of a refugee into the United States. This makes it difficult for refugees to flee to the United States because they must risk staying in dangerous situations for up to 24 months, and any connection with terrorist groups will result in the rejection of an application. To further illustrate, the text “Syrian toddler’s dad: ‘Everything I was dreaming of is gone’ states, “The United Nations estimates that some 2,500 people have lost their lives on risky sea journeys as they try to escape violence and repression at home… ‘children are dying, washing up dead on the beaches of Europe, because of a collective failure to provide them safe passage’”. The “collective failure to provide them safe passage” refers to the low acceptance of Syrian refugees all around Europe. These refugees are refused admission into host countries, forcing them to take risky journeys that can get them killed, resulting in the death of many of these people. Collectively, refugees fleeing Syria face the risk of rejection from countries, and are often forced to take risks, resulting in numerous deaths.