Life of a Syrian Refugee

Often times, people confuse refugees with migrants. Refugees are those who are forced to flee from persecution, war, violence; who cannot return home because of their safety. On the other hand, a migrant is a person seeking better life style, which is usually a voluntary process.

Many young Syrians between the ages of 18-40 years are still taking the journey to Europe through Turkey or Lebanon. Smuggling and human trafficking operations are in full swing. The Mafia in Turkey organizes it for a cost (usually 3-4000 Euros per person. Thousands still hope to cross to Europe. It is a forced and a well-organized immigration. The Erdogan regime succeeded in blackmailing Europe by forcing thousands of people to flee and in return, he is paid $3 billion in aid to help the ‘Syrian refugees’.

The tragedy does not stop there. In Jordan, more than 90,000 kids are without proper schooling and girls are forced into prostitution. Syrian girls as young as 12-years-old are sold to brothels and bought by rich elderly men. The pictures going around on social media show an elderly Saudi national marrying a 9-year-old Syrian refugee girl, a cruel reminder of how Syrians are exploited. However, the horrors do not end here, as shortly after, the child brides are likely to die from internal injuries after their ‘wedding night’.

In Lebanon, Syrians are ill-treated by some. While crossing in transit, Syrians are regularly stopped at checkpoints, detained for hours, interrogated and humiliated.

The rich Gulf States gave instruction not to allow Syrian refugees into their respective countries because this will ensure return of refugees back to Syria once the war is over and the objective is not to let them go back. Some GCC States are spending billions of Dollars on arms and still sending mercenaries to fight the Syrian government. In fact, even after the pressure on Turkey to close the border with Syria and stop allowing mercenaries, Le Figaro carried an article stating that 100-150 mercenaries still cross to Syria daily. Above all, there is lack of funds and aid from the international community to the refugees. The irony that most of those warmonger countries shed crocodile tears about the human suffering of the Syrians in front of the cameras. The poor conditions in the camps has led to spread of communicable diseases.

“Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts the right of everyone to seek and enjoy asylum” (UNCHR). This has always been misinterpreted by various countries to suit their own agenda. Additionally, it is also stated “refugees must not be expelled or returned to situations where their life or freedom would be under threat”, but certain countries have started to ignore these principles.

European Jihadists and Islamophobia

Before speaking about the impact of Syrian refugees on the European Union economy, we should acknowledge and thank the people of Europe who pressurized their governments to help the Syrian refugees. We must shed light on those capitals that played a vital role in fuelling the war, not only in Syria, but also through Northern African states, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan. The findings of Sir John Chilcot inquiry exposed the lies that led to the US-UK invasion of Iraq. Undoubtedly, the atrocities committed on the Iraqi people and occupation nourished radicalization through various methods, and led to the current turmoil, and emergence of more terrorist organizations led by Daesh or so called ISIS.

The West is equally guilty of letting their radicals loose. They allowed Wahhabi Saudi and Qatari charities to infiltrates small isolated pockets of poor Muslim areas to be radicalized and recruited. The investment and funds from rich Gulf States were allowed to boost the failing economy of many EU states. But in return they let Al Saud built Wahhabi Mosques in these areas where small children of immigrant generation failed to integrate in the society, stayed isolated, and indulged in drugs and crimes. When Jihad culture was promoted in the US and West, during the Afghan war to topple USSR, Imams and clergies were allowed in their sermons to encourage Jihad in Afghanistan. Many youngsters were allowed to join Jihadi forces like Al Qaeda in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union. After the Soviet withdrawal, many returned to their respective homes and started preaching youngsters to hate the West when Al Qaeda was declared a terrorist organization and US invaded Afghanistan.

The same mistake was repeated during the US–UK invasion of Iraq and then the emergence of a branch of Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria, which was followed by Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS). The success of this project in Afghanistan made America repeat it in Iraq during the decade of occupation, training and arming different groups under different targets and objectives.

High Value Detainee (HVD) centers like Abu Ghraib prisons, NAMA or as the Americans used to call it “Nasty Ass Military Area”, Bucca and Cropper to name a few of the many abusive camps established by the US during the Iraq occupation. The International Committee of the Red Cross was denied entry into HVD. These centers were filled with inmates who were tortured, abused and radicalized. More than 100,000 inmates, including 19 founding members of Daesh and the current proclaimed leader of IS, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, who spent more than 3 years in Bucca camp. Ironically, he was not considered a threat and was released “accidently,” although there was a US$10 million ransom on his head!

The recent revelation of the identity of Al Qaeda affiliated group Al Nusra Front’s leader, Abu Mohammed Al Jolani, vindicated the Iraqi intelligence claims that he was detained at Bucca camp in 2008 under a fake identity. This terrorist organization is sponsored, funded and armed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

These detention centers i.e. US Jihad University or human zoos were separated according to Shia and Sunni faith. Good and bad Islamic fundamentalist insurgents were mixed. Youths between the ages of 14-18 years were detained and considered “Dangerous”.

Other radicals were intentionally giving themselves in to be detained. They were requesting US army officers in charge of the camp to be sent to “34 compound” to mix with other comrades who emerged as the top founders of IS, indoctrinated, and allowed to plan, coordinate and keep connected after they were released. The masterminds of ISIS were former Iraq army officers who lost their jobs after the dismantling of the Iraq army and de-Baathification process. One of the messages was that “US is an occupier and Iraqi government is a puppet regime” (American Party of Labour).

As the White House declared, “Mission accomplished”, the camps were closed in 2009, prisoners were released, and some shifted to other prisons. Then American combat forces left at dawn on 18 December 2011, and Iraq inherited a large number of terrorists. All well trained, radicalized and able to mobilize forces and recruits with the billions of dollars “missing/unaccounted for” from the Iraqi treasure that US occupational forces governor, Paul Bremer, distributed among different militant groups. According to eyewitnesses, prisoners were given lessons on “how to use explosives and make bombs” (Parks).

After their release from camps, the insurgents resumed their Jihadist activities and started attacking coalition forces and the Iraq army. They also targetted  prisons and detention centers to release their comrades and violent prisoners who were already radicalized and ready to blow themselves up for a “cause”. The same project by the United Kingdom’s disastrous bid in the 1970s to incarcerate Irish Republican Army members, “the problem is nothing new: prisons are pools of explosive extremism awaiting a spark” (McCoy).

With the emergence of Daesh/IS, hundreds of mercenaries, graduates from Wahhabi mosques in EU, were allowed to travel freely from their native lands to Syria and Iraq via Turkey to join IS. No eyebrows were raised as long as they would not come back and were considered a good riddance; it was only when this madness backfired and many trained mercenaries went back home to blow themselves up and attack Europe. Then the EU leaders woke up to the mess of their own creation. Innocent people in Europe were targetted and terrorist acts spread from one city to another and most of the culprits, either known criminals or returnees from Syria, used the same route via Turkey to go back home.

Many questions remain unanswered. Why were those fundamentalists and brain-washed youngsters allowed to travel to Syria and Iraq? How were they recruited? Who intoxicated them? Why was there no follow up in their absence? Why did the respective governments refuse to check the data provided to them about the whereabouts of these terrorist ‘Daeshies’ (after joining Daesh) who went back? These questions must be answered by the respective governments. It was the greedy lust for arms deals that blinded the eyes of those officials, closing their eyes for the wrong doings of the champions of democracy and model countries like Saudi, Qatar and Turkey.

Ironically, many of the European ‘Daeshies’ sneak in along with Syrian migrants. In fact, many migrants from Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan pretend to be Syrians to gain sympathy and to be granted refugee status in Europe. Turkey is still allowing these illegal activities. IS opposes Syrian migration but will attack European cities to blame it on migrants in order to send them back. Incidents like Paris, Nice and Berlin are good examples of how these terrorists gained entry into Europe, caused harm and allow the media to blame it on Syrian forced refugees. 

When Muammar Al Gaddafi, late president of Libya, was removed by force, the influx of refugees reached its peak in Europe and prompted countries like France and Italy to think of reoccupying Libya on the pretext of carrying out operations against IS and to prevent illegal migrants.

(To be concluded…)

The author is a veteran Syrian journalist; he appears regularly on Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV