Feature: War-torn Syria embraces refugees from alike states
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E-mail Xinhua, June 28, 2016
Despite the fact that half of its pre-war 23 million got displaced out of their homes as a result of a crisis branded as the worst since the World War II, Syria still hosts communities of Arab refugees from several nationalities.
From Iraqis, all the way to Somalians and Eritreans, the war-torn country is still seen by those refugees as a safe haven.
"Despite the crisis that has been gripping it for over five years, I think Syria is safer than my homeland Iraq," said Nema, an Iraqi refugee, who had fled her country in 2004 following the U.S.-led invasion to Iraq.
The 45-year-old woman sought refuge in Damascus along with her husband and kids and said she had fled her home once, but will never flee her second in Rukn Aladdin district north of Damascus.
"When the Americans invaded our country, I had to leave with my family out of fear of the violence that has ensued. I had found no place to go, no place to host me unconditionally without strict visa rules but Syria," she said, referring to the visa-free entry the Syrian government had granted for all Arab nationals ahead of the Syrian crisis.
For her part, Amani Ali from Eritrea said she has been living in Syria with her mother for over 20 years.
She said Syria for her is a home she can never leave, as she has become so attached to it after fleeing crisis in her country.
She hoped the international powers could provide more financial support to the refugees and stop the wars and conflicts, which cause the displacement.
"Syria is my home now, and I cannot think of leaving it despite the crisis, which I hope it could end soon for this country to return as it had used to be," she told Xinhua.
Her friend, Zahra Abdi from Somalia, said the situation in Syria is still better than her original country's.
"Despite the war in Syria, the situation here is much better than that in Somalia," she told Xinhua.
Those refugees rely largely on financial aid they receive from the humanitarian organizations, despite the fact that some of them have for long blended in the community and even got jobs.
The Syrian government has for long boasted about the fact that Syria was always a safe haven of Arabs fleeing conflicts, keeping its borders open without visa to the Arab visitors and those fleeing wars and conflicts.
Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Syria hosted several waves of Palestinian refugees, which counted later for nearly 500,000 people.
Following the U.S.-invasion of Iraq in 2003, 250,000 Iraqis were registered as refugees in Syria.
During the July War of 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, around 100,000 Lebanese citizens fled to Syria to find short-term shelter.
True that large numbers of those refugees had left the country either before the crisis like the Iraqis and Lebanese, or others during the crisis like Palestinians, but others have decided to stay.
UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said last month that of 560,000 Palestinians in Syria before the war, some 120,000 left the war-torn country.
Firas al-Khatib, the spokesman of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, told Xinhua that Syria still hosts 31,400 refugees, mostly from Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, and Eritrea.
He said the country still hosts those refugees despite being plagued with "the biggest humanitarian crisis the world has witnessed since the World War II."
According to the UNHCR, over three million Syrians have fled to Syria's immediate neighbors Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. 6.5 million are internally displaced within Syria.
Meanwhile, nearly 150,000 Syrians have declared asylum in the European Union, while member states have pledged to resettle further 33,000 Syrians. Endit
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