The Worst Tragedy of Syria: The Unfinished Story
The Worst Tragedy of Syria: The Unfinished Story
  • The Yeungnam Observer
  • 승인 2015.11.14 11:21
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Have you heard of these people who escape to alive? In a Middle Eastern country, Syria, which is about 7,000 km far away from Korea; 11.6 million among 23 million Syrian have left their country, and many countries’ heads of state are troubled about what to do with Syrian refugees.

Actually, the situation in Syria is serious. These cases will show you the seriousness of this flood of refugees.

A 3 year old baby, Alan Kurdi was found dead on a beach in Early September and the refugee’s ship destined for Greece sank on the 27th of September. There are 17 refugees (include five children) inside the ship. According to the Turkish government, the dead refugees were destined for Greece totaled over 300. These accidents happened because refugees requested asylum in other countries but were not admitted. Therefore, they desperately wanted to move into other countries across the Mediterranean even if that was illegal. Also, some people use this refugee’s pitiable circumstance to get their benefits. For example, the 71 refugee’s corpses were found inside an Austria refrigerated truck on the 28th September because the truck drivers were brokers who took money for helping Syria refugees' illegal entry. Also, in countries where nations have a negative thought about acceptance of Syria’s refugees, many accidents have happened like citizens assaulting Syrian refugees. Hungary’s ‘N1TV’ camera reporter tripped a refugee’s feet on the 8th September. The reason is that she detested Syrian refugees, she was later fired for her interference. In addition to these cases, many affairs have happened in Syria.

The reason for these refugees’ problem is Syria’s civil war. Before the Syrian civil war, Syria was a stable country although now it’s under a dictatorship. From 1971 [Hafez al-Assad] that got power by a military coup to his son [Bashar al-Assad], their regime has held power for over 40 years. In Syria, there are two large Muslim groups, Shia (13% of citizens) and Sunni (74% of citizens). [Hafez al-Assad] used trained military and oppressive rule to curb Sunni, because he was Shia. By [Hafez al-Assad] and [Bashar al- Assad] military regime, many people struggled against autocracy. Some teenagers painted ‘Anti-autocracy chant’ on the wall and they were arrested by the Syria government. Many demonstrators demanded the release of the teenagers, but the government denied them and suppressed the demonstrators. By this affair, many casualties happened and ‘Anti-government demonstration’ spread widely. In addition, during a Peaceful Parade, in March 2013, government forces attacked and four people were killed. Also, when people had a funeral for theses four people, government forces attacked and more people died. Moreover, [Maher al- Assad; Bashar’s brother] commanded an army to attack a village and these incidents make many citizens outraged and protest [Bashar al-Assad]’s government. Of course, ‘The Arab Spring’ influenced this demonstration.

Actually, the Syrian civil war is not a religious problem (Sunni and Shia), but political problems (government and anti-government) and foreign politics (USA, China, and Russia). The countries, which support government are North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, and Cuba. The countries, which support anti-government are USA, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Two powers forbid to stop the Syrian civil war because of Global rights that the same as ‘Modern version of the Cold War’. The three forces, are the government force, anti-government force, and ISIS: Islamic state of Iraq and Syria, are in conflict with each other. ISIS shoots people when they do not follow ISIS religious views. On the other hand, the government military and anti-government military indiscriminately kill innocent civilians. Therefore, about half of Syrians escape Syria just to stay alive.

Because of Syria's chaotic situation, Syria’s refugee problem can not solved in a short time. Thus, it is an important that a place be prepared for Syrian refugees until they can safely return to their country. These refugees usually migrate to European countries and nearby Islamic countries, but the countries that accept refugees also have some difficulties. If they accept refugees, they should provide clothes, foods, and shelter, which will of course have an impact on their national budget. Also, some conflicts may occur between their nations and refugees because of cultural differences and the countries should take some risks that IS member may enter among refugees and decrease public safety. While refugees should be accepted in a humanitarian mind, other countries' public opinion divides up into pros and cons about acceptance of refugees owing to realistic difficulties.

Let’s look at world’s movement about refugee crisis in Europe. Last September 22nd, EU passed a Refugee quota system. It is EU’s proposal that allocating refugees to members of the EU which they have to accept legitimately. It is for preventing another refugee disaster such as the one that took place on the Mediterranean and solving the problem of refugees focusing on some nations like Germany and Southern Europe. EU officially enforced the quota system of 40,000 refugees by October 9th.

On September 23rd, an EU summit was held in Brussels, Belgium. The EU announced that they would support 1 billion euro to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and World Food Program (WFP). Also, they said they would arrange a hotspot at a forefront state until the end of November where refugees are coming. The Hotspot is to distinguish refugees who avoid the war and emigrant. It will be installed and operated at forefront state of the European Continent where lots of refugees come such as Italy and Greece. Also the EU decided to reinforce border controls between EU and non-EU countries.

Meanwhile, through the foreign press it said, “EU are planning to urge members of EU that refugees are to be forcibly returned to their country to control an abnormal increase of emigration.” It is compared to EU’s previous attitude.

Due to the ever increasing refugee crisis in Europe, the world is now moving to help refugee, but the situation is not solved easily. As the number of refugees is increasing, the conflict of accepting refugee between Eastern Europe and Western Europe, comes with many issues, such as facility problems that could accept refugee and understanding the difference between refugees are becoming serious. Especially, Western Europe which is relatively wealthy supports refugees but Eastern European countries like Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia objects to it because of their circumstances to accept refugees as well as religious reasons. The refugee crisis in Europe and nation’s reaction surrounding this will continue for a long time.

In Middle Eastern countries near Syria, they have already experienced this refugee problem. Some Islamic countries like Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon have already accommodated over 300 million Syria refugees. Also, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq accepted many refugees too. These Islamic countries also have difficulties in accepting refugees because some countries have denied acceptance by the reason denomination of Islam and some countries like Iraq have suffered due to war against ISIS. In addition, these countries’ nations are opposed to the acceptance because they thought the refugees are eager to work, so citizens might lose their jobs. The refugees also have a hard time because they lived in refugees’ camps that are in poor surrounding instead of their own house. They are provided just a minimal of necessities and are exploited as illegal workers to earn enough the most basic supplies for them and their loved

ones.

 

BY LEE JAEMIN, JEON SOYEON, JANG YUSEOK

 Jm940613@ynu.ac.kr, rhadlsgud96@ynu.ac.kr, jys2580@ynu.ac.kr


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