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The rare story of a Syrian family who came to Europe on a humanitarian visa

Text: Laura Hurtado / Oxfam Intermón

The story of this family is unusual. Most Syrian refugees who have made it to Europe have got there illegally and by taking perilous journeys. War in their homeland and Fortress Europe left them no other option.
But here is a different Syrian tale, which shows there are other ways to give sanctuary to those fleeing the war.

Syria: where it begins

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Petite, bright-eyed Syrian Fatem remembers well the fear she felt when the war broke out in her hometown of Raqqa. She still shivers at the thought. “We were living in the heart of the conflict. Every time we kissed each other goodnight we thought it could be the last time,” she recalls.

Due to the conflict, her husband Khalil couldn´t work and so money was tight. They were expecting their first child but couldn´t see a doctor. Amid the water and supply shortages, the final straw came when Ahmed was born and they couldn´t buy any milk to feed him as there was none. “That was the moment when we clearly realized we couldn´t stay in Syria anymore,” says Khalil. He decided to go to Lebanon to find a job and a place to live – his young family would then join him.

The most prized possession that he brought with him was a photo album showing their happy days in Syria: their wedding; their parents; the beautiful house they lived in; the land he used to work.

First stop: Lebanon

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The day when Khalil arrived in Lebanon he had to sleep on the streets. It was like a premonition; a clear warning that nothing in this country would be easy.

For four years, the family struggled to make ends meet in Lebanon, a small country with the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, and where 70% of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line. Khalil has worked as an electrician, a plumber and a painter, but despite this, he has had to seek out loans more than once in order to feed his family, which has grown with the birth of Mohamed, who is now 1 year old.

Their home is a small, cramped and dark room in a town in Mount Lebanon, an hour away from Beirut. The rent is lower here than in the capital. “In the beginning, the floor was bare earth and the roof was leaking. The landlord refused to fix it”, says Khalil. Their kitchen is outside, where it is hard to cook especially in the freezing snowy winters. The children often fall ill and Fatem now has an allergy, leading to a persistent cough and bouts of vomiting. “I suffocate in this room,” she says.

The promise of a new life

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One day, Khalil learned from a neighbour there was a possibility to travel to Italy with a humanitarian visa – meaning in a safe and legal way.

After much research, the family met with the Italian organisations that have been working on securing humanitarian visas for Syrian refugees through humanitarian corridors. This initiative aims to avoid deaths at sea, and human trafficking: the Italian government has agreed to receive 1,000 refugees in two years through this project. While welcome, this is just a token number as the conflict in Syria has pushed more than  5 million people to become refugees in neighbouring countries. But those behind this initiative want to focus on how lives can be saved if there is a political will, rather than on the numbers, for now.

Dreams

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At first, Fatem was sceptical. She thought that they wouldn´t be chosen to travel to Italy. But, after a few interviews, the family was selected.

Syrian refugees have to meet a number of criteria in order to receive humanitarian visas. A key criterion is that they are in a vulnerable situation, such as families with young children.  According to UNHCR, this vulnerable status also applies to unaccompanied minors, single mothers, the elderly and sick, and those who have been abused or tortured.

Why a person wants to go to Italy is also taken into account as well as their chances at success in a new environment. “Adaptation is not the same for a young educated person as for an illiterate elderly one,” explains Simone Scotta, from Mediterranean Hope, who has been working on the family’s case from Lebanon. “Many Syrian refugees think everything will improve once in Italy, but we insist on explaining that the culture is very different, that nobody speaks their language and that they will lose the support network they have in Lebanon.”

The farewell

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The night before the flight, Khalil and Fatem couldn’t sleep. They had been crossing out the days on their calendar for months, their suitcases ready and waiting in a corner of their tiny home. They shed some tears, feeling happy and sad: torn by their situation.

They were leaving behind all those they had shared four years with their cousin’s family, who welcomed them into their home during their first month and who shared with them what little they had, and their neighbours, most of them Syrian, who had fled to Lebanon just like them.

But above all, they were moving further away from their dear Syria. This journey would take them far away from their loved ones, from their culture, from their land.

A heavy blow

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The journey took 24 hours, starting at 4am in Beirut and ending in the city of Cecina in the middle of Tuscany. During the bus trip from Rome to their new home, they found out they would have to share a flat with another Syrian refugee family. This bit of news left them perplexed and fraught.

But they soon found out from Oxfam, the NGO in charge of their accommodation during their first year, that this was a temporary measure. Though they would eventually have their own home, it was made clear that renting property as a refugee can be a tricky task.

Italy: the end of the journey

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Upon their arrival to Tuscany, two Italian social workers from Oxfam brought them to their new temporary home: a sunny flat with a garden, a big living room with a fitted kitchen, three bedrooms, central heating, a washing machine and a TV.

Via a translator, the family learnt that they would receive money every month to buy food, medicine and other essentials, for six months. They would also have WiFi in the apartment and home-based Italian language lessons so they don’t have to leave their children. The family would also receive help in how to apply for asylum and look for jobs. At the end of the six months, the family would be considered self-sufficient.

“I never imagined we would end up living in Italy. I thought the war would only last for two or three years, but the situation just gets worse,” comments Khalil as he tunes in to an ArabicTV channel to get the latest news from Syria.  “I hope people in Europe don´t think we are terrorists or extremists. We are here because we are running away from them, from the conflict.” Fatem adds: “We want a future for our children. That is why we are willing to learn a new language and adapt to different customs.”

When we say goodbye, we ask them if they would like to go back to Syria when the war ends – if they would like this tale to end where it began. “Of course we will go back,” Fatem says without the shadow of a doubt. “But if a long time passes and my children feel established here, we will only go back to visit. The stability of our family comes first.”

Photos: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam

A moving first-hand account of the effects of the terrible conflict Yemen has been suffering for the past few years, but a call to remain hopeful, however, that peace will arise after the war’s darkness. This entry posted by Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, Oxfam Yemen’s Country Director, on 12 June 2017.

As the sun rises, covering the rocky mountains with a coat of gold, we are welcomed to Yemen by fishermen and dolphins jumping out of the blue water.

After a 14-hour boat journey from Djibouti, the view of Aden city in the early morning was a magical sight. At first, life in the city looked normal: road dividers were freshly painted, people were chatting while sipping red tea or having breakfast in small restaurants, youth were playing pool in the streets, and taxis were shouting to collect their passengers. However, as we moved in the city, buildings riddled with bullet holes appeared, several residential areas and hotels had their roof collapsed, and cars were waiting in long queues for petrol.

This tableau of contrasts was telling the story of Aden.

The second day after our arrival, we travelled to Lahj with the Aden team. Our conversation kept switching between the work Oxfam does in Aden and other Southern governorates, and the destruction passing before our eyes, a terrible witness of the conflict Yemen has been suffering for the past few years.

Oxfam is there

In such a volatile and insecure environment, Oxfam continues to provide water, improved sanitation and basic hygiene assistance to more than 130,000 affected individuals in Lahj governorate. The team sometimes travels for more than two to three hours to reach the target location. Community engagement is thus key to deliver assistance. Our staff along with community based volunteers consults affected community as well as key leaders to identify the intervention. The affected community not only participates in water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion activities, but also works closely with host communities to ensure that social harmony is maintained.

In Lahj, the focus is to rebuild the water supply system to help both displaced persons as well as local communities, and Oxfam works with the local water and sanitation authority to ensure the sustainability and viability of the rehabilitated system. Displaced people in these areas used to collect water only once in a week because of the long distances they had to walk to reach the wells. Now, both IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) and host communities can access water on daily basis.

Meeting community members made clear that war has impacted everyone, and they all share their grief and pain and support each other. The strong bonding between displaced people and host communities despite their high level of hardship also indicates that Yemeni people have come a long way through several wars and conflict and are therefore more resilient.

Water tank built by Oxfam in Al-Jalilah village, in Al-Dhale governorate. Credit: Omar Algunaid/Oxfam, March 2017

Hunger is rampant

The impact of war and conflict in Aden and surrounding governorates is very high. More than two million people were affected since the beginning of the crisis. Food insecurity in Lahj, Abyan and Al Dhale is rising and remain among the governorates in Yemen with high food assistance need.

The tragedy and suffering of Abdullah, a 70-year-old man who had to flee Abyan during the peak of the war, speaks for itself. However, he does believe that peace will return back to Yemen, but to survive, he had to mortgage his pension card to feed his family. There are many invisible people like him who probably would like to see peace come back to Yemen so their impoverished lives can improve.

Displacement crisis

Tough host communities initially provided spaces to displaced persons, but in addition now, displaced people have started settling down in barren land areas on their own. Those who managed to return back to their original location are now severely impacted by a cholera outbreak. Lack of provision of salaries to government employees have further added burden to the households who host displaced families. Water, food assistance and healthcare remain the top three priorities. Hardship has reached to a threshold where affected people are willing to mortgage anything and everything they can. Basic services and utilities including water, education and health have been halted to a greater extent and therefore increasing stress on affected communities.

Oxfam Yemen Country Director, Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, visits the pumping room in Al-Roweed village, as part of the water project Oxfam implemented in the area. Also there, Al-Melah district Manager and members of the water management committee. Credit: Omar Algunaid/Oxfam, February 2017

Fighting cholera

Saleema* is community health volunteer who works with Oxfam and is a true agent for change. She raises awareness with the affected communities on the importance of clean and safe water.  She visits houses and speaks to women, elders and young girls to ensure key health messages are understood and applied. Increasing numbers of youth, such as Saleema, support affected communities to rebuild their lives and to help build social cohesion.

Last year when a cholera outbreak was declared in Yemen, Aden was one of the governorates among others like Al-Hudaydah where most suspected cases were registered.

Resilience in the face of darkness

As we returned from Lahj, the smell and taste of Mindi (local chicken meal with rice) and mouth watering local paratha (wheat based chapati) reminded us that that Yemeni people’s resilience had also stood strong in the face of adversity.

As the Apollo boat finally departed Aden after sunset, with the noise of waves gushing in and the dark smudging in, we remembered that a beautiful sunrise would welcome us upon arrival, in a similar way that humanitarian needs in Aden and surrounding governorates continue to grow. We remain hopeful, however, that peace will arise after the war’s darkness.

This entry posted by Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, Oxfam Yemen’s Country Director, on 12 June 2017.
*Name changed to protect identity.

Yemen is in the grip of a runaway cholera epidemic that is killing one person nearly every hour and if not contained will threaten the lives of thousands of people in the coming months. We’re calling for a massive aid effort and an immediate ceasefire to allow health and aid workers to tackle the outbreak.

Please donate to save lives today

A young girl from Hassansham camp enjoys Oxfam’s painting workshop. Photo: Tommy Trenchard

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Little hands wrapped tightly around coloured pencils and paint brushes, foreheads furrowed in concentration, a small group of children slowly depict scenes of greenery, homes and villages born from their imaginations and memories of a time before ISIS.

The excited chatter rises above the sound of pop music playing from a small stereo just outside the door. The children show each other their masterpieces and adult artists who have joined the group mentor and guide them to create their visions on paper.

Sura, Oxfam’s Public Health Promotion Officer, helps some of the younger girls paint. Photo: Tommy Trenchard

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Sura, Oxfam Public Health Promotion Officer, sits on one of the tiny chairs with some of the youngest little girls. She shows them how to hold the paint brushes and urges them on as they slowly draw the shaky outlines of their pictures. It’s the last day of April and the children painting on canvases are in Hassansham camp. The camp is home to nearly 10,000 people who have fled the violence in and around Mosul.

Sura has been supervising all of Oxfam’s public health work in Hassansham 3 camp and today she is helping run a fun painting workshop in the Oxfam community centre in the camp. She is encouraging the children to paint positive scenes of their life now or their homes as they remember them, helping them pick bright colours to fill in the crooked lines.

Sura explains the importance of the workshop for the children. “It’s really important to give the children a chance to have fun and do activities like painting together. Most of them have lived in Mosul under ISIS control for over two years and haven’t had a chance to do anything fun for a long time.”

Around the edges of the room a few adults use easels to paint and sketch much more elaborate pictures. Garbi Eunice, 51 is from Yarmouk in west Mosul and is now living in Hassansham, volunteering with Oxfam. He drew a symbolic picture of Mosul that shows his home and the local Mosque. “I drew a woman to represent Iraq – her hair is the flag”, Eunice points to the picture pinned on the wall, “her clothes are the hills and the river and her necklace is a map of the country. Her hands are clutching the rockets and keeping my city safe.”

Eunice’s drawing shows not only Mosul but the Kurdistan region, it was important for him to show a united Iraq. “I drew birds to represent peace and I didn’t draw any clouds because they represent war; I want the skies to be clear.”

“It’s important that people have a space to come to where they can do positive things like painting and drawing. Now that they have left the bombing and the war they can start to think about nice things again,” says Sura, looking over to the sun drenched area outside the centre where children are huddled over their pictures. “These children are having a lovely day being here together having fun and that’s important for their well being.”

A boy shows a picture he painted of his hometown, Hamdannia, which he remembers fondly. It shows the surrounding river and mountains. His hometown suffered extreme destruction at the hands of ISIS, and most families are yet to return. Photo: Tommy Trenchard

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Hassansham camp opened in October 2016 and has the capacity for 10,000 people. Oxfam established a full water, sanitation and protection programme in Hassansham camp. Activities included public health promotion, water trucking, toilet and shower cleaning, distributions of blankets and hygiene items, and referrals to other agencies for things such as medical issues and family reunification.

In May 2017 Oxfam handed over most of its programming to a government agency called EJCC and the staff moved to work in Hamam Alil camp to better serve newly arriving families from the west of Mosul. The painting workshop was one of a series of activities the Oxfam teams planned to say goodbye to the camp volunteers and families they had been working with. Oxfam’s protection team will continue to work in Hassansham camp for the next nine months.

The Oxfam Trailwalker 2017 was a memorable weekend for Team Rad.

Lani Evans, her partner Hugh Davidson and two of his sisters, Helen and Lee, set off to tackle the 100km course. But, little did Hugh know that Lani had something pretty special planned for the finish line – a proposal.

Unfortunately, Lani had to pull out of the event at the 80km mark, but it meant she could wait for the team to come in with a ‘Marry Me Hugh?’ banner at the end of the finishing chute.

How did you come up with the idea of proposing at Trailwalker?

“We got together on a tramping trip a year ago, and the date of Trailwalker was our one year anniversary. So it felt like an appropriate place to propose because of that, but also because there are some commonalities between Oxfam Trailwalker and marriage – you start with a shared vision and goal, along the way there are amazing parts and difficult parts, and you need a community around you to make it work.”

Did he see it coming?

“He didn’t! He was appropriately surprised.”

What was it like experiencing the emotions of Oxfam Trailwalker and the emotions of getting engaged all at the same time?

“It was definitely an emotional time period, and I think it took us a week or two for it to actually sink in.”

And how did you celebrate?

“With a bottle of champagne and a long sleep!”

We love that it was you who proposed – was that always the plan?

“We didn’t have a plan for proposing, but we are in an equal partnership, so why would I wait for him to propose? The gender norms are pretty ridiculous!”

Any wedding plans in place?

“We’ve got a date and location all locked in for early next year.

“Our wedding is planned for the same day as Oxfam Trailwalker so we won’t be [participating next year], but I think in the years after that it would be a fantastic way to celebrate our anniversaries.”

How do you think you’ll ever top your finish line experience at Oxfam Trailwalker?

“I’m not sure that we can! We might have reached our peak Trailwalker.”

Read about Ilene’s family-feeding and income-generating success, through a little hand-up from the FSA and Oxfam.

Written by Dominique Doss and Glen Pakoa

Ilene Kiel, 38, is a successful female farmer in Lounapkalangis village who has seen firsthand the benefits of FSA’s support. Ilene and her husband, Kiel, have been farmers for many years; they make a living by cultivating local root crops such as taro, cassava, yams, sweet potato, banana, island cabbage, and peanuts. The family consumes most of the harvest and when they need money for school fees or basic necessities for their home, they sell some of their crops.

“Everyone around Tanna is selling the same crops, so it’s hard to stand out from them and make a decent income. Many times the crops just don’t sell; it’s difficult to make money because we are all selling the same items.”

Through FSA’s 2016 recovery program, the organization sent vegetable seeds to Lounapkalangis village, for Ilene to distribute. “I was responsible for selling the seeds around the community. They sold for very low prices, so when people heard about the seeds from FSA, they rushed to buy them. I would run out of the seeds quickly and people would always request them because they saw the high purchasing demand for the harvest.”

Ilene now has a vegetable garden where she grows broccoli, ball cabbage, carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, beans, onions, capsicum, tomato and peanuts. “FSA gave us broccoli and cauliflower seeds, which people in other villages don’t have, so we are able to sell most if not all of our harvests.”

Seeing how well FSA has benefited their family, her husband Kiel began helping Ilene more by clearing the bush and ploughing the soil, as well as helping her harvest the crops when they are ready.

“The support that FSA has given us has not only helped us build better lives but it has also allowed my husband to work closer with me. I like the fact that he is willing to help and support me, we are now working as a team. It has made us a stronger family and it has been a good influence for our children to see.”

Although this has been a great success for her and her family, IIene has dealt with some challenges.

“We live close to the volcano and this is a major problem because when the ashes fall on the crops, it kills them and I’m unable to sell the harvest. It is disheartening when this happens, but I know the benefits of harvesting the vegetables, so I don’t hesitate to start over.”

Ilene is dedicated to taking care of her family’s vegetable garden and is committed to selling the harvests every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Lenakel Market.

“There are very few ways for us to earn money here in the village, we have grown up in the garden but I found that it’s not just about growing root crops and selling them at the market. We needed a way to differentiate ourselves and FSA came with the right kind of tools to help us do that.”