Account from a Syrian migrant

[gftChris]

I came across this and thought I'd pass it on here.

 

You’re 29 years old with a wife, two children and a job. You have enough money, and can afford a few nice things, and you live in a small house in the city.
Suddenly the political situation in your country changes and a few months later soldiers are gathered in front of your house. And in front of your neighbours’ houses.
They say that if you don’t fight for them, they will shoot you.
Your neighbour refuses.
One shot. That’s it.

You overhear one of the soldiers telling your wife to spread her legs.
Somehow you get rid of the soldiers and spend the night deep in thought.
Suddenly you hear an explosion. Your house no longer has a living room.
You run outside and see that the whole street is destroyed.
Nothing is left standing.

You take your family back into the house, and then you run to your parents' house.
It is no longer there. Nor are your parents.
You look around and find an arm with your Mother’s ring on its finger. You can’t find any other sign of your parents.

~~~~~

"But asylum seekers have so many luxury goods! Smartphones, and designer clothes!"

~~~~~

You immediately forget it. You rush home, and tell your wife to get the children dressed. You grab a small bag, because anything bigger will be impossible to carry for a long time, and in it you pack essentials. Only 2 pieces of clothing each can fit in the bag.
What do you take?
You will probably never see your home country again.
Not your family, not your neighbours, your workmates…
But how can you stay in contact?

You hastily throw your smartphone and the charger in the bag.
Along with the few clothes, some bread and your small daughters favourite teddy.

~~~~~

"They can easily afford to get away. They aren’t poor!"

~~~~~

Because you could see the emergency coming, you have already scraped all your money together.
You managed to save some money because of your well paid job.
The kind people smuggler in the neighbourhood charges 5,000 euros per person.

You have 15,000 euros. With a bit of luck, you’ll all be able to go. If not, you will have to let your wife go.
You love her and pray that you the smugglers will take you all.
By now you are totally wiped out and have nothing else. Just your family and the bag.
The journey to the border takes two weeks on foot.

You are hungry and for the last week have barely eaten. You are weak, as is your wife. But at least the children have enough.
They have cried for the whole 2 weeks.
Half the time you have to carry your younger daughter. She is only 21 months old.
A further 2 weeks and you arrive at the sea.

In the middle of the night you’re loaded onto a ship with other refugees.
You are lucky: your whole family can travel.
The ship is so full that it threatens to capsize. You pray that you don’t drown.
The people around you are crying and screaming.
A few small children have died of thirst.
The smugglers throw them overboard.
Your wife sits, vacantly, in a corner. She hasn’t had anything to drink for 2 days.
When the coast is in sight, you are loaded onto small boats.
Your wife and the younger child are on one, you and your older child are on another.

You are warned to stay silent so that nobody knows you’re there.
Your older daughter understands.
But your younger one in the other boat doesn’t. She doesn’t stop crying.
The other refugees are getting nervous. They demand that your wife keeps the child quiet.
She doesn’t manage it.
One of the men grabs your daughter, rips her away from your wife and throws her overboard.
You jump in after her, but you can’t find her again.
Never again.
In 3 months she would have turned 2 years old.
Isn’t that enough for you? They still have it too good here and have everything handed to them on a plate?

You don’t know how you, your wife and your older daughter manage to get to the country that takes you in.
It’s as though everything is all foggy. Your wife hasn’t spoken a word since your daughter died.
Your older daughter hasn’t let go of her sister’s teddy and is totally apathetic.
But you have to keep going. You are just about to arrive at the emergency accommodation.
It is 10pm. A man whose language you don’t understand takes you to a hall with camp beds. There are 500 beds all very close together.

In the hall it’s stuffy and loud.
You try to get your bearings. To understand what the people there want from you.
But in reality you can barely stand up. You nearly wish that they had shot you.
Instead you unpack your meagre possessions:
Two items of clothing each and your smartphone.
Then you spend your first night in a safe country.
The next morning you’re given some clothes.
Among the donated clothes are even branded ‘label’ clothes. And a toy for your daughter.
You are given 140 euros. For the whole month.

~~~~~

"They’re safe here. Therefore they should be happy!"

~~~~~

Outside in the yard, dressed in your new clothes, you hold your smartphone high in the air and hope to have some reception.
You need to know if anyone from your city is still alive.
Then a 'concerned citizen‘ comes by and abuses you.
You don’t know why. You don’t understand “Go back to your own country!"
You understand some things like “smartphone” and “handed everything on a plate.”
Somebody translates it for you.

~~~~~

And now tell me how you feel and what you own?
The answer to both parts of that is “Nothing.”

 

 

 

I don't know the source (and hence validity) of the post, but it goes some way in demonstrating why people are leaving, why they're not all paupers and yet asking for help. Anyway, I thought it might make interesting reading for y'all

 

[DieHardBrownsFan]

Let them eat cake.

[OldBrownsFan]

Maybe a better foreign policy out of the Obama administration could have stopped the mess in Syria? Obama draws a red line about Assad using chemical weapons which were empty words. We had an opportunity about 5 years ago to help the Free Syrian Army and others to fight the Assad regime and didn't do it and now when we say we are going to do it, it's too late. As usual Obama dithers and misses the opportunity and finally makes a decision but now that time has passed. ISIS filled that vacuum.

[Clevfan4life]

Had we removed Assad 5 years ago ISIS would be sitting in Damascus. Count on it. Things for Syrians weren't half bad under Assad before we destabbed Iraq and sent all those mother fuckers across the border. What's happening in Syria is a direct consequence of a foreign policy decision made in 2003, not 2010.

[OldBrownsFan]

A foreign policy by Obama to pull all our troops out of Iraq is a huge factor in the expansion of ISIS exactly what Bush said would happen if we left too soon. The generals said keep a residual force but general Obama knew more than them. The results have been a disaster to present time.

 

In Syria we now are trying to arm a force of Syrians that will take on both Assad and ISIS. It is a laughable idea right now but might have worked 5 years ago.

[gftChris]

Things have been a shit storm in that area a lot longer than 2010 or 2003. The current state of affairs is not a direct result of any one thing and anyone trying to tell you it is doesn't fully understand the situation.

[hammertime]

I call bs. a lot more info is necessary for that so called 'account'

 

Benjamin Martin would of never let that happen to his family...

[LogicIsForSquares]

I came across this and thought I'd pass it on here.

 

I don't know the source (and hence validity) of the post, but it goes some way in demonstrating why people are leaving, why they're not all paupers and yet asking for help. Anyway, I thought it might make interesting reading for y'all

 

That all sounds horrible. I bet I would be happy just to end up somewhere I wasn't getting bombed. I wouldn't then hot foot it across Europe to the country that would offer me the best welfare benefits.

[LogicIsForSquares]

Oh and I still wouldn't want these people passing through my borders. You can't vouch for any of them. When a market gets bombed or sexual assaults sky rocket in number, the governments letting illegal immigrants roam wild are going to regret it.

[Clevfan4life]

A foreign policy by Obama to pull all our troops out of Iraq is a huge factor in the expansion of ISIS exactly what Bush said would happen if we left too soon. The generals said keep a residual force but general Obama knew more than them. The results have been a disaster to present time.

 

In Syria we now are trying to arm a force of Syrians that will take on both Assad and ISIS. It is a laughable idea right now but might have worked 5 years ago.

 

No it wouldn't have worked then either. The arms we would have handed out to this cocksucker or that cocksucker, would have just ended up killing innocent people no matter who we gave it to. There are "NO" good guys in the middle east, just various shades of black and white.

 

Frankly, Assad was by far the lesser of many evils in the region. He didn't do ANYTHING prior to those cocksuckers invading his country that any other strongman in the middle east who's cock we've stroked. Remember our ambassador was contractually obligated to give Hussein an old fashioned every so often during the 80's. The ONLY, and I do mean the ONLY reason we never liked Assad is cause he decided to buy Rooskie military weaponry. That's it. No more no less. If you were a strongman somewhere in the world doing fucked up shit, but bought America military weps....than you were golden. Buy Rooskie weps? You were a despot and labeled as a major sponsor of state terrorism.

 

Yup, that's where we live kids.

[The Cysko Kid]

Had we removed Assad 5 years ago ISIS would be sitting in Damascus. Count on it. Things for Syrians weren't half bad under Assad before we destabbed Iraq and sent all those mother fuckers across the border. What's happening in Syria is a direct consequence of a foreign policy decision made in 2003, not 2010.

Wrong. What's happening in Syria is a direct result of the Arab spring of 2011. As is Libya. Egypt only escaped by having a strong military which immediately took control in a coup. What we did wrong is fail to occupy the territory we seized. I have no problem with our decision to take iraq, but when you take a foreign country you must occupy it. History shows that again and again. This is 100% on Obama.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

You can't all of the sudden pull all of your troops out after crushing the previous regime and say 'you got it bro'. It creates a power vacuum and the ex Sadam Hussein people make up a larger percentage of ISIS leadership

[Pumpkin Eater]

Why are 70%+ of the migrants military age males?

[LogicIsForSquares]

Yeah I gotta agree with that. We really don't give a shit about the despot so long as they are playing ball with us.

 

Personally, I don't trust any of those backward regimes in the Middle East and would arm none of them. We have been burned before on that.

[Clevfan4life]

but we didn't "all of a sudden" pull out. How many regimes did the Iraqi's "try out" before we finally said fuck this shit? YOu can't stay there forever.

[Clevfan4life]

Why are 70%+ of the migrants military age males?

 

I see what you're getting at, but srsly..who else would they be? Old people? no...young kids? No. Women? Not as likely given that the tough trekking that people are going to go through getting out of a shithole like that. Plus i'm sure the women know they're gonna get butt raped the whole way to their desto. Like walking down the highway come here and suck it bitch. Literally a trail of rape the whole way out. So of course it's gonna be younger males who then send for their families.

[LogicIsForSquares]

 

I see what you're getting at, but srsly..who else would they be? Old people? no...young kids? No. Women? Not as likely given that the tough trekking that people are going to go through getting out of a shithole like that. Plus i'm sure the women know they're gonna get butt raped the whole way to their desto. Like walking down the highway come here and suck it bitch. Literally a trail of rape the whole way out. So of course it's gonna be younger males who then send for their families.

And Euro countries will invite the rapists in with open arms.

[The Cysko Kid]

but we didn't "all of a sudden" pull out. How many regimes did the Iraqi's "try out" before we finally said fuck this shit? YOu can't stay there forever.

Any successful regime change like that takes between decades and hundreds of years of occupation. 8 years ain't gonna cut it.

[The Cysko Kid]

Especially in a place like the middle east. Obama decided liberals were tired of war and pulled out. Now we are literally going to have to deal with isis as a brand new state there. They are already administrating like a state. This is going to redraw the map of the middle east and it's not going to be good for the west or western interests.

[Clevfan4life]

Any successful regime change like that takes between decades and hundreds of years of occupation. 8 years ain't gonna cut it.

 

exactly, ty for illustrating perfectly why we shouldn't have gone there in the first place. AND take out Assad? Wut...you guys think having 10's of thousands of troops in both countries for, oh, 50 or so years was doable?

 

Foremost you guys don't understand the middle east, we could have squatted there for 200 years...same result. In fact it would have become sport to fire improvised home made rocketry at our bases there. You are profoundly delusional if you think at some point in the future they would have looked at our military presence there as something to cherish.

[The Cysko Kid]

I think you don't understand history and are therefore doomed to repeat it.

[The Cysko Kid]

We went there because they have something we want and need. That's how the world works. Might makes right. Law of the jungle. Now we pulled out like a bunch of pussies and might will still make right except we've lost whatever we were there to get in the first place and fucked the entire region over to boot. The war in Iraq was a very successful occupation. Losing less than 5000 soldiers in 8 years is successful in war. Especially when so many of those were lost as a result of accidents and friendly fire incidents. Iraq and the middle eastern armies were never a match for us. It was like Mike Tyson fighting pee wee herman. Eventually our occupation and conquest would have been successful if we hadn't been hamstrung by liberal politics.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

Although we haven't had occupation troops in Germany and Japan in decades, we still have bases and troops there.

[The Cysko Kid]

Japan and Germany aren't cave men living in the dark ages.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

Japan and Germany aren't cave men living in the dark ages.

I've been stationed in all the places so I'm well aware of that.

[Clevfan4life]

I think you don't understand history and are therefore doomed to repeat it.

 

what am I "doomed to repeat" when i'm the one saying we should never have gone there. It is you that aren't paying attention to history, and this is recent history too not ancient mesopotamic history. We've tried this how many times in the last 50-60 years? It never works. Korea can be the only halfway success but even that isn't settled. Your way of thinking is the constant repetitive mistake we make. Thinking the U.S can somehow fix these conflicts that have raged for centuries before the white man even came to this fucking land....it's just ridiculous. Face it people around the world, a lot of em just don't want to do things like we do. People in the middle east don't want our style of democracy, they don't....deluding ourselves into continuously thinking at some point they will is the repeating of past mistakes.

 

But learning curve are for pussies so I have no doubt we'll do this again to the exact same result

 

[The Cysko Kid]

We were never trying to fix their conflict in iraq. We were always acting out of self interest.

[Clevfan4life]

We were never trying to fix their conflict in iraq. We were always acting out of self interest.

 

and what self interest was that? Even if that wsa the case then, we still shit the bed no matter how you try to cut this turd.

[The Cysko Kid]

Yes we shit the bed by leaving. The interest was likely twofold. Part one: massive oil reserves. Part two: permanent military installations in the heart of the middle east capable of striking out at any part of that region at any time. Iraq was likely picked because

 

A: operation desert storm set precedence for our involvement there

 

B: Saddam Hussein had no allies worth worrying about.

 

Now our great wonderful president not only ceded the only area of the middle east that was firmly under our control to chaos since the Iraqi government was nothing but a puppet state not capable of governing itself, he's also deposing every other strong man in the region leaving the world's most valuable resources directly under the control of religious zealot madmen who are hostile to everyone and everything in the world including themselves. Great fuckin plan, Barack. But hey he can go on the tonight show and sing a fuckin verse of Marvin gaye and you fuckin pussies will get down on your knees for him.

[The Cysko Kid]

You're so goddamn deluded you think this is about the people of the middle east? Fuck them. They're no more than a pile of dog shit to be scraped off our boots. No one and I mean NO ONE gives a fuck about them. They're nothing more than a cover story to give the pansy lefties a boner.