SYRIAN REFUGEES
WHAT IS A REFUGEE?
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.
LIFE IN BRITAIN AFTER ARRIVING?
The government has said it aims to resettle 23,000 refugees in the UK from Syria and the surrounding region by 2020. So far, just over 11,000 refugees have come under two resettlement schemes, the first of which began in earnest in September 2015.
Prior to July 2017, those arriving on the scheme didn’t technically have refugee status in the UK, and instead had “Humanitarian Protection”.
This gives individuals the right to five years’ residence in the UK, but not the full range of rights (such as access to benefits and support for Higher Education) that someone with refugee status has.
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A study carried out among the 7,300 Syrian refugees who have resettled in the UK since 2015 reveals that around two-thirds of those aged 18 to 32 are either in employment or engaged in study at university or college.
An estimated 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of the civil war in March 2011
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Families crowded on tiny boats, mothers pushing children through chain fences, border police rebuking people with tear gas and water cannons, and people abandoned or killed on a treacherous journey – these are the images the West now associates with the Syrian refugee crisis. The crisis came into the international consciousness as shocking photographs of the journey from Syria to Europe began circulating in mainstream media this summer.
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The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 4 million Syrians have been forced to leave the country to escape the ongoing armed conflict. Within Syria, another 7.6 million people have fled their homes to other areas of the country. Turkey alone hosts 2 million Syrian refugees. To put that into perspective, the entirety of Europe has seen around 700,000 asylum applications from Syrians in the last four years.
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THE JOURNEY
NUMBER OF CHILDREN REFUGEES TAKEN IN
Thousands of Syrians get displaced within their country every day. They often decide to finally escape after seeing their neighbourhoods attacked or family members killed.
For many of those searching for safer, more stable places to live, families will often have to leave most of their belongings behind. They might have to travel for miles, uncertain of where they might find their next meal.
894,851
UNITED KINGDOM
3 cups
Flour
717,632
FRANCE
717,919
GERMANY
603,806
ITALY
1½ cups
Butter
648,374
SPAIN
LIFE IN SYRIA AND WHY THEY LEFT
Anti-government demonstrations began in March of 2011, as part of the Arab Spring. But the peaceful protests quickly escalated after the government's violent crackdown, and armed opposition groups began fighting back.
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By July, army defectors had loosely organised the Free Syrian Army and many civilian Syrians took up arms to join the opposition. Divisions between secular and religious fighters, and between ethnic groups, continue to complicate the politics of the conflict.
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Since the Syrian civil war officially began March 15, 2011, families have suffered under a brutal conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, torn the nation apart, and set back the standard of living by decades. About 13.1 million people in the country need humanitarian assistance.
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Of the 23,000 target, 20,000 are specifically from the conflict in Syria. The other 3,000 are vulnerable children and their families in the Middle East and North Africa
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Healthcare centers and hospitals, schools, utilities, and water and sanitation systems are damaged or destroyed. Historic landmarks and once-busy marketplaces have been reduced to rubble.
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The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the seven years since it began. Crowded cities have been destroyed and horrific human rights violations are widespread. Basic necessities like food and medical care are sparse.