By Taseer Muhammad
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – In a shantytown in the city of Aleppo, northwest Syria, a man in his 70s sits in front of his war-ravaged house due to more than a decade of war in Syria, and calls people on to flee the country by his words: “leave this country, we have no hope, we have turned into riff-raff.”
The industrial zone used to be bustling with life before the Syrian war eruption, but more than a decade was enough to make poverty and desperation dominate people’s life.
The darkest corner of poverty that has been off the Syrian government media, which focused on the sunning side of the country for decades even before 2011, North Press managed to shed the light over the living conditions of people after the tremendous SYP plummet.
In the past couple of weeks, the Syrian pound hits 13,000 to a dollar, which considered the biggest jump since breaking out the war, waging a situation of hopelessness among Syrians.
Furthermore, Syria witnessed the biggest wave of emigration in reaction to dire living conditions.
Sharing burden of suffering
Youssef Muhammad, a pseudonym for a restaurant owner in the city, said to North Press that the “we are the retailers between the rock and the hard place; the situation is getting worst, as we cannot raise prices because people cannot afford that neither can we sell products without updating to new prices.”
Muhammad would prefer to close his store than sell at loss under the continuous deteriorating of circumstances and having no ray of hope in the sky.
Ahmad Ali, also supports Muhammad’s remarks, “I thought and thought about what to do to the 60 persons who work in my factory. Those people support their families, but I can no longer get ahead in my work. It is kind of suicide to me and my peers,” he told North Press.
He also pointed out that the cost of making a couple of jeans was $7, “but now it costs $10, knowing that it is the net cost before reaching the hand of the customer without transportation costs and taxes imposed by the government.”
The government has also previously imposed additional taxes over various sectors, as a new annual and monthly fees for many services like acquiring dogs, real estates, and port fees.
Imposing taxes on traders brought consequences over production costs, which have severely affected the consumers.
Collapsed currency
Syrian opposition-held areas, which approved using Turkish lira, and the areas held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), which linked its employees’ salaries to USD, are aside from the SYP plummet, on the contrary the Syrian government-held areas, which still uses the SYP, is floundering in the pool collapsing the Syrian pound.
The Syrian government bans trading in USD, and the Economic Tribunal imposes seven years in prison on those carry USD and deal with it, in addition to imposing high taxes over microenterprise owners traders.
These dire restrictions make Mustafa Mahmoud, owner of a batteries factory which has ISO accreditation, to sell his products at loss, and make the decision to emigrate.
“A dead man cannot carry a coffin of dead man,” as Mahmoud said in his colloquial way of speaking to point out the instability due to the collapsing SYP.
Mahmoud lost more than $42,000 within two months due to pricing his products by the SYP and pilling up of post payments in market and being unable to sell by USD pricing.
Escape and emigration
Othman Ahmad, a pseudonym for a company of tourism and travel owner, said that the number of people who want to travel have multiplied in the recent few months.
“The economic circumstances are collapsed. Anyone who is able to shoulder travel way would better to do because the situation is worsening,” he added.
Ahmad considers that the urgent need and decision of emigration to the capitalists is stemming from the deteriorating circumstances and the government’s inappropriate measures.
“Within a couple of months, the company obtained visas to 60 members who want to travel to Erbil, KRI,” Ahmad told North Press.
Bearing in mind that the passport and visa cost 14 million SYP (about $11,000), in exchange rate equals 13,000 to $1.