Syria’s elderly refugees in Erbil say they struggle to find jobs
ERBIL, Iraq (North Press) – Despite their abilities to integrate and work in their new communities, the elderly Syrian refugees, residing in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG), were unable to meet the difficult work conditions, and found themselves marginalized among about half a million refugees there.
The 60-year-old Ja’far Abdurrazaq Sha’bani, a Syrian refugee of Qamishli city northeast Syria, sits every day in the park Hanging out to kill time. He told North Press about the difficulty of finding a job opportunity for a man of his age.
“Working hours are too long, exceeding 12 hours. Most employers prefer young people due to their ability to sustain work pressure,” Sha’bani said.
He tries to spend time with some friends. Although he feels nostalgic for Syria, and wishes to return to his homeland, but his fallen apart family in European countries is the reason not to do so.
“I wish I can go back to Syria and reunite with my beloved ones, but the war scattered us and this wasn’t taken into account. I didn’t think for one day that I’m going to spend my retirement age sitting in parks alone away from my home country,” he added.
Like others of his age, the war impacts made Mikhail Estefan leave his city, Hama, and resort to Erbil with his family.
Estefan is a professional constructor with nearly twenty years of experience in the construction field. However, due to the fact that he’s over 60, he did not obtain a suitable job opportunity in Erbil.
He spends his time hanging out with his friends, watching the news, and sometimes walking in the parks.
“When my situation get better, I will travel to Australia to meet my daughter,” Aatafan said.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, millions of people have fled to European and neighboring countries, escaping the war atrocities that devastated their houses and livelihood; the KRG has had its share of these refugees as it received many of them for more than a decade.