By Layla al-Garib
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Most Syrians describe life in Syria as “a big prison”, where more than 80 percent of the youth seek to emigrate, according to estimates of some specialists in social issues.
All Syrians seek to live in an alternative homeland after they have suffered from poverty, and most of them have a dream which is to escape from what they describe as “a hell named Syria” which now has not anything but its name.
Nothing worse than staying in Syria
Adel Othman packed his bags and headed to the UAE, despite his age no longer helps him find a job opportunity easily. Most people feel that the worst that awaits them in any country will not be worse than what it is in their country.
He told North Press he receives dozens of calls daily from his relatives and acquaintances in Syria who ask him not to forget them, and to help them survive and get out of that country whose crisis seems hopeless.
The term “survival” is what most Syrians use when they talk about immigration options.
Asef Issa, an employee at a government institution tells North Press, “What does make me stay in Syria if securing food is a problem and a treatment’s price is expensive? In addition to lack of security due to the spread of crime, theft, kidnapping, fearing of an unknown future for children and possibility of drugs problems in parallel with the failure of the educational system, so every detail in this country makes you to look for an alternative homeland despite all difficulties.”
Wrong Decision
While many Syrians blame themselves for not “investing” the opportunity when the circumstances allowed them to leave, and decided to stay in the country when travelling was available at the beginning of the Syrian crisis, even by “death boats” (inflatable boat), where the cost of travel did not exceed half a million Syrian pound, but they preferred to stay in the country during its ordeal, only to know later that they lived their lives in vain.
“Securing the minimum necessities such as food has become a problem,” the elderly Alyaa Hassan tells North Press, adding that she did not use to see her house as it is now, where there is no food at the end of the day. Even during the days of hunger that Syrians experienced in the French mandate and late Ottoman occupation, people did not witness such as this dire economic situation, thus they barely manage to get a lunch meal, while breakfast has become sandwiches of small bread with anything available from types of food.
“Is there anything worse than fear of hunger for one to think of an alternative homeland? Ahmad Ali wonders. “Most of the young men who reach the age of compulsory military service, for example, leave the country fleeing the military service. They cannot secure their living expenses in their country”, Ali added.
He stresses that through his follow-up on the conditions of those who leave, it turns out that most of them suffer from bad conditions abroad. Some of them go to Egypt, and enter it by illegal ways, which makes them spend the day eating a falafel sandwich only to live at the lowest costs.
The desire to emigrate is not limited to those who fear hunger, and generally the chances of this segment in escaping are few and difficult, but even well-off people seek an alternative homeland, as the need for treatment makes them leave because the health situation has become very miserable, and good doctors have left the country.
Even securing bread not safe
The options have become little for a lot of Syrians even abroad due to the large numbers of them everywhere.
Muhammad Fadel, who spent months in the UAE without finding a job opportunity, says he has to leave it and return to Syria, although he expects all bad impacts but he is forced to do so.
“What is happening in Syria suggests that everyone has to leave it, because nothing is safe in this country even securing bread”, he tells North Press.
“Even immigration has become a field for investment”, one of those seeking a passport says. He explains that the Syrian government sees the demand for passports for immigration purposes as “a good investment”, so it imposed harsh conditions, huge sums of money, and long waiting periods.
This was accompanied by extortions that reach millions of Syrian pounds to secure the passport that some Syrians describe it as being “the most expensive passport” in the world, and at the same time is the worst in the lists of the passports, as its holder cannot enter most countries without a visa.
“Immigration and Passports Department used to stop granting passports from time to time, and provide justifications such as technical problems, lack of availability of passport papers, or printing problems”, he tells North Press.
One of the workers in that sector told North Press that “the real reason is the presence of large numbers of people who want to immigrate, and suggested a new name for the Syrian passport, which is a passport of escape and not travel.”
The worst passport
According to the “Henley Passport Index” for ranking passports for the first quarter of this year, the Syrian passport comes in the third place as the worst global passport after those of Afghanistan and Iraq.
This ranking comes in terms of freedom of traveling, where the holder of the Syrian passport has the right to enter only 30 countries out of 226 destinations.