What do you think of Canada welcoming Syrian refugees ?

What do you think of Canada welcoming Syrian refugees ? 

I think that Canada accepting Syrian refugees into our country is a great action for multiple reasons. To start off, most of these Syrian refugees are in constant treat of danger or even death, especially with all the violence, war and terrorism going on in the Middle East whether is caused by ISIS or the United States of America. So why would the Syrian not have the right to live as peacefully as we can do here in Canada and why would we not give them a hand when we are able to? Moreover, in the short run, it will certainly be a cost for Canada to help out these Syrian refugees; however, in the long run, it will most certainly be a positive factor for the Canadian economy when these Syrian refugees do in fact become working Canadian citizen and will as all of u pay taxes!

Throughout history Canada has always been accepting refugees and it has become a part of our Canadian culture, so why would we deny access to those who are in need of help during a time of crisis? 

- Kamrul Islam 

I think it is a very good idea that Canada wants to help Syrian refugees. i think that it is important to help the people who are in need and in difficult situations. 

- Valarie Madriaga 

How you can help

There are multiple ways in which u can help the syrian refugees. If you are european or really motivated to go help the refugees there are many humanitarian organisations that are looking for benelovent workers. These organisations also accept donations that will be spent to help the syrians in various ways, including medical attention, food, shelter and any basic stuff required to live. Here is a list of a few charity organisations that can help you support the cause

    UN Refugee Agency

          Human Care Syria

 World Vision

 Canadian Red Cross

Condition of the refugees

This is the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. All of the people inside Syria as well as the refugees outside the country are in need of food, clothes, shelter and medical care. The majority of them had to leave everything behind when they left the country, and so after travelling for such a long distance in terrible conditions the things they did manage to bring are no longer in condition of being used. Once they are past the dangers, they are stuck with no food or nothing having to wait at borders.

At the heart of this issue are the children. More than any they are especially at risk, even more during the harsh crossing of the sea. More than 3000 have died just in 2015. Obviously most of them are currently not attending school and so will not have a proper education unless we help them.

At least there are some charity groups that are already trying to help them. Even the population of some countries that see the syrian refugees cross their country offer them some food or even shelter. Groups go meet them at key border crossings to give them clothes, food and any basic thing required to live. Due to the scale of the crisis even with this help the refugees are far from being in a good position. A lot more money and ressources are required to be able to give them even just basic humanitary needs, and this is where all of us around the world need to take part.

Refugee crisis

Since the civil war started, approximately 4 million Syrians have been forced to flee the country because there is no longer any safe place for them to stay. Most of them become refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, but some others in smaller number go to other countries close by.

This vast number of people suddenly entering these countries created a big commotion as these were not prepared to welcome so many of them. Most of these countries do not have enough money to take care of them and even worse, some are facing major political upheaval aswel, such as Iraq. This has forced countries like Turkey to close their borders as they couldn't manage all these people. Having no more place to flee to, the Syrians turned to Europe. Unfortunately, once the way through Turkey was closed their only mean to get there was by boating through the mediterranean sea to the Greek coast.

As they are fleeing refugees, they do not possess the money to travel normally to Europe. They have to use floatable boats to cross the dangerous sea. Many of them have capsized, killing all or most of the passengers. The lucky survivors who manage to reach the coast of Greece face an other big challenge, walking the great distance that separates them from the countries that can welcome them. Again this mass of people suddenly entering these countries created mass commotion and Hungary had to close its border. As of today refugees are still going through these countries as they are facing really hard conditions while travelling and often have to wait long periods of time to cross borders. Sometimes they are even refused and have to move on to the next country that will let them pass.

Impact on the civillians

The conflict between all the different factions in Syria has reached such a scale that no syrian in the country can live a normal life. There is constantly fighting going on all around them, forcing them to leave their homes. 11 million of them had to do it because the village around them are constantly being attacked or bombed, leaving no survivors behind. According to the United Nations approximately 250 000 civillians have been killed so far since 2011.

Certain groups of people in particular are more persecuted than others. Kurdish people from the north of the country have historically been persecuted and extremist groups have targeted them during the conflict, forcing them to join forces and defend themselves. Multiple soldiers from western countries like the United-States and Canada have decided to join them as mercenaries. There is also the terrible case of Yazidi women being kidnapped by ISIS soldiers to sell as sex slaves.

All these dangers that constantly awaits the syrians wherever they are in the country has forced many of them to completly leave the country, seeing no safe place inside. This is the origin of the refugee crisis currently going on which will be explained in the following blog.

Civil war

Once the Free Syrian Army was created, the conflict turned to a civil war as the fighting became more and more violent. Multiple armed forces from the different ethnic groups of Syria emerged, each with their own motives, and even forces from outside the country have come to join the fighting. All this conflict has become really complicated because of this situation.

To make it easier to understand only the main groups interests and allies will be mentioned. There is the army of the President Bashar al-Assad trying to maintain his position as President of Syria, backed by Russia and Iran. There is the Opposition which are multiple allied rebel groups trying to instal a democracy, these are backed by the U.S.-Led Coalition, Turkey and the Gulf States. There is also the terrorist organisation ISIS that has taked advantage of the conflict to steal some of the territory to create its so called islamic state. Finally there is the force of Rojava, which are the kurdish rebel from the north of the country, fighting for their independance and also allied with the U.S.-Led Coalition but not with Turkey.

The situation is getting even more out of hand as a sort of proxy war is happening. The United-States, which have a pretty tense relationship with Russia and Iran right now, is currently backing a faction in the Syria Civil War, while Russia and Iran are both backing the opposite faction. Only a small accident needs to happen for the hostility between these countries come back.

Beginning of the conflict: the Arab Spring of 2011

The conflict in Syria started during the Arab Spring. It was a wave of protest and revolution against totalitarian governments that started in Tunisia and quickly spread to other countries of the Arab League, a group of countries where Arabic is the primary language, including Syria. Most of these countries are non-democratic and ruled by a president that has complete control of the army and government. These presidents give very limited rights to the citizens and don't tolerate any form of protest, freely using violence. The citizens of these countries decided it was enough and wanted a true democratic government. It began with peaceful protests everywhere, but in some countries the protests became more violent when the rulers, not wanting to step down from their position, sent out the army to stop them.

The protests in Syria turned to violence after a group of teenager who made a graffiti against the government were mistreated and arrested. Thousands of people went out on the streets to protest and the government sent the army shooting against them. Over the following weeks, fighting between civilians and the army kept growing until a part of the army turned against the president and created the Free Syrian Army, a group defending the civilians.

Overview of Syria

It would be important to have a little bit of knowledge on Syria before talking about the conflict itself. Syria is located in Western Asia, it's neighbouring countries are Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, Israel to the southwest and finally Lebanon to the west. It had an estimated population of 23 million before the conflict started in 2011.

Syria is home to many ethnic groups. The majority of its population are Arabs, but there are also Kurds, Armenian, Turkmen and others. Most of these are Sunni Muslim but there are also people following other branches of Islam like the Alawites, Shia and Ismaili. This big diversity is whats making this conflict so complicated because some of these groups don't really like each other.

The current president of Syria is Bashar al-Assad, who came to power in 2000 after his father, the last president, died. This man had taken power of the country in a coup d'état in 1971 and installed a non-democratic government where there are no elections and citizens are given close to no rights.

Welcome

Hi everybody! We are five André-Laurendeau College students currently working on a project for our English class. The goal of our project is to inform you about the current situation in Syria. As some of you may know, there's a big political strife going on there. This situation has forced the population of Syria to become refugees into many neighboring countries as well as really distant ones like Norway Unfortunately, many are not willing to help them, not even allowing them to pass through their borders, which forces them to use extreme means to get to safety. As an example, one family tried moving to Canada to flee the dangers, but were refused access. This has forced them like so many others to attempt crossing part of the Mediterranean Sea, from the coast of Turkey towards the Greek islands. Sadly, their boat didn't make it and was completely swallowed by the sea. The little boy of the family was found a few days later washed up on a beach in Turkey. All of this just because they weren't given the help they needed. That is why we are stepping in to try and inform everybody of the terrible state in which the Syrian people are so that as many of us gather to support them!

Bonjour tout le monde! Nous sommes cinq étudiants du Cégep André-Laurendeau travaillant sur un projet pour notre cours d’anglais. Le but de ce projet est de vous informer à propos  des problèmes récents en Syrie. Comme plusieurs d’entre vous le savez déjà, il y a un conflit d’origine politique dans ce pays. Cette situation a forcé la population syrienne à chercher refuge dans des pays avoisinants et même dans des pays plus lointains, comme la Norvège. Ceci dit, plusieurs de ces pays ne démontrent pas l’intention de les aider, puisqu’ils ne les laissent même pas passer par leurs frontières, ce qui force les réfugiés à fuir leur pays en utilisant des manières extrêmes. Ceci est  le cas d’une famille qui voulait partir vers le Canada afin de fuir les dangers de la Syrie et qui a vu sa demande se faire refuser. Ceci les a forcé, comme beaucoup d’autres familles, à essayer de traverser la Mer Méditerranée, de la côte turque jusqu’aux îles grecques.  Malheureusement, leur bateau ne s’est pas rendu à destination et s’est échoué. Le petit garçon de cette famille a été retrouvé mort sur une plage de la Turquie quelques jours plus tard. Tout ça parce qu’ils n’avaient pas reçu l’aide dont ils avaient besoin. Nous sentons que ce problème aurait pu être évité. C’est pourquoi notre but est d’informer le plus de gens possible de l’état terrible dans lequel les Syriens se trouvent, afin de pouvoir les supporter avec le plus de force possible.