Refugees are those who escaped their mother country trying to flee from natural disaster, war, religious conflicts and etc. ST introduces refugees from Syria and the Syrian Civil War, relating to current issues going on around the world.........................................................Ed
On September 2, 2015, the dead body of a three-year-old boy was found at the Bodrum Beach in Turkey. He was a Syria refugee whose name was Aylan Kurdi. He tried to outflow to the neighboring country with his parents, but he missed his parent’s hand at one point. Aylan’s peaceful sleeping face touched the hearts of many people around the world. What made this boy take a journey of death?
The Syrian Civil War was the fundamental cause of Aylan’s death and the biggest issue in the world right now. This issue is giving birth to the geometrically increasing number of refugees. Furthermore, it offers ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) a base, aggravating the country’s damages. Many countries and the UN (United Nations) are trying hard to put an end to the Syrian Civil War, but no fundamental way of doing this is currently in sight. The reason for this can be gleaned from the background of the Syrian Civil War.
Syria is a hereditary dictatorial regime with two rulers. The president of Syria, Bashar al Assad, is a Shiite (the Syrian population is divided into the Sunnis and the Shiites, with the Shiites representing 13% of the Syrian population). He A Letter from Syria has ruled with an iron fist to keep the Sunnis under control. This has caused a storm of violence to fall on the Syrians. Crucially, the government jailed some teenagers for writing anti-government graffiti on the wall. This soon led to a nationwide civil war between the rebels and the government forces. At that
time, the government forces and their supporters represented only 13% of the whole population of Syria, and as such, their fall was only a matter of time then. Due to the intervention of powerful countries, however, the situation got worse. As global powers supported either the government forces or the rebels, the Syrian Civil War turned into a war of international interests. In addition, taking advantage of the confusion, ISIS captured Rakka, a city of Syria, insisting that it is the capital of their new Islamic caliphate, Syria. Considering this situation, it seems that the Syrian Civil War has no end in sight.
The Syrian Civil War is now on its fifth year, having broken out due to complex interests and relationships. Inevitably, it is the refugees who are suffering the most. The UN estimates that there are now 11,600,000 displaced
people among the 23,000,000 Syrians. Of the displaced persons, only 4,000,000 to date have succeeded in leaving the country. Therefore, 7,600,000 displaced people are living within the confines of the country. As for the refugees, they
never feel safe anywhere for long, and many of them eventually lose their lives as well. Children have suffered from severe trauma and terror. Women are exposed to rape. Rakka, especially, is frequently being bombed not only by the
government forces and the rebels but also by other countries and ISIS. Furthermore, it is hard for a displaced Syrian to reach a foreign land. Most of the displaced people who want to go and live abroad escape to Eastern Europe.
In that journey, half of the refugees lose their life. There is also no way for them to live happily even after they succeed in entering another country because many Syrian refugees are not being treated well in their host countries. Therefore, the Syrian refugees cannot do anything other than lament their situation.
The Syrian Civil War is also a major problem worldwide. Not only the countries with vested interests that are supporting either the government forces or the rebels are involved in the said war, but Europe and other countries are also experiencing related troubles. Europe is having an especially hard time because of the Syrian refugees. To solve this problem, the EU (European Union) is currently implementing a refugee quota system (the EU states agreed on September 23 to implement a refugee quota system, in which the 120,000 Syrian refugees in Europe will be distributed among them). In addition, the United States announced that it will accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees
and 85,000 at most. If we could not address the root cause of the Syrian Civil War, however, then we are just burying our heads in the sand like ostriches, not really healing the wounds at all.
As the Republic of Korea has a ceasefire line and is constantly under the threat of war with its neighbor, we should understand that the problem of Syria and its refugees is not their problem alone; it could also be ours. Therefore, we
should have an interest in this situation and in its solution. I wish that there would be no more Aylans anywhere.
