Refugees who had to leave their lands due to the civil war in Syria are still fighting for their lives. Fatma Ibiş, one of the Syrians who settled in Van, says, “Many people here feel their hatred towards us.”
According to the data of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), millions of people had to leave their lands due to the civil war that started in Syria in 2011. Displaced Syrians are still struggling to survive in many countries. One of the countries where refugees are concentrated is Turkey. According to statistics, there are approximately 5 million registered and unregistered immigrants and refugees in Turkey. Many refugees who fled the war and came to Van are trying to survive in difficult conditions here.
Many refugees stay in prefabricated houses in Seyrantepe parish of Tusba district. One of these refugees is Fatma Ibiş. Her life is a brief summary of the problems many refugees face outside their home country. Today we went to the place where she and her family live.
‘I will not be able to buy clothes for my children on Ramadan Feast’
Fatma Ibiş, who had to immigrate from Afrin 8 years ago, states that the biggest problem here is being excluded. The anti-immigrant views that deepen day by day in Turkey and the aggression arising from these views also affect her and her family: “Due to the economic crisis, the food that comes to the door almost every day is now only served two days a week. My wife and I worked hard until we bought the freight motor vehicle. We use the engine to collect scrap. We can’t go to other neighborhoods, there is a road fee to go. We receive a refugee salary of nearly 1,000 TL. I have five children. Two days go by, the third day the money runs out. Until the end of the month, we owe the goods from the grocery store here. We can’t get scrapped every day. Because fuel is expensive. Daily scrap income is between 10 and 20 TL. Before, 20 lira was enough, but now even 100 lira is not worth it, I will not be able to buy clothes for my children this Eid al-Fitr.”
‘We escaped from the dark’
As Ibiş lives in Van, which is on the migration route of Afghans, it also encounters many Afghan immigrants. “Our wounds are the same,” she says. While in Syria, they hosted thousands of refugees in their homes. Some are Iranian, some are Palestinian. She adds that the anti-immigrant words in Turkey hurt them: “They told us, ‘Syrians came here, they are eating our sustenance. They have corrupted Turkey, they are saying things like ‘go back to your lands’. They make us feel like strangers. I am willing to die, but I am not willing to return to Syria. We escaped from the darkness.”
‘I don’t want to remember those days’
Stating that they lead a good life in Syria, İbiş said, “When we were in Syria, we had our house and everything. Our house burned down due to the war, we had to flee. We fled so that we wouldn’t be hurt, so that the stones wouldn’t rain on us. Hunger is worse than death. We stayed in an apartment in Afrin for 9 months. It was cold, there was no electricity, no water. My son wanted to take a bath, but I was keeping him busy with cartoons. I don’t want to remember those days. Meanwhile, planes were bombing houses. When the ball was thrown, neither glass nor wall remained. The only way was to escape.” She ends her words by crying.
Serhat News
Translator : Akif Coşkun
