Syrian Exodus

The conflict in Syria, which began in 2011, which left more than 470,000 people dead, came with the inspiration of the demonstrations in the Arab Spring that occurred in the other Arab countries, and also against repression, lack of political freedom and corruption of the Government of Bashar al-Assad, and the high level of unemployment in the country. As citizens protested, syrian security forces opened fire on activists and stifled dissent, causing hundreds of thousands of people to go to the streets across the country demanding the distitution of Assad. The interference of regional and international powers from the outset of the conflict with military, financial and political support to both the government and the opposition are still directly contributing to the continuation and intensification of confrontations and to the transformation of Syria into a field for an indirect war. As a result, terrorist groups and jihadists such as the Islamic State (ISIS) took advantage of the country’s fragility to dominate various parts of the northern and eastern territories, adding new dimensions to the conflict.

This war, which has caused an exodus of more than 4.5 million people in the country, is considered by the UN to be one of the largest exodus of refugees in recent history. It will require $ 3.2 billion to provide humanitarian aid to 13.5 million people, including six million children in Syria. In addition, 70% of the population does not have access to safe water, one in three people can not meet basic food needs, more than 2 million children are not going to school and one in five are living in poverty. It was estimated that by February 2016 more than 5 million people had fled the country, mostly women and children, as well as this family now living in an abandoned building in Erbil, Iraq, after having lost the house after a bomb attack that hit the eldest son and left him completely incapacitated. Living with spontaneous donations from residents near the building that is now the home, the family is still waiting, still discredited, for the conflict to end so that its people can return to their origins and their homes.