I recently had a very interesting meeting with Khaled – a Palestinian-Syrian asylum seeker living in Málaga.

Khaled – 44 years old – is a sculptor, previous owner of his own factory, trained psychologist and human rights activist active in Syria.

Khaled used to live in Yarmouk (in the south of Damascus) in Yarmouk Camp but is now living as an asylum seeker in Málaga (southern Spain) after leaving Syria in November 2015.

I was keen to talk to Khaled about the situation in Syria and he had a lot to say. Here’s his story!

Human rights in Syria: Abuse abound

Khaled is Palestinian and comes from a large family. His parents arrived in Syria before Khaled was born and Khaled subsequently spent most of his life in Syria. However, life there wasn’t easy.

For the last three years his nephew has been imprisoned in Syria for helping protesters in demonstrations which started in his city Daraa.

They visited him after two years and he is now condemned to stay in prison forever. His brother with his wife, their little baby and mother-in-law are under embargo by the Syrian regime.

When I ask Khaled about campaigning with NGOs around human rights issues, he makes it perfectly clear of the oppression in Syria:

In Syria, there isn’t such humanitarian activism because it’s oppressed by the regime but there are lawyers who are active, such as Michael Shamas – he is a very very good man. […]

There is also a famous humanitarian activist his name is Khalil Maatouk – he contributed a lot towards humanitarian issues in Syria but unfortunately right now he’s been imprisoned by the Syrian regime for more than two years.

There are a lot of lawyers, a lot of activists but there activism is very limited because of the amount of repression.

Even being a family member of somebody who’s in prison or being associated with somebody who’s in prison makes you subject to harassment.

In Khaled’s own words:

Society was highly manipulated with sophisticated political and social tools, for example there are 12 universities and there are 16 security departments around the universities.

However, people were “conscious”. The massacre in the city of Hamah in 1982 resulted in the death of 50,000 people. A lack of social media at the time has meant that this went largely unpublicised:

The people of Hamah so far are still scared, traumatised due to the experience they had.

At that time […] the international community didn’t react at all. [… ] All they had were economic sanctions – an economic embargo for a certain time.

Thanks to social media people have been able to raise awareness of human rights abuses – something Khaled did himself. However, people remain oppressed, threatened and scared.

Syria and the Palestinian population: Segregation and silence

What is particularly shocking regarding human rights in Syria is the way that Palestinians are treated in Syria.

When I asked Khaled about the approach of the government, he explained that whilst he found that Syrian people were welcoming on a social level, the government was not so much:

[…] They blame all their problems on Palestinians. […]

The numbers of Palestinians in Syria are manipulated by the government […]. They claim that they have two million Palestinian refugees…

According to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), there are 526, 744 registered Palestinian refugees in Syria.

Not only are these Palestinians limited in terms of future job potential but also in socio-cultural terms. Sadly, this is an issue across the Middle East:

[…] Palestinians in Egypt […] don’t have the right to say “We are Palestinians”. They have been told, “As long as you’re here to have to say ‘I’m Egyptian'”. You don’t have the right to be Palestinian.

And in Lebanon […] they are not entitled to do certain jobs. For example, you cannot be a doctor. They are limited; they have a quota. They can do only 70 specific jobs/professions.

In Syria, even after 50 years they cannot vote or run as candidates in elections and are not even given citizenship.

Khaled shows me his Syrian-Palestinian  travel document. He’s legal but he’s not Syrian. Yet despite all of this, Khaled sees himself as Palestinian-Syrian and Syria is his home.

Syria: Increasing sectarianism and conflict 

Despite the obstacles facing Palestinians in Syria, Khaled says he had a good life in Syria before the war.

Khaled left Syria due to war. He – like the others feeling conflict and oppression by both ISIS and/or the Assad regime – is not seeking money, but simply peace, security and a better life.

Khaled had been offered a way out of Syria when he participated in a language exchange with other Europeans but rejected this.

Back in Syria he had a stable life, friends and family and in fact; he didn’t want to go. Post 9/11 he felt how anyone from “The East” was given the tag of “terrorist” – for every Arab, even those who are “tolerant or the most peaceful of people”.

He enjoyed his life in Syria and was fully integrated into a society which boasted around 72 minorities – including the Alawi, Druze, Shia and Kurdish populations – in which everyone lived peacefully and cohesively.

Yet such a diverse rich nation became married by sectarianism – the most horrible of which Khaled confirms was of the Alawis who controlled the system. The “Godfather” was Hafed Al Assad:

Before he came to the regime, the level of or the ratio of corruption was a certain percent and when he came to power it became 98%.

He got rid of anything to do with transparency or with fairness or justice and the government is literally just full of Alawis – people from his sect. […]

There is corruption […] in different European countries, but the level of corruption in Syria and the Alawi system was so high.

Notwithstanding the vast religious diversity in Syria, this was not a religiously motivated conflict.

Before the onset of war, around 10 families (not the Alawi population as a whole) were “taking advantage of this situation and taking advantage of their family member being in the regime” – including the al-Bayt family.

As a Palestinian, Khaled did not witness sectarianism in mainstream schools as Palestinians were segregated from primary school until university. At university they were finally merged together.

Khaled admits there was segregation but “it was hidden. People didn’t know. It was not expressed.” Educated people outside of the elite introduced activities to try and combat such sectarianism and division.

Khaled belonged to “Towasil” (‘Continue‘) – a group which would organise team building activities for people from different religious backgrounds, including walks in the mountains. This was a great “bonding” initiative to break down barriers between people.

Even within the working class there were many initiatives but such sectarianism came to light with the outbreak of war which became further manipulated by the political system: “Bashar Assad is very intelligent in his game and he knew how to manipulate”.

Going back to the sources of different sects, religious preachers did not preach unity. We all know in history how easy it is for differences – no matter how small or large – to be exploited for power and towards the oppression of others.

From protests to war: Conflict arises

A politically corrupt system engulfed by a religious sect, economic and social inequality and a dictator able to manipulate sects and citizens against one another, stirred conflict within Syria, which was later marred by Islamic extremists.

As socio-economic political demonstrations started, the government’s response encouraged protests to become a full scale revolution and war.

Khaled was more than clear in his desire as a human rights activist to express the fact that the initial protests were not an attempt to overthrow the regime:

It started totally as a civil revolution, social, economic […] innocent, peaceful […]. Then the regime started oppressing […] shooting down the protesters. I was one of the participants in the revolution. I was arrested and held for four months.

I was hit [Khaled shows where his missing teeth have been replaced with small dentures]. I was beaten and tortured. […]

The intention of the revolution was not to overthrow the system but just to make major economic political reforms and it started first in Daraa […] What happened is because of the level of control of the system and using the security system to control every small detail in people’s lives.

It got to the level that [nobody] would trust the other. They would always feel suspicious that probably one of them is a spy or works as a security agent. [..]

Kids were kidnapped […] and their nails were cut off. They were tortured.

When the parents went to […] bring them back, the security officials said: “We are not going to give you your kids back, bring us your wives […] then we will give you your kids again”.

So people felt so humiliated, so oppressed, they revolted – they had to revolt.

As Syrians witnessed but the Tunisian Revolution, within the context of the Arab Spring, Syrians fought back against their own injustices.

Khaled recalls how they symapathised with the people and supported the revolutions and toppling of the regimes in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

Yet what people may not be aware of is that before the Arab Spring and the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, there was the Rabi’a Damasq – the Damascus Spring:

In 1988/89 there was a left wing party started to develop and I was part of it. It was a communist party but it was also oppressed by the regime – a lot of people were killed.

There were also individual cases and kidnappings. On an individual level […] it was not recorded because there were no humanitarian NGOs at that time in Syria.

A family member of mine was kidnapped 30 years ago. He disappeared. We know nothing about him up to now. This is in the time of Hafez Al Assad- the father of Bashar.

When Bashar came into the system he was so young – he changed the constitution to suit his political ambitions. At that time there was a political uprising – the Rabi’a Damasq […]

People protested against Bashar Al Assad because the way he took the regime was illegitimate – it was not constitutional. […] Bashar […] waited until it calmed down then he kidnapped most of the people – the leaders of that movement against him.

Such family style dictatorships are spread across the MENA region – hotbeds of corruption and nepotism:

Rami Makhlouf [part of Assad’s mafia – his cousin from his mother’s side] makes decisions in every small detail. […]

It got to the level that you couldn’t breathe without his consent.” This small family – in effect a “gang” – were “taking control over everything.

We’ve all heard the expression: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”- well all the more here. Khaled informed me about a sculpting competition in Damascus which he participated in.

Those who stood a chance of winning were those who had contacts and knew people working within the system.

In other words, the reality was this: deep nepotism vs. frustration and inequality.

We all saw how quickly such reforms led in to a full scale war. As the Syrians took the opportunity of the Arab Spring to start their own reforms, I asked Khaled if he believes whether the war would have started had there not have been an Arab Spring elsewhere:

The components and factors of the revolution were already there. Maybe it would have started but it would have taken a long time – longer.

Longer – in light of a deep prolonged conflict – is definitely what describes the sad reality of the crisis in Syria today…

ISIS and Islamic extremism: Syria’s story

One element intertwined with sectarianism and the war in Syria is the emergence of ISIS (a.k.a. Daesh).

Khaled assures me that the revolution was purely political, social and economic but later exploited by Islamic extremists. What started as a legitimate movement later became an “extremist movement”.

He is particularly keen to explain that ISIS is a result of the war not the other way round:

There is still a legitimate position but nobody cares about it and all that we see in the media are the extremist groups and now anything to do with such positions is labelled as extremism.

In fact, when I asked him if he expected the war to get this far, he explains how he didn’t and that it was with the involvement of extremist groups that the future started to look bleaker:

[…] As soon as Al Nusra and Daesh […] started rising I knew that it would get this way.

The reason we had jihadi and extremist groups is because the international community and the West betrayed the Syrian revolution.

They saw and they witnessed that the regime was oppressing the revolution in the most horrible ways. I even witnessed some of that. […]

One of the parents saw […] their son being killed in front of them and then the body was used as a trap to get people to go there to pick it up. So you’d go and pick up that dead body – […] you’d be shot by a sniper and killed.

There were even gang rapes where they [Alawi groups] would bring Sunni girls to a public place and rape them.

So you think that you were betrayed because the international community did nothing? How did they betray you?

Yes, it’s because of the negative and passive way in which the international community reacted. They didn’t even respond – they didn’t care about what was going on.

They saw the videos, they saw the pictures but nobody wanted to support them so that’s how it got to the extreme level. The revolution was manipulated and they stared using Allah and the word of jihad – giving people hope.

Khaled is pessimistic about the war and whether it will even come to an end at all. He doesn’t believe that anyone intends to “come to a peaceful resolution” and is particularly conscious of the lack of action or “good intention” on behalf of the US and Saudi Arabia.

In fact, Saudi Arabia is one of the countries supplying arms to ISIS. The backing of ISIS by foreign nations is not the only shocking disappointment.

What is particularly disturbing is the number young Europeans and non-Europeans travelling to Syria to join ISIS.

Young, naive, bitter or misguidedly enthusiastic, these jihadists – young and old, male and female – believe they are entering an Islamic utopia or the land where they can fulfil their religious duties and make a difference for the Islamic ummah (community).

The reality is that they fuel, support and even engage in rape, torture, slavery, murder and barbarity.

Once you are there it’s very hard to escape. Even if you do, you’ve pretty much ruined your life and hopes of a future back home.

I asked Khaled what would he say to young jihadists – young Europeans wanting to go to Syria. This was his reply:

Integrate into society – going there is not a solution. You’ll be treated like animals. You’ll be brainwashed. You’ll be dumped.

Indeed, your life is over. Behind the eyes of these lost souls or barbaric animals, they are dead inside. Being in tune with humanity, with Allah, with good; one cannot live such life.

Muslim and non-Muslim communities need to engage and work back home and not keeping fuelling the fire back in Syria. Jihadists go, whilst refugees come for a better life.

There could not be a simply clearer message. Khaled, like myself, believes that to defeat ISIS, you have to go back to the roots and know the causes: “It’s not an action – it’s a reaction” as Khaled so rightly sums up.

I agree with him that there are multiple factors – as is visible from the variety and diversity of its members. Where social economic hardship lies, lie the seeds to brainwash and manipulate young naive Muslims.

One thing for sure, is that bombing Syria will not achieve anything – which Khaled affirms himself:

If the “solution” for extremism and terrorism is going to be just with bombing and such military interventions; well I don’t believe that this is a solution. It will never end.

Whilst many Europeans are concerned about the threat of ISIS on European shores, as a refugee, Khaled is clear to reiterate that integrating and understanding individuals are key.

He sees refugees frustrated and depressed with the six months waiting time for papers. Amongst cultural differences, new freedoms and social norms, he believes refugees’ talents should be “cherished” and assistance should be given to help refugees contribute towards the overall progression of society:

ISIS is an idea. It manipulates people through their fears – the fear of death. I didn’t come here to get cars, to get girls.

So for lack of a better word, you feel a bit dumped and isolated?

It’s a ghetto. In the Arab world, people are sociable.

You’ve got your neighbours, you’ve got your family […]. So far I didn’t see any, but there is racism.

In my case, because I’m conscious and aware of things; I could never be radicalised. In other situations, there are people who could even be a project of a terrorist.

As a refugee, Khaled has been looked at with suspicion but the idea of ISIS members coming over to Europe is simply scaremongering: “ISIS members would never come here. They have a better life than any European”.

It has already been proven that videos with so-called refugees chanting “Allahu akbar” and rallies in the streets are lies as they are misrepresentations or the result of edited material.

It is indeed jumping on the scaremongering wagon – just like the Cologne story as Khaled points out.

From one country to another: Khaled’s refugee journey

Being of Palestinian heritage and having been born and bred in Damascus, Khaled’s journey is an interesting one.

Khaled lived in Syria in southern Damascus to be exact – an area under embargo by both the Syrian government and the Shia militia.

There were only two ways to get out: either you go to security officials and gave information about the opposition (revealing names of people they would later shoot) or you bribe your way out.

Khaled paid a million Syrian Lira to an army official to let him out. Once you’re out though, you face being killed or arrested by other security personnel.

Khaled hid in Damascus for 12 days in the officer’s house before the officer took him to the airport and directly on to a plane heading to Algeria, where his mother had fled to before her son.

One of Khaled’s brothers is also now living in Holland and another in Libya is hoping to leave with his son and daughter. Algeria as it stood was the only option open to Khaled offered by the security official.

On the other end, other people weren’t as fortunate as Khaled. He told me about one of his friends who went missing:

Nerez Sayed is a Syrian journalist. He’s famous. I know him, he is my friend. I […] used to take photos and videos and upload them onto social media to raise awareness with the international community and to show the real picture […].

My friend tried to do the same thing . He hid for two months in Damascus. He was then kidnapped and arrested. I don’t know where he is now.

Khaled had managed to escape a war zone of oppression and misery. He told me that he felt like it was a “miracle” when he left Syria.

Yet, he found the treatment and facilities in Algeria lacking. Just like the disappointment he felt with the lack of Arab “brotherhood” regarding Palestinians, he was also met with suspicion in Algeria:

I always felt under control in Algeria. My family was always under control. Always under suspicion. But not in your face.

His mother – aged 75 – had already been there for three years and “was not being looked after very well”.

As a result they left – in his words – “to go to a better place, where there was a good health system , where we could lead a good life.”

Feeling concerned about the Algerian government, he did not apply for asylum:

I didn’t even go to the authorities. I was worried. I didn’t feel alright.

I know that the Algerian system is pro the Syrian regime. I knew that there was even cooperation between both armies.

So, a month after he arrived, Khaled and his mother crossed the border into Nador into neighbouring Morocco where they were met with hostility by the Moroccan security forces:

I hated the experience in Morocco because the Moroccan security officer treated us really badly and he was telling us: “What are you doing here? Why don’t you go back?”

I even heard him talking about giving orders to one of his soldiers to just go and get rid of us [kill us].

I told myself: why doesn’t the world care about us? Our blood is no longer valued. Nobody cares about us. […] We don’t mean anything to the world…

From the hostility in Morocco, they left Nador and fled to Melilla – where they were then officially on EU soil and that’s where his Spanish journey began.

After staying in a refugee centre in Melilla, he was later brought to Málaga – where he is currently based.

Living as an asylum seeker: Spain and beyond

Khaled’s story is one of suppression and shock, yet survival.

From the miracle of leaving Syria, where civilians had to eat cats and leaves to survive and the population faced political persecution, Khaled told me of his disappointment:

I’m totally disappointed with getting to Europe. I feel like I’ve lost 44 years of my life in Syria.

I didn’t come here for money. I already had money in my country. I came here to be valued as a human being to feel safe to feel secure but unfortunately I still have to prove that I’m not a terrorist.

I still have to always be under check and control. I still have to prove that I’m a human being.

I thought that I would come here to contribute towards society, to be part of society – to be an active part of society – but unfortunately in this so-called “developed European society” that made technology, that had The Renaissance, that had this and that – all that I see is total disappointment. […]

I love Spain, I love Britain. I didn’t come here to beg or to ask for money – I just want a better life; a safer life, a peaceful life.

That is the reality of refugees and asylum seekers.

Regardless of what the media says about the “boat people” and “(economic) migrants” and the stretching of our resources – these people are human beings who simply want respect, peace, security and stability – a life like many of us have.

Khaled, after his experiences in Syria and Algeria, came to Spain as the closet European country and a country which he loves, where he doesn’t feel “foreign” or “strange” as he finds Spain similar to his own country within the Mediterranean bracket.

People take note of this. Syria is not a million miles away – it’s simply another country like ours. Spain is beyond similar to a variety of North African and Middle Eastern countries – except that in Europe we are offered a greater deal of social, economic, religious, cultural, and political freedom and security.

What is sad is that Khaled found the Spanish authorities more welcoming than in other fellow Arab countries. However, despite the warm welcome, they are rather disengaged and apathetic here in Spain.

His brother in Holland is very well integrated – but is engaged in doing so. His mother in Germany has not been affected by racism, but a friend in Eastern Germany has.

In terms of entitlements, he is provided with food, drink, a room he shares and €30 per month. When I asked him about the refugee centre where he stays, he confirmed that there is no prayer room but halal food is available for Muslims.

So far, he states his experience is positive and he is happy with his treatment there despite the lack of engagement.

Those living in the centre get on well and there is a sense of community among refugees and, Spanish people have been kind.

The only obstacle is language which is hindering socialising with locals but there are four Spanish classes a week and Khaled also goes to another school. CEAR – the organisation which accommodates refugees here in Spain offers language classes as well as the governmental Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (EOI) in Málaga as well.

Activities are run with refugees and Spaniards offering excursions around the city, yet when I ask Khaled who he spends most time with his answer is… himself.

With his mother and sister in Germany, alongside other family members abroad – the life of a refugee can be lonely.

With any luck, Khaled will be reunited with his loved ones in the not too distant future.

As soon as he gets his papers, his dream is to work for a humanitarian NGO and help refugees perhaps in Germany or in Turkey. He already has several years’ experience in NGOs and I can see his passion for helping others.

He needs to stay in Spain as he is hoping to marry his Palestinian girlfriend who is from Jordan and living in Syria. She has no papers – not even a travel document to prove her identity.

In the meantime, as he waits for his papers, he describes the experience of being an asylum seeker as boring on a day to day basis. In his spare time Khaled loves reading and downloads books on his phone.

As anyone would hope, his long term hope if for the war to end and to be able to return to Syria. With much anti-refugee rhetoric on the far-right and creeping into other segments of society for example, he makes it abundantly clear that Syrians are not here not to “drain the system”:

I’m sure that if the war ends, the international community will be surprised by the Syrians – that they will not have to ‘kick them out’, that they will go themselves to their land, to their country to rebuild it and to help its progression for the better.

Khaled does not want to be seen as a “victim”. He has witnessed things many of us take for granted and all he wants is to be respected, to be seen and treated equally and to be a able to live a decent life.

So there we have it – so many issues and it’s in our hands to help as much as we can.

Building bridges: How can we help?

Whilst we all hope for peace in Syria, in the meantime – what can we do to help?

For those in a similar situation to Khaled and locals, what can be done to create a better environment?

For those wanting to help refugees and asylum seekers in their country, Khaled suggests cultural exchanges – exchanging national dishes and languages. I’m a firm advocate of such activities.

Even amongst a climate of racism and Islamophobia here in Spain, people love couscous. Look at how the Balti in Birmingham forged a new British culture in which British Asians are just as British as a family with no migrant history.

Beyond socio-cultural exchanges, we can do a lot to help the crisis:

Raise more awareness, be more sympathetic, because they ignored it [the war] for a long time – this is how it ended up, people coming here, flooding in.

If you’d like to help with the Syrian refugee crisis locally or internationally, here are some suggestions:

• • Volunteer with local, national or international refugee and asylum seeker organisations – lend your time and skills. There is a great need for ESOL teachers, translators/interpreters, immigration specialists and medical personnel
  • If you are a linguist: join Translators without Borders
  • If you are a medical professional: get in touch with Doctors without Borders
  • If you are a professional counsellor or medical professional: get in touch with bodies which offer health care for those who’ve suffered trauma. In the UK for example, try Freedom from Torture
  • Get involved with groups going over to and helping in Calais – or further afield. Info can be found via Google or searching via Facebook and Twitter
  • Donate to relevant NGOs working in your country or abroad
  • Take part in or start your own food or donation bank/collection including your family, friends and other members of the community to give to Syrian refugees within your own country or abroad (this could include money, clothes, shoes, toiletries, maternity and baby items, children’s toys etc.)
  • Raise awareness: blog, tweet, post, lobby, petition, join or build workshops, conferences etc. – raise your voice
  • Check out groups and pages such as Free Syria Media Hub (caution is advised due to the photography) sign their petition to stop the bombing
  • Start a language/cultural exchange or buddy scheme in your area to welcome refugees – swap English for Arabic or bring your own national dishes (be careful of halal food requirements etc.- halal meat only, fish or vegetarian dishes otherwise, no alcohol – particular caution should be taken to avoid all forms of gelatine)

So, there’s lots we can do in practical terms, but something I’d like to finish with is this: talk, befriend and build bridges, respect differences.

See the commonalities and celebrate positive differences. It’s what makes the world interesting!

As we finished the interview, I asked Khaled if he had a message for the Spanish government or European people and he definitely does!

His message is one of peace, community and social cohesion:

Just to understand refugees and to not see that the opposition in Syria is just jihadist – there is a real neutral opposition.

I believe that there should be more dialogue between the two sides – the East and the West. They need to find a common ground for them both, to understand each other and to get closer.

An important message that I for one definitely agree with. Let us reach out and remember that we are all HUMAN.

Khaled could be your brother, your father, your uncle, your cousin… You don’t choose where you are born but you can choose what you do in life -where you go and what you do to help others.

Salam!

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank Khaled for taking the time to do this interview and I wish him all the very best in the future.

Thanks also go to my interpreter and all those who helped to arrange this interview.

Image credits

Feature image – Chaoyue 超越 PAN 潘 (Flickr) (CC)