We Don't Want to go to Europe: The Other Reality of Syrian Refugees

The estimated 500,000 refugees on Europe’s doorstep are just 4 per cent of all Syrian refugees.

The refugee crisis shaking the world has come to be narrowly defined as Syrians fleeing the war, trying to enter Europe. But the ones trying to enter the West are only a small fraction – less than 10 per cent of the millions of refugees for whom Europe remains out of reach. All this week, on Exodus, a special series on NDTV, we trace the invisible roots of the refugee crisis from its point of origin along the Syria Turkey border to the gates of a divided Europe.

SANLIURFA, TURKEY: At the gates of the Syrian city of Kobane, two men packed up their home and loaded it on to a truck: furniture, some kitchenware and a puppy. The bombed out, gray skeleton of the city was visible from across the barbed wire fence, where Turkish police screened ID’s and checked people’s cars before letting them pass.

The two Syrian men were returning home after fleeing almost two years when the Islamic State stormed the city. The Kurdish armies had won it back in February this year, and a precarious calm was returning to Kobane.

The Syrian refugee crisis has come to be defined by images of boat loads of people, clad in life jackets, arriving on the southern shores of Europe. Or hundreds of men, women and children knocking at the gates of Austria, Hungary and Croatia.

But what we witnessed on the Turkish border is the unacknowledged reality of this crisis, that millions are not keen or able to make the journey to the West.

The estimated 500,000 refugees on Europe’s doorstep are just 4 per cent of all refugees. The biggest numbers are of those internally displaced in Syria – over 8 million. Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon host a huge 4.5 million between them.

Near the border checkpost, we met another Syrian man, who lives in Turkey, and makes tentative trips back and forth to Kobane. “I want to come back,” he said. He wasn’t interested in going to Europe. “I have my family here- my father, mother. They are old and I can’t leave them.”

In Kobane, 70 per cent of which is destroyed according to an estimate by a Kurdish group, it’s not as if the ISIS can’t strike again. It recently re-entered the city killing hundreds and causing another exodus.

Vast areas in the countryside still remain in the conflict zone.

But several Syrians we met, say they would still prefer to stay close to the border, rather than risk a European trip.

Mustafa, who came to Suruc in South Turkey 18 months ago with his wife and 4 children, said he doesn’t want to go because he wants to be close to his country.

“My children can’t recognise their uncle or aunt anymore because they haven’t seen them for a very long time,” he said.

But life for those who do not want to enter Europe isn’t easy in any way. As we reported earlier, many are unemployed, or working for a pittance. In Suruc, kids as young as 12 were working long hours at 1/10th the minimum wage.

Moreover, just because they are no longer in Syria doesn’t mean they are out of danger. A cultural centre in Suruc, home to thousands of Syrian refugees, bears the scars of recent violence. A peace keeping mission to Kobane was bombed by ISIS just 3 months ago, killing over 30 people.

Mahmut, a Turkish journalist, told us: “You can see the effect of the bomb explosion there,” pointing at a nearby building, its glass front shattered by the blast. “The victims were from different parts of the country who wanted to just support the reconstruction of Kobane.”

A little memorial for the dead stood under a tree nearby and there were still traces of bloodstains on the cobblestones.

The gaze of Europe has to move from those at its doorstep to supporting the countries hosting much larger numbers. Resolving the war in Syria is the only solution. It has in its power to push for peace, and not just stem the flow to its doors.