Out of the more than four million people who have fled Syria during bloodshed which has enveloped the country over the past four years, an estimated 2,500 have settled in Canada.
A few families have made it to Waterloo Region – but they aren’t speaking to the media due to worry about possible repercussions for relatives who remain in Syria.
Azam Fouk Aladeh left the area long before the fighting began, but still have family members living in Damascus.
Others have fled, paying smugglers to help them find new homes in places like Germany and Sweden.
While escaping Syria is seen as a positive by these refugees, Aladeh says that the process itself is “very difficult,” especially emotionally.
“You are losing your home, your friends. You might lose your family member in the boat. You might sink,” he said in an interview.
“It’s death every second.”
Omar Salaymeh, who also lives in Waterloo Region, has heard similar stories from his family members.
Fifteen of them have paid smugglers $6,000 apiece to get them out of the Syria.
Often they’re on boats crammed full with as many people as can fit, even if it means leaving them a little short on food and water.
In one case, he says, his relatives were taken to what they had been told was Greece – only to find that it was Egypt, where the authorities threw them into prison.
And yet, he says, the chance of escape still makes the attempts worthwhile.
“Every time we call them on the phone, you can hear the missiles in the back,” he said.
“(People are) willing to put their lives at risk, even their children’s lives, just to get into a boat and hope for the best. Anybody who can leave is trying to leave.”
Aladeh says he wants to see more international intervention in his homeland.
“Nobody is helping those people, and nobody is helping to end the war,” he said.
Both men say that their relatives inquired about coming to Canada, only to decide that the process was too lengthy and complicated for their situations.
