A Personal Look into the Refugee Crisis: An Evening with Tima Kurdi
Rory Sullivan
March 22, 2020
“That day, September 2nd, 2015, changed my life forever.”
What is the significance of this day? To many of us it was just a regular day full of work and family, but to Tima Kurdi this was the day that her life as a hairdresser in Vancouver came to a screeching halt.
This was the day her nephew, Alan Kurdi, passed away. The photo of his body facedown on the coast of the Mediterranean soon went viral and became a symbol of the refugee struggle. He was only two years old when he, along with his mother and older brother, drowned in the Mediterranean. They were trying to reach the Greek island of Kos from Turkey, where they had lived as refugees for months. Abdullah Kurdi, Tima’s brother and Alan’s father, arranged for smugglers to take him and his family on a boat to Kos, where they could then start the route to Germany in order to get asylum. Five thousand dollars for a small, overcrowded boat was their last chance to reach a better life. Turkey was overflowing with refugees, and there were many who had attempted the crossing between Greece and Turkey before. Some succeeded and others, unfortunately, did not. Rehanna, Ghalib, and Alan Kurdi were not so lucky.
One of the things that Tima Kurdi brought up in both her memoir, The Boy on the Beach and her lecture that took place in Grant Hall last week, were the hateful messages she received from those who heard her story. The question about how a parent could risk their child’s life is one that both she and many other refugees have had to hear over the past few years. For many of us living in countries like Canada it may be easy to question how Abdullah could put his wife and sons on that boat knowing there was a chance they would not survive. But as Tima Kurdi responded in her talk, “What would you do to survive?”.
Kurdi has made it clear in both her memoir and her event that her family’s story is one of many. When her nephew’s photo, dubbed as ‘the Boy on the Beach’, started going viral in 2015, Kurdi had already been trying for many years to bring her family to Canada. She immigrated to Vancouver in the 90s, leaving behind five siblings, their respective families, and her aging father. Currently her siblings and their families are spread all over the globe; one is in Germany, one in Turkey, one in Damascus, and one in Vancouver. After the photo went viral, the Canadian government helped to bring over her other brother, Mohammad and his family to Vancouver. Kurdi had been trying to privately sponsor him for years, but was always faced with roadblocks, one of which being that they did not have the proper documents, which were impossible for Syrian nationals to obtain. Though Kurdi expressed her gratitude for the government’s part in bringing Mohammad over, she recognized that it was political move during election season and questioned why they could not have helped her before it was too late for Alan and his family.
While Kurdi said that writing her memoir helped her cope with her grief and guilt, she said that the ultimate goal was to, “plant the seed of hope in everyone’s heart and mind”. The photo of the ‘Boy on the Beach’ was a wakeup call for many across the world to the tragedy that comes from being a refugee and Kurdi described it as “… when humanity washed ashore”.
The Syrian civil war officially began in 2011 after Arab Spring, and since then about 6 million Syrians have become refugees and even more require aid. According to World Vision Out of the almost 6 million Syrian refugees, about half are in Turkey with 90% living outside of refugee camps as illegal immigrants. Their children are not allowed to go to school while in Turkey, therefore many children are forced to find work to support their families and fall behind in their education. Many refugees, including Kurdi’s family, use the Turkey as a bridge to the few Northern European countries that had opened its doors to Syrians. In 2015, Germany and Sweden were the only two countries that provided resettlement assistance to refugees and had helped 140 000 combined. EU countries were supposed to follow the Dublin Regulation (though many Central European countries refused) which stated that if a refugee landed in your country from another EU country, you could either claim responsibility for them or send them back to the first host country (in many cases this would be Turkey). If they claimed responsibility for you, as Germany and Sweden often did, they would help bring the rest of your family over and then provide resettlement assistance. “Among the countries around the world, Sweden and Germany deserve the greatest thanks, because they began to resettle Syrian refugees long before that tragic night”.
The photograph of the Boy on the Beach spurred action around the world. Though Germany had already been the leading country in helping Syrian refugees, Chancellor Merkel asked other European nations to open their doors, or at least to allow refugees to use their countries as passage to other countries, like Austria or Sweden, who were accepting them (Kurdi, 2018). Many Syrian refugees who are displaced in Turkey, like Kurdi’s family, traveled across the Mediterranean to reach Greece, which they would use to reach Northern Europe. At the end of February 2020, Turkey announced they were opening their borders to allow for refugees to cross through to Greece, and then to the rest of Europe. But Greek citizens and authorities are reportedly getting tired of the constant flow of refugees and in response to Turkey they decided to send in armed military forces to the border, as well as refusing asylum to refugees who entered the country illegally. Unfortunately, a young boy drowned in the ensuing chaos after Turkey opened their borders, and it is difficult not to be reminded of the parallel between him and Alan. The young boy was the first confirmed death after Turkey announced that they would not be restricting migrant movements across borders, and, similar to Alan, he drowned after a boat carrying 48 refugees capsized.
Citizens of the Greek islands, including Kos and Lesbos, are in support of their government’s efforts towards ending the flow of refugees from Turkey. According to a report from German news outlet Deutsche Welle, one resident from the island of Mytilini said that though the island has only has 30 000 inhabitants, there are an additional 25 000 refugees currently living there. The refugees who live on the islands are forced into overcrowded and inhumane ‘tent cities’ where they wait to be granted asylum, and often violence breaks out leading to frustration on both sides of the debate. The residents of Lesbos worry about the decline of tourists who avoid their island due to the number of refugees and how that would affect their local economy as well.
So is there an end in sight for the crisis that has caused so much trauma?
Kurdi believes that everyone has the power to create change, only if we try. This is partly why she decided the write her memoir and travel around the world sharing her story. Though her story is one of many, it does provide a rare inside look into a huge issue that is often misinterpreted, whether it be prejudices or misinformation. As Kurdi stated during her event, “Don’t wait for the tragedy to happen for your voice to be heard”. Many governments, the Canadian included, waited until after the photo of the Boy on the Beach to aid refugees who needed it long before 2015. While Kurdi remains grateful that the Liberal government followed through on their 2015 election promise to admit 25 000 Syrian refugees, it was done to gain political points.
The situation between Greece and Turkey does not look to be improving anytime soon, especially with Greek officials accusing the Turkish government of being smugglers by not regulating their borders, which Greece views as enabling. The sentiments of Greek citizens are shared with their government, and the growing tension between Greece and migrants crossing from Turkey can be seen through their increasing use of violence. According to the New York Times, Greek authorities have escalated to using “… tear gas, batons, stun grenades, and rubber bullets” in order to repel refugees from crossing into their country. Though Greece has defended their actions as legitimate and argue that their methods are preventative in order to make sure the migrant crisis of 2015 does not repeat. Their main concern, along with the residents of the islands, is that they will be held responsible for the migrants, which will put a strain on their already low resources. There has been evidence that the measures that Greece is putting in place go far above simply being ‘preventative’ and can arguably be considered inhumane. Videos show Greek authorities blocking a boat filled with refugees from crossing, and then proceeds to shooting the surrounding water in order to repel them further. Other reports have shown that Greece has a secret holding facility where they torture incoming migrants before sending them back to Turkey, refusing their requests for a lawyer and asylum.
Whether it be through government response or sentiments felt by other people, there is clearly still a lot of progress to be made on the topic of refugees. However, though Alan and his family’s deaths will always remain a tragedy, it did open the eyes of many to the struggles of refugees. The personal, raw account of a refugee’s story that Kurdi provided the world is not one that is seen often, with most of the perspectives being from the media. But it is important to be reminded of how many families suffer the way hers has, and what we can do to change it. It was not easy for Kurdi to share her story with the world, but with enough awareness to this important issue hopefully more refugee children can be saved from a fate like the Boy on the Beach.