Most of the world is well informed about the families in Syria that are struggling to survive. This is due to the airstrikes from outside parties that started about a year ago. More than 11 million people have either been killed or forced to flee their homes in hopes of finding shelter. This is probably the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. The attempt for the people of Syria to take refuge in neighboring countries is becoming really difficult. Although people are well informed about the current struggles with the crisis in Syria, they still might not be informed on what caused all these events to take place.
How Did The Crisis Begin?
In 2011, a number of children were arrested and tortured because they had spray painted anti-government messaged on a wall in the city. This caused an uproar of protesters to form. They wanted greater freedoms and political participation. Although the protests were peaceful, the government responded with violence. The brutal response consisted of live ammunition and tear gas thrown at the demonstrators. Protests began taking place typically every Friday after prayer. The conflict reached violent heights as the number of demonstrations increased as well. The average number of people killed each day was 40. Air strikes then began to occur in the city of Homs. Bashar Assad claimed that the terrorist groups and gangs were the ones to blame for the violent acts against their people. It began to escalate into a civil war when rebel brigades were formed to battle government forces for control of the city.
The Humanitarian Crisis
The people fleeing Syria consist of mostly women and children. Most of them are still in the middle east. Only a little more than 10% have been able to flee to Europe. Many are risking their lives in order to escape. A large amount of people who attempt to make it to other countries to take refuge die in the process. Many European countries are making moves to close their doors to the refugees. The Hungarian government at one point was stopping them from boarding trains. This is often called the migrant crisis, but this case would only be if the person or people were looking for work. The UN high commissioner states that "Refugees are persons fleeing armed conflict or persecution. These are people for whom the denial of asylum has potentially deadly consequences." So these refugees have rights under international laws. This might be why some places are calling this a migrant issues. They want to make it easier for refugees to be sent back. One thing that people need to know is that the Syrian Crisis is not only an issue for Syrians, but for most other countries.For one thing, it has lead to the growth of ISIS, a terrorist organization that kills more than just Syrians. The issue is picking up a lot of attention through social media and other sources. This gives hope to the idea that countries may begin to make the movement to welcome the refugees seeking a safe place.
