Despite health leaders advice to social distance to fight the pandemic, Syrians citizens are protesting against the country’s economic crisis and sanctions.

“The arrival of coronavirus is problematic for all countries,” said Christian Thuselt, lecturer of Middle East Politics at the Department of Political Science at the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg. “Now the virus is spreading to the weaker states. In Syria, the economy is in shambles, millions have fled, nine million Syrians suffer from malnutrition That makes them more vulnerable.”

Hundreds of protestors demanding government action during the country’s economic crisis recently marched on the streets of Sweidaa, a city in the south of Syria.  But protests are erupting all over the country. 

During the past 36 hours the cities of Damascus & Idlib in #Syria have witnessed rallies against poverty, unemployment & economic difficulties. Demonstrators are demanding Assad step down in order to end the war & bring an end to meddling by #Iran & Russia in their country. pic.twitter.com/pEkDKPGcDc

— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) June 8, 2020

The civil war has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions since it began in 2011. The war started to crush anti-regime protests.

For non-Arabic speakers,these are the most prominent slogans chanted in the demonstrations in #Suwayda yesterday. #Syria #SyrianLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/mWP1IrRBKs

— السويداء 24 (@suwayda24) June 8, 2020

The coronavirus has  furthered the economic collapse of Syria. Food prices have more than doubled and now 7.9 million people are considered food insecure, according to the World Food Programme., The Syrian pound on the parallel market fell 50% and the minimum wage  now equals $26 a month. Eighty percent of the population is living in poverty.

“They’re literally risking their lives to go into the streets . . . [showing] just how desperate people have become,” Mona Yacoubian, senior adviser at the United States Institute of Peace told the Financial Times.

Bakeries are closing, doctors are closing, shops are closing, businesses are closing. Millions of parents aren’t able to put food on the table for their kids. They can’t buy food or milk 4 their babies. Some people are offering to sell their organs so they can help their families

— Ahmad Al-Rashid ✪ (@ahmadalrashid99) June 9, 2020

Syria’s President Bashar al- Assad blames the economic situation on western sanctions. In 2011 through Executive Order 13582, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Syria’s government, prohibiting U.S. individuals to export or to sell services to Syria, like petroleum products. The sanctions were intended to deprive the regime of resources needed to as it brutally clamped down on citizens demanding change. The European Union followed a similar path and extended its sanctions against the Syrian regime.

The Syrian government won the the civil war with the help of countries like Russia and Iran ,but the war led to the destruction of 70% of the country’s economy and infrastructure, including medical facilities.

“Our hospitals are not provided with respiratory support devices or enough doctors,” said Mohammed, who works at a public hospital in Aleppo and did not want to give his full name. “Hospitals are good to handle a lot, but not in large numbers, like a pandemic this big. In my city, for example, we have only something like four ventilators, and they are most likely occupied.”

Syrians on Facebook groups offering to donate portions of their scarce medication. “No more medicine of any type available, even aspirin and cetamol were cut”
“I just had a thyroid cyst removed and I can’t stay without thyroxine and it’s also cut”
“I am on the last bottle” pic.twitter.com/PdSxEXa8PD

— jaro (@LaconicJaro) June 10, 2020

Thuselt said medicine is a prestigious profession and many doctors and medical students fled because of the war.

“I believe that the number is up to 70% of the medical staff has fled Syria, and so did students,” he said.“They are usually privately financed and their families do everything to take them out of Syria.”

According to World O’ Meter, Syria has 144 coronavirus cases and has registered only nine deaths.

To contain the virus, doctors gave residents the standard protocol, stay home, wash your hands and use face masks, Mohammed said.

“We also had some mobilization on Facebook groups,” he said. “The government established a curfew, so we aren’t allowed to leave the house after 6 p.m. on weekdays and on weekends after 12 p.m.,” Mohammed said.

Thuselt doesn’t believe they are accurate.

“There’s one thing that they [the government] won’t admit, it is defeat,” he said “They act as if the country is perfect, everything is just perfect. A good example was when Homs was under siege and Syrian state television, brought up peaceful pictures of Homs. They are bad at admitting that they are being defeated.”

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Omar Moussa kicked off his black, worn out sneakers. He left them outside his front door, like he does every day when he gets to his home in New Haven, Connecticut. Moussa, 17, a Syrian refugee, is one of 12 siblings, and unlike many kids his age, he works most nights to help support his family.

“A lot of my friends see that I’m tired at school and I don’t really have to time to hang out with them after class or focus on my homework,” said Moussa. “Sometimes I feel like I would just like to study, but at the same time I’m happy to work and to help my family.”

Back in 2012, war, violence and persecution forced Moussa’s family to flee Syria for what they hoped would be a better life in Jordan. Since the beginning of the war, more than 400,000 Syrians have been killed.

Moussa was only 11 when he started working. He worked so much sometimes he didn’t see his family for days.

“In Jordan, as Syrian refugees, we had no future,” said Moussa. “I was working 17 hours a day for very little money. It was a hard life. But we needed the money.”

But in Jordan, even if the Moussa family was safe from war, life was far from perfect.

“The people treated us really badly in Jordan and we knew they didn’t want to accept us, said Moussa. “But we couldn’t go back to Syria. It was too dangerous. ”

According to the UN Refugee Agency, the crisis in Syria has displaced more than 5.2 million people, who poured into the neighboring countries, specifically Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

“I walked to Jordan, and it took 8 hours. We had kids and old people,” said Moussa. “We couldn’t actually go legally because the Syrian government would arrest us. They don’t want people to escape. Thank god they didn’t see us because they would’ve killed all of us.”

In Jordan, Moussa and his family lived in an unhealthy, dirty and overcrowded refugee camp for a while.

“I was sick, and there were a lot of other people who were sick too,” said his mother, Afeefa Moussa in Arabic. “The disease was spreading so we had to leave the camp.”

When they moved to the city, Moussa and his family walked around the streets for hours, going into supermarkets and shops asking if anyone knew of a house they could live in.

“When we finally found a house we had to sleep on the floor for weeks until we finally worked and had money to buy furniture and other things,” said Moussa. “So it was a big difference.”

The procedure to gain refugee status in the U.S. took a year and half. When it was finally approved two years ago, Moussa left Jordan for New York with only part of his family. His two brothers Rasme, 19, and Khaled, 9, his sister, Heba, 15 and his parents, Afeefa and Sami Moussa, made the trip, but eight siblings were left behind.

When the Moussa family arrived in the U.S., they were welcomed by the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS, a Connecticut-based nonprofit organization that helps refugees with housing, education, legal assistance, jobs and healthcare.

“When we got to New York, we were so tired and sleepy and sad, but they found a house for us,” said Moussa. “Everything was in the house, food and furniture. We didn’t expect that.”

After two months in the States, Moussa went back to school.

“I had no idea how school was going to be,” he said. “For five years in Jordan I didn’t study, so I had to integrate from 5^th to 10^th grade. That was a big jump, especially since I didn’t know the language.”

Everyday Moussa juggles school and his job in the restaurant at the New Haven Lawn Club. He goes to school from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then starts work at 3 p.m. His shift usually ends at 11 p.m. or midnight.

“It’s hard because I have school in the morning and my job at night,” said Moussa. “So I don’t have time to study. But at the same time I have to work because I have to help my family.”

Omar Moussa cooking peanuts in the kitchen, New Haven, Connecticut. Photo by Stella Levantesi

Coming to the U.S. has been a chance for the Moussa children to get the education they lost growing up in a war zone.

“In America there is a lot of chance to have a good future, to have a good life.” Moussa said.

The initial struggles to settle down in their new home were mostly tied to language. Afeefa and Sami Moussa struggle to speak English. Only Arabic is spoken at home.

“The hardest thing was communicating with the American community and friends,” said Sami Moussa. “The first time I applied for a job, they said no because of my English.”

It was dinner time at the Moussa’s home recently. An Egyptian TV show was on. Sami Moussa was on a cell phone talking to his niece in Jordan. They have not seen her for two years and have no idea if they will ever see again.

Sami Moussa on a video call with family Jordan, New Haven, Connecticut. Photo by Stella Levantesi

In their kitchen, Heba and Afeefa Moussa were chopping vegetables in matching brown, animal print hijabs. The aroma of Middle Eastern spices filled their home.

Dinner was served on the floor. A dozen bowls and plates with white rice, lentil soup, minced beef and salad lay on a purple tablecloth in front of low mattresses where the family sat. For Moussa this dinner was special. It’s unusual for him to be home for dinner. Before the after dinner tea was served on a tray, a friend of the family, Cathy Shufro, joined them.

Sami Moussa, his wife Afeefa sitting down to have dinner in New Haven, Connecticut. Photo by Stella Levantesi

“Cathy, you know I got my driver’s license?” said Sami Moussa, mentioning he wants to try and work as an Uber or Lyft driver at night to make more money.

But their life in Syria is always on their mind. Sami Moussa and his older sons were managers in construction and had two farms with animals.

“In my family, we talk about Syria all the time, like every day, because we had a really nice life before,” said Moussa. “It’s been hard.”

Today, the Syrian government is still shelling the area where Moussa’s sister lives and it’s getting increasingly difficult for them to communicate.

“They are bombing every day where my sister is,” said Moussa. “They don’t have internet, and if they want to (have it) it’s so expensive, so we can only talk like once every two months, on the phone.”

For Sami Moussa it’s very hard to see news about Syria.

“I can’t read, and I can’t watch. It’s too painful,” said Sami Moussa, “I don’t want to remember.”

Although a UN commission of inquiry proved that all parties to the conflict have committed war crimes, including murder, torture, rape, and use of chemical weapons on civilians, to Moussa, the Western world seems to be numb to the incessant violence on Syrian people.

“It makes me angry because there are kids and women and everyone’s dying and no one cares,” said Moussa.”

The Trump administration has declared it will allow no more than 45,000 refugees in the U.S. during the current fiscal year, which started in October 2017 and will end in September 2018. This is the lowest cap since Congress passed the Refugee Act in 1980, and it’s a 59% reduction from Obama’s quota, which had set the ceiling at 100,000 refugees.

“It’s shameful that Trump has decreased the refugee quota to the lowest it’s been in decades during a global refugee crisis,” said Zeenie Malik of IRIS. “His reasons are unfounded, unconstitutional, and do not make the US safer.”

Moussa’s sisters are trying to come to the United States, but with Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, it’s not clear what will happen.

“My sister in Jordan and my sister in Lebanon applied to come here, but then Trump stopped the procedure,” said Moussa. “This was last year when they stopped setting up interviews and stuff. We are just waiting now. Maybe yes, maybe no.”

In the summer, Moussa would like to go back to Jordan to report on the Syrian refugees’ condition, but needs to save up to buy a camera and a plane ticket. In the meantime, he received a scholarship for summer school in D.C., which might help make his dream come true.

“I’m trying to study social work right now,” said Moussa. “I like to work with the community and listen to their problems. I want to help people out, like IRIS did with us.”

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Scattered on Pebble Beach at Brooklyn Bridge Park, just under the Manhattan Bridge, were 400 worn refugee life jackets. One hundred of them were worn by refugee children. Some of them were ripped up and covered in dirt. Some of the refuges who wore them did not survive. The life jackets were collected from the beaches of Chois, Greece, where refugees from war torn countries struggle to make it to their shores. These tattered life vests were what they wore.

Most of these refugees came from Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan. The conflicts, civil war and terrorism threat in the Middle East drove them to flee their homes.

But today, these life jackets stood as a symbol on the eve of United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants and Leaders’ Summit hosted by President Obama at the United Nations Headquarters.
The jackets were a symbol of hope, remembrance and action.

Oxfam America, a global organization focusing on addressing poverty, hunger and injustice issues, came up with an idea of displaying the life jackets to catch the attention of global leaders and as a call for action against global refugee issues.

Marissa Ryan, 32, advocacy and campaigns manager of Oxfam Ireland, saw theme as a testimony to the thousands of refugees who died while seeking refuge.

“If you look closely, the tiny life jackets belonged to babies who drowned, which is continuing year and year in the absence of any coherent or sane response to global migration from world leaders,” she said.

According to a report by the UN Refugee Agency, 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, which was the highest number since World War II.

After today’s event, the collection will be sent to the United Kingdom, to bring attention to this worldwide crisis.

Lauren Hartnett, 32, the humanitarian press officer of Oxfam America, unpacked these jackets on Pebble Beach with her colleagues in the early morning. She said there were 300 jackets for adults and 100 for children. Although some of them were not very sturdy the refugees had used them to cross the sea.
“Some of them were tied together. You can tell (they were) from families that didn’t want to get separated,” she said.

Bogdan Krasic, 28, a Serbian researcher of Belgrade Center for Human Rights, helps refugees who seek asylum in Serbia and other countries. Serbia, serves as an intermediate transition on the road from Middle East to Germany or Austria.

Krasic said the majority of refugees were less educated, non-English speaking and even disabled.
While the number of displaced people has hit new records, Ryan pointed out that, the six richest world economies only accommodated nine percent of the global refugee population.

Krasic thought the most developed countries were very careful about accepting refugees. They resettled some refugees because of longstanding policies, but not because they truly cared.
As the largest economy in the world, the U.S. has always been expected to play the most significant role in solving this problem.

But the U.S. government has resettled 79,560 refugees, not enough according to Krasic and Hartnett.

“I mean we’re always wanting more,” said Hartnett. “Especially Obama is hosting the summit on Tuesday. So we’re hoping for a huge announcement.”

But the presidential election has greatly impacted refugees who have already lived in America and those who are eager to settle down in this country. While Hillary Clinton fully supports Obama administration’s plan to accept more, Republican nominee, Donald Trump wants to temporarily ban Muslim immigration.

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