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Henil P Patel
Jessica Morton
UWRT 1102
April 17, 2016
LIVING IN A REFUGEE CAMP OR HAVING A NORMAL LIFE: LIVING PEACEFULLY IS
BETTER
Everyone in the western world right now is talking about the Syrian refugees and how to
handle the refugee crisis in Syria and Iraq due to ISIS terrorizing the innocent citizens of Syria.
Many refugees who we are talking about are young women and children who have lost their
homes due to the everlasting war between ISIS and the Syrian government. The future of
millions of young children is at stake. We are just watching and reading about these helpless
people on news channel. Most of us do not even care about them, why should we care about
them? We dont know them they are not our relatives is the reply by the general public and
yes they are right on their side of argument that they do not know those Syrian refugees, so why
should they be allowed to enter our country? But the general public is unaware of the intensity of
this problem.
We as humans have forgotten our basic core values that are to help our own kin, but
instead all are doing is talking about them with our friends, families or colleagues about the
problems these refugees are facing over breakfast table, during lunch or free time yet not a single
one us is trying to help them. Just because those people are not our family and we dont know

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them that does not mean we should not help them. It is our moral duty to help people in need but
we dont care about them as we dont live in a war zone area, our houses are not being bombed
and burned to ashes. We are not living under the constant fear of seeing our loved ones getting
killed in front of our own eyes. These people are being barred from their necessary living rights
Thousands of people have died trying to flee to neighboring and other European
countries. These people get killed while crossing the border illegally either by the security forces
or by natural calamities due to lack of facilities while crossing the border. Millions of refugees
have migrated to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, France and other European countries. These countries
have set up refugee camps on their borders and in some of these countries the refugees are living
a normal life with other citizens of that countries but mostly the majority of these people are
living in the refugee camps located on the border. It is very hard for these people to live in such
conditions. These people are passing through a mental and emotional trauma which we cannot
imagine. The young children, instead of going to schools, are living in the refugee camps missing
on their part of education.
These children are the future generation of our world and they are missing one of the
most vital part of their life that is education. It is such a negative effect on the future of these
young innocent kids whose education is being suffered due to war time. These refugees are also
being discriminated and not treated well even in the refugee camps. They are being considered as
lower than the other race. In turkey the Turkish residents are protesting against the refugees and
as turkey is home to 1.6 million Syrian refugees and are demanding the government to stop
allowing the refugees to enter Turkey due to loss of jobs by the lower class Turkish people.
These refugees work for shelter and food so they are driving the lower working class
people of Turkey out of business. Due to these situations the children of these refugees instead of

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attending school they have to help their parents in their work. This is a serious threat to the future
life of this kids. There is no social security for these refugees as many of them dont have official
documents or have entered illegally. Many of these refugee camps are even facing financial
problems because every day the number of people are increasing but the fund allotment is still
the same. Though the home countrys government are offering the best help they could but the
government has to even look after the welfare of their country too.
I think that these countries should set up an organization which can help and train the
refugees to try and blend with the normal population, so that these people can have jobs and they
an uplift their own life and the life of their children. This might be a solution to ongoing the
refugee crisis problem.
Even as per the recent research on the refugees, the results have showed that it is very
unlikely that these refugees become a part or promote terrorism acts because the studies have
shown that these refugees want to live a normal peaceful life in a normal environment with their
family because they are fed up of this war and terrorism issues. So it is far more important to
have a safer for their family to live in. (Greater support in countries of first asylum needed to
stem refugee outflows, unhcr.org http://www.unhcr.org/55ddd2c86.html)

We think of them as danger to us but in reality they want more peace than we wish for.
They worry about the terrorist attacks even more than we do because if any terrorism related
incident happens then these refugees are blamed directly for it and that particular country closes
its door to the refugees which has a negative effect for these refugees as no more innocent people
are allowed in that country.

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As of now majority of these refugees are living in the refugee camps instead they should
try and blend with the normal people with the help of some organization and live a normal life.
This process may seem difficult at first but right now it is the most feasible solution to this issue.
Even after ISIS is defeated the collateral damage to Syria will be devastating. The Syrian
government will need immense amount of funding to make Syria a better place to live as before.
Some of these refugees may not even go back to Syria.
If we compare the life of normal people living in normal conditions with those of the
refugees living in the refugee camps, we may encounter many different scenarios for instance a
child living in normal conditions will be much more educated than the child living in refugee
camp. As the child in refugee camp is no longer attending a school so he is missing on the
education part which is the most important part of everyones life. The future of that kid is in
jeopardy and his future familys life is also at stake because all that kid can do is to work as a
laborer. Instead if the refugees were allowed to settle as normal people then that kids education
may not suffer and he could be just like any other normal child.
There have been several health related problems striking the refugee camps. The local
government have not been able to provide enough medical facilities in the refugee camps as
there is an acute shortage of doctors. The doctors organization named Doctors without borders
along with the help of UN are setting up clinics for free in the refugee camps. Doctors from all
over the world are coming and helping those in need. Even the surrounding hygiene is a big
problem and responsibility to clean the surrounding is as most of the camps are located on the
border between Syria and the host countries. The border areas are not kept well as compared to
the normal areas.

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There have been pictures taken by where I could see that how these people were living in
the refugee camps. There were several photos showing the life of refugees in these camps like a
group of young children were taking water for their family, a bride getting ready for her weeding,
small children playing with an old cars tires. When I saw those photos for the first time I was
speechless and felt helpless. There are also many other photos showing the daily routine of
people in these refugee camps. I was stunned by that kids courage who even after going through
so many difficulties was smiling and playing with other kids. If I had gone through same
circumstances, I am pretty sure I would not have the strength to smile like that kid had.
Even as per the UNs rights anyone from any part of the world can apply for a protection
aid through UN and UN can relocate all these people to other countries temporarily until the
refugee crisis problem has been solved. People have been applying for this aid but the problem
UN is facing is the vast number of applicants (http://www.un.org/en/sections/what-wedo/deliver-humanitarian-aid/). As this process requires ample amount of time many people are
just running away from Syria and entering neighboring countries.
I know that due to recent terrorist attacks in Paris it is very hard for general people to
trust these refugees and allow them to live next to our dear ones but we are forgetting the fact
that there are thousands of people killed by the ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq till date. There are
chances that some ISIS operatives may sneak out along with innocent people but it is very rare
possibility. People need to understand that millions of innocent peoples life is at stake. Recently
31 state governors have voted against President Barack Obama decision to allow more Syrian
refugees in the United States. It not just about United States its a much broader problem than
that. The least any country could do is to allow women and children in their countries.

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These refugees have risked their life trying to flee from Syria, many of them have lost
their loved ones. Still they risk their life just for the sake of their children so their children can
have a better future. All they care about is the future of their children who have been a part of
this dreadful situation. There is going to be a huge psychological impact on these kids who are
growing up in refugee camps. Instead of learning, going to school, playing with their friends they
are witnessing and going through a terrible situation. The western world must step up to help
these refugees in need as it is our moral duty to help these refugees.

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Works Sited

Hansen, Lauren and Eberspacher, Sarah. Life inside Syrian refugee camps.
theweek.com. The week. Nd WEB. 31 March 2016.

Misery Beyond the War Zone: Life for Syrian Refugees and Displaced Populations in
Lebanon.doctorswithoutborders.org. Medicins sans frontiers doctors without
Borders, Web. 31 March 2016.

Medecins Sans Frontiers Doctors Without Borders. Doctors without borders USA,
n.d. Web 18 April 2016.

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