i

Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region VIII

Calbayog City National High School

Senior High School Department
Calbayog City

____________________________

A POSITION PAPER OF
SYRIAN REFUGEES ENTERING EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

____________________________

Presented to:
Mr. Raymond F. Cobocob
Subject Teacher

Lorenz Marco Y. Ras

STEM 11 - E
 ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page………………………………………...………………….….….……… i

Table of Contents……………………….…………………………….…………… ii

Statement of the Problem …………………………………...….…….…… ……… 1

Introduction ………………………….…………………………….……….……... 3

Debate/Issue………………………….……….……….………………………….... 5

Position/Stand……………………………………………………………………… 11

Curriculum Vitae……………….……….…………...…………………...…...…… 14

References …………………………………………………….…………………… 15
 1

Statement of Purpose

This study addresses the impacts of the conflict and displacement on Syrian refugees in

European Countries and the potential for equity and concurrence among Syrian communities. It

aims to provide a better understanding of the effect of conflict in Syria has had on the refugees,

including the damages and misfortunes the refugees have endured; their desires, concerns, and

needs for potential solutions for their displacement; and the conditions that would give Syrian

refugees the aid to facilitate them back to their nation and help them overcome divisions, rebuild

relationships, and promote justice.

The concerns raised by the refugees met for this study are squeezing, especially after Syrian

government forces retook a large portion of the nation a year ago. The present system, which is

controlled by a dreaded and infamous security framework, is winning the war militarily however

has offered no affirmation of carrying out any violations or misuses what's more, along these lines

no reform for its security establishments, making it very troublesome—if certainly feasible—for

refugees to return for the time being.

In spite of the proceeded with absence of security, some host nations have utilized the close

total return of government control as an affection to require the enormous scale return of exiles.

Another sad push factor is the diminishing financing given to refugees by the global network,

regardless of the situation of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

that current conditions in Syria are not favorable for willful repatriation in safety and respect.
 2

Refugees enunciated skepticism about the plausibility of accomplishing justice, although

some spoke about the requirement for truth, change, responsibility, compensation, divine justice,

and compensation of housing, land, and property. Perspectives on future conjunction were

progressively shifted. For refugees from Daraa's Bosra al-Sham and Homs, concerns based on

Sunni-Shi'a and Sunni-Alawite relations. Among refugees from Daraa and Swayda, concerns

additionally had to do with relations among Sunni and Druze. For each situation, their worries

were formed by their impression of the jobs of various groups in violence, political elements, and

their own encounters during relocation.

Intersectional vulnerabilities among various social groups have likewise influenced the

perspectives on refugees, uncovering comparable worries about safety and security and doubt of

the state or fear of armed opposition groups. For a few, security implied evacuating the present

system and considering its individuals responsible or disassembling state armies and armed groups.

Some said they couldn't excuse the individuals who bolstered the opposition, which Syrians saw

as the cause of the destruction of their country.

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Introduction

The Syrian civil war, otherwise known as the Syrian uprising is an ongoing conflict in

Syria. It is a contention between powers of the Ba'ath government and powers who need to expel

this legislature otherwise known as the Syrian Rebellion. The conflict started on the 15th of March

2011, with exhibitions. These exhibits resembled showings held in other Arab nations, which has

been known as the Arab Spring. Dissidents in Syria requested the renunciation of President Bashar

al-Assad. His family has held the administration in Syria since 1971. A significant number of

Assad's supporters are Shia while most of the administration restriction is Sunni.

In April 2011, the Syrian Army fired on protesters over the country. After long stretches

of military battles, the protests transformed into an armed resistance. Opposition powers were

fighters who had defected and left the Syrian armed force and regular citizen volunteers.

Opposition fighters had no focal leadership. Battles occurred in numerous towns and urban

communities over the country. In late 2011 the Islamist group al-Nusra Front started to have a

bigger role in the forces. In 2013 Hezbollah entered the war on the side of the Syrian army. The

Syrian government got military help from Russia and Iran. Qatar and Saudi Arabia offered

weapons to the rebels. By July 2013, the Syrian government controlled around 30–40 percent of

the nation's domain and 60 percent of the Syrian population. A 2012 UN report said the fights were

between various organizations or groups. The fights were between Shia groups against Sunni rebel

groups.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 individuals were slaughtered by June 2013.

A sum of 120,000 were slaughtered by September 2013. what's more, countless dissidents were
 4

placed in prison. There were reports that the Syrian government was tormenting prisoners.

International associations blamed both government and restriction powers for rupturing human

rights. The UN said the majority of the maltreatment were completed by the Syrian government.

More than 4 million Syrians had to migrate due to the fights and in excess of 2 million displaced

people left their nation. A huge number of natives are still shy of power, sustenance and drinking

water. In 2013 the Syrian regime utilized Chemical weapons against the radicals. This drew

consideration from the global community. The administration supposedly gave up their compound

weapons in 2014 however proceeded with the war utilizing different weapons. Later in 2014, the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant turned into the most dominant contradicting armed force,

controlling a more area than the Syrian government itself.

Syrian citizens being caught in the crossfire flee Syria to other European countries, thus named,

the Syrian Refugee Crisis. As of February 2015, more than 622,000 Syrians had enlisted with

UNHCR in Jordan. The extended idea of the Syrian emergency has been sensational: both the

Syrian exiles themselves and the host networks in Jordan are paying a high cost. Further political

and financial decay may pursue as the quantity of exiles is basically unreasonably incredible for

Jordan to manage. The EU and its part states have been effectively engaged with reacting to the

Syrian emergency both in political and compassionate terms. Jordanian Government's frame of

mind towards Syrian evacuees show how such an approach is becoming

 5

Debate/Issue

The Crisis

The Syrian Crisis was not expected until it started to deliver evacuees in the April

of 2011. 4 years later, there are estimated to be more than 6 million dislodged around 66%

of whom headed abroad, most touched base in neighboring nations. Today, the UNHCR

reports 2.1 million enrolled Syrians in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, in excess of 24,000

Syrian displaced people enlisted in North Africa and 1.95 million enrolled Syrians in

Turkey

The UNHCR and political representatives need to consider Syrian refugees who

can't move to neighboring nations legally. This number isn't stable as Syrians keep on

gushing into several various nations. Since the environment in Syria offers no hints to

change within a reasonable time-frame, it appears that enormous scales of refugees will

proceed to European countries to seek refuge. Thus, Syrian's Refugee Crisis will intensify

together with human disasters in the Mediterranean Sea.

The world's attention went to the Syrian Crisis and the refugee question brought

about by the civil war in the Syria. Nonetheless, Syrian migration is certifiably not a new

phenomenon. The difference is the volume and transnational impact of Syrians that has

skyrocketed. Barrout (2008) passes on that the quantity of exiled people alongside the

relatives who left the nation before 1922 were around 500,000 while this number increment

to 4,180,444 by 2007 (Mehchy & Mahadi Doko, 2010).

 6

The Syrian refugees today previously arrived at half of these numbers. Both Middle

East nations and nations outside of this district got a significant number of immigrants from

Syria in various timeframes (Mehchy and Mahadi Doko, 2011;Chalcraft, 2009; Gualteri,

2004; Hourani and Shedadi, 1992). The political state of Syria persuaded Syrians to move

different nations as they felt political abuse and frailty (Beitin,2012;Fargues and Fandrich,

2012). This nation has been temperamental; it has encountered chain military coups from

the earliest starting point of its foundation.

Syria experienced in excess of 20 military intercessions over the next long periods

of the first rebellion occurring in 1949 (Beshara, 2013:21). Notwithstanding political

choppiness, monetary motivations was ready for migration streams from Syria. Until the

1960s and 1970s, emigration from Arab nations was for the most part to Europe and the

USA (Mehchy and Mahadi Doko, 2011). Moreover, Lebanon was a famous destination

country for Syrians. Laborers favored this nation on account of the visa accommodation

for physical closeness of the nation (Winckler, 1997:109). Intra-local relocation pattern

heightened in the second 50% of the 1970s as openings for work in the oil delivering

nations of the Middle East expanded (Winckler, 1997). Lebanon still got enormous

quantities of Syrian specialists as there were work deficiency present due to the civil

war(1975-1989) (MPC Team, 2013), yet Gulf nations showed up as new alluring goals for

the Syrian financial immigrants. Because of this pattern, settlement turned into a significant

piece of the Syrian economy.

 7

According to the Syrian Government, the nation got two billion dollars settlement

from expatriate Syrians in 2007 (Seeberg, 2012:10). Until 2011, the writing fundamentally

underlined economic consideration which inspired resettlement from Syria. Be that as it

may, 2011 has been a defining moment year for Syria as both volume and nature of

relocation from this nation changed significantly. Following mainstream uprisings against

tyrannies in a few Arab nations, numerous Syrians filled the roads to challenge Bashar al-

Assad government. street protest advanced into a civil war that would cause a tremendous

refugee influx later on.

Views on Return

Certain perspectives on return cut crosswise over geology and personality. For

instance, the main concern for refugees in regards to a potential return to Syria was largely

influenced by their safety and security, in spite of the fact that particularities varied. Most

refugees from Bosra al-Sham, in Daraa, said they dreaded return even after the war because

of the danger of retaliatory measures by the government such as capture and detainment as

well as outfitted resistance groups. Exiles from Bosr al-Harir, in Daraa, likewise dreaded

return on the grounds that of both the dangers of unpredictable shelling and self-assertive

capture and what's more, confinement. Refugees from the two regions talked about the

requirement for system change or universal mediation to make Syria safe for return and of

the need to have satisfactory data about the security circumstance to settle on a choice about

return.
 8

Because of Syria carpet bombing their own towns, refugees from Bosr al-Harir

recognized risks to their homes as an essential obstacle to return, while those from Homs

additionally indicated the general physical pulverization brought about by the war

influencing their return. Evacuees from Homs were worried about returning due to their

distrust of government institutions which was the root cause for their displacement.

Furthermore, the insecurity connected with partisan divisions that prompted abductions

and outline killings between existing communities, driving some to voice a longing to

resettle elsewhere to neighboring countries. In Swayda, where many of Druze have been

abducted, most interviewees did not want to return because of fear of correctional

punishment for evading military administration, leaving employments in the public sectors,

and the doubt of Syria improving their security.

Views on Coexistence

Refugee views on the potential for coexistence was generally wide, depending

largely on where the refugee originated from in Syria. A few Sunni interviewees said their

associations with Shi'a had arrived at a perpetual end, censuring them for inciting the

viciousness and advising on them to specialists. They discussed an absence of trust and at

times disdain. In Bosra al-Sham, for instance, Sunnis for the most part see Shi'a Muslims

to be pro-government and outside Shi'a armed groups are believed to have a critical role in

the Syrian war. Shi'a inhabitants fled Bosra al-Sham in March 2015, and a few refugees

from that point said that they didn't need them to return. Others had progressively appeasing

perspectives, declining to reprimand a whole group for the activities of a few, accepting

that coexistence had existed before and could in the end return.
 9

In Homs, which had recently been religiously and ethnically diverse, partisan

strains, especially between Sunni Muslims on one side and Alawite and Shi'a Muslims on

the other, has prompted the most merciless demonstrations of brutality between neighbors,

bringing about a trust shortage that will make the city and the governorate one of the most

challenging sections for serene conjunction and safe return.

Refugees from Homs communicated a scope of perspectives about the potential for

coexistence, frequently impacted by contrary individual encounters with individuals from

different groups and encounters of their locale. Some said that they could coincide, given

their positive communications; others stressed over the other groups' expectations. Some

said that they could live with the opposite side yet could never continue financial action

with them. A few refugees said they would never exist together with "threatening"

communities and, in this way, were looking for resettlement in a third nation. This was

expressed especially by certain interviewees from Homs in light of the fact that Alawites

and Shi'a are as of now in Homs and the interviewees couldn't see themselves returning

and coinciding with them.

Refugees who had lost houses, land, and property said that certifications for

reestablishing and reconstructing for harmed property were vital for return. Sunni refugees

from Bosr al-Harir surrounded their perspectives on conjunction with respect to worries

about both Shi'a from Daraa and the Druze from the neighboring governorate. While some
 10

alluded to the Druze adversely, others detailed that their communications with individuals

from Swayda as inside uprooted people and exiles had really improved their perspectives

on individuals from the minority. The Druze are commonly seen by Sunni Muslims as pro-

government, and outcasts from Swayda said deterrents to conjunction between the

individuals of Swayda and Daraa included shared absence of trust, dread that uprooted

populaces and furnished gatherings would spread brutality, narrow mindedness toward

Druze religious convictions, and fault for their apparent help for the government. Be that

as it may, some accepted that conjunction was conceivable. A few displaced people from

Swayda communicated worry about Islamist furnished gatherings that were all the while

working in Daraa, which may have been exacerbated by assaults in Swayda by the Islamic

State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) on July 25, 2018, during which around 200 individuals were

murdered and 30 others, for the most part women and children, were abducted.
 11

Position on the Issue

This section of the chapter contains the researcher’s evaluation of the issue and

compiled a series of solutions and recommendation regarding the Syrian Crisis as position.

Suggestions to Facilitate Refugees' Voluntary Return to Syria

The Syrian government, the worldwide network, and the common society must
place refugee needs and rights at the core of any tough arrangement structure. Host
countires, the Syrian government, the United Nations, and common society must organize
the wellbeing and security of exiles when they come back to Syria. The Syrian government
ought to permit the United Nations and other worldwide associations to be completely
occupied with the procedure of refugee return. The Syrian government ought to permit the
United Nations and important universal associations to access returning refugee. The
Syrian government ought to give returnees administrations required to encourage
settlement, guarantee a reasonable circulation of help, and organize the remaking of
schools, power, and water supplies. The United Nations should practice its strain to arrive
at a settlement that ensures conditions that will encourage intentional, safe, and educated
return. All partners engaged with the political procedure must guarantee that any political
understanding or new constitution incorporates explicit certifications tending to the outcast
emergency. All partners associated with the political procedure ought to guarantee that any
new constitution submits the future political administration to an enormous change of state
foundations.

` Suggestions on Justice

The United Nations and parties to the political procedure ought to guarantee that
any political settlement doesn't give exemption for the most terrible and precise violations.
 12

The United Nations should support a political settlement ensuring that data is given to the
groups of the coercively vanished and stole, mass graves are recognized and secured, and
components for DNA distinguishing proof of unfortunate casualties are set up. Givers and
universal NGOs must work to bring issues to light among exiles about their privileges to
remuneration and compensation and other potential equity claims. The Syrian government,
the universal network, and common society on-screen characters should look to encourage
compensation and rebuilding of lodging, land, and property.

Recommendations on Coexistence

Donors and global associations should bolster mindfulness programs on stately

conjunction focusing on nearby networks and outcasts. The Syrian government ought to
permit worldwide and Syrian NGOs had practical experience in transitional equity and
compromise to get to the regions where evacuees are returning. The Syrian government
should set up measures to avoid circumstances where returning displaced people discover
their homes involved by others, especially in demographically blended regions. States that
have impact in Syria should bolster the formation of vengeance dissuading instruments to
stay away from partisan viciousness. The United Nations should pressure the need to
connect with nearby participatory structures to address neighborhood network needs. The
United Nations must embrace a base up way to deal with peace building by completely
captivating neighborhood common society associations, exiles, and network pioneers and
individuals. Donors, common society, and the Syrian government should try to give
compromise strategies that address the long-haul passionate needs of evacuee networks.
The worldwide network and common society should bolster ladies in confronting the
monetary, social, and mental moves identified with uprooting and help them in holding the
autonomy and access to new jobs that were set up during removal. The United Nations and
common society should address the trauma endured by children, providing psycho social
backing and help with getting to training, and bolster urban teaching initiatives.
 13

Conclusion

In the wake of eight difficult long stretches of war paints a troubling picture. The
war left Syria's urban areas in remnants, its economy broke, and its people displaced. The
reconstruction cost is assessed at several hundred billion dollars. Even after the Syrian civil
war reform is deemed impossible. Syria is highlighted as the biggest failure in the middle
east for humanitarians. The Refugee’s return to its country is possible but not beneficial
for their own wellbeing and its economy. Since deporting the refugees is against moral
laws the better solution would to rehabilitate the refugees and welcome them to society.
Most Syrian refugees fled to host countries are already educated and can help host countries
in terms of economy and employment rate therefore making rehabilitation the better
solution humanitarian and economic wise.
 14

Lorenz Marco Y. Ras

Fulencio Subd.
Brgy. Dagum
existanceissc4ry@gmail.com
09954890086
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Hispanic Literature, Latin American Literature, Peninsular Literature
EDUCATION
Elementary Graduate, March 2014 – Calbayog Christian Faith Academy
Highschool Graduate with Honors, April 2018 – Christ the King College
Non-Graduate in Senior Highschool, March 2019 – Calbayog City National Highschool
APPOINTMENTS
Adjunct Lecturer: University of Houston, Department of Hispanic Studies, September 2016 to
Present.
PUBLICATIONS
Book
“Impact of rules and regulation regarding discipline to the Junior High School students of Christ
The King” - Published 2018.
HONORS / AWARDS
Mexico Study Abroad Summer Grant, 2016
UH Teaching Awards, 2015, 2016, 2018
Dissertation Fellowship, 2015
LANGUAGES
Tagalog (native)
English (second tongue)
Brazilian (bilingual oral and written fluency)
Classical Latin (written)
Mandarin (Partially)
MEMBERSHIPS / AFFILIATIONS
Cute Guys Club
ARPA Club
Filipino Club
ΗΑΩ
 15

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