新・アラビア半島定点観測 前田高行責任編集

By Areha Kazuya

E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp

Epilogue

7-2(55)　Increasing refugees

Once a war between nations or a civil war in the country breaks out, many casualties come out to innocent citizens. Not only death or injuries involved in the battle, but also there are many refugees who lose their land and house and wander about foreign soil.

It was 1948 Arab-Israeli War so called Israeli Independence War that the first refugees appeared in the Middle East after the World War II. They were called Palestinian refugees. They escaped to the Palestinian Autonomous Region in Israel or refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon. The number of Palestinian refugees registered in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reached 4.5 million. There were 12 refugee camps in Lebanon and 450,000 people lived in a poor living condition.

Before a Palestinian refugee problem has been solved, much larger number of refugees were born in Syria. Triggered by "Arab Spring" in 2011, government troops and anti-government forces confronted in Syria. Furthermore, extremist of Islamic fundamentalism declared the establishment of Islamic State (IS). Mass refugees were born in conflict zones across Syria and Iraq. The word "mass refugees" that accounts refugees as a quantity reminds the sense of self-reproach. But the proper terminology could not be found except “mass refugees”.

It is said that about 4.1 million Syrian refugees fled to abroad in conflict and 7.6 million people were evacuating domestically. It is about half of the total population of Syria and they occupies one fifth of the total number of refugees in the world. As the civil war in Syria became in a mire, supply of relief for internally displaced people stagnated, and food and medicines were stopped. The refugees aimed for camps of neighboring countries in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. But there was no room to accommodate new refugees.

They, therefore, aimed for Germany which was emigrant-friendly country. They started a long journey to Western Europe on foot along the road. Many Syrian refugees were from the middle class living in urban areas. When they were in their hometown, they had already acquaintance with the peaceful and rich life of Western Europe, while they saw the savage and non-civilized behavior of "Islamic State" (IS) on the Internet. They scared of the fear if their city was controlled by IS. As soon as they heard the footsteps of the IS, they sold all of family premise and escaped to Turkey. Then they aimed for Western Europe.

Unlike the poor African refugees who struggled to cross the Mediterranean with nothing but the closes one wore, Syrian refugees were not penniless. In classified refugees, African refugees were economic refugees, while Syrian refugees were political refugees. What Syrian refugees valued after their lives was a smartphone. They aimed for the west on foot with a smartphone to check the current location and collected information from their close friends going ahead about which border checkpoints would accept refugees. If the checkpoint was closed, they looked for the place where they could cross the border without permission. They conveyed such information to friends and relatives who were following them. At the same time they kept in touch with relatives who have already migrated to Europe, asking for a good place to settle. A smartphone was a lifeline for them.

However, the capacity to accept refugees in European countries had reached to their limit. It was not due to the reason of the economic burden of each country, but citizen’s anxiety of unemployment by a huge number of poor immigrants or political and social fear of Islamic terrorism which had been spread among society. Already there were many African refugees settled in suburbs of the big cities in Europe. The unemployment rate of second generation of African Immigrants was high. Some of young Muslim guys influenced by Islamic extremism. They felt desperation and carried out suicide bombings in the city. In the meanwhile, the extreme right powers of native European got support from the traditional people. They urged on immigrant exclusion and Islam phobia.

(To be continued ----)