Refugee Crisis: What is the biggest problem?

The refugee crisis stands out as the most severe issue throughout the whole of Europe at present. Especially, the humanitarian dimension of the problem is devastating as political or social aspects, even though states mostly prefer to ignore it. I believe that with the help of young people, societies become more capable of solving the social problems of refugees.

I live in Izmir/ Turkey, and this city is one of the most prominent transition roads for refugees. Thus, I had a chance to listen to their stories from them, and this experience was very helpful to understand their conditions. When I listened to them, the things that they said reminded me of this famous saying: ‘whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.’ They have to struggle for life each they are on the streets. What is the biggest problem of these people? When I asked this question to refugees, they answer it by saying that the main problem is always being foreigners, in other words; alienation. The reason for this feeling is related to being insecure. In fact, these two problems are not the things that they have to face every day. When I had interviews with them, I saw that their main problem is about their economic and social conditions: severe poverty and communication problems with local people because of the language barrier. What do Syrians think about this issue? Communication problems create difficulty in reaching some needs, especially health services. There are a lot of complaints that their problems are not reflected properly and explained in detail. They indicate that they cannot have so many contacts with local people, but they have better relations among themselves. On the other side, there are also some families having better conditions. Families who had a satisfying financial situation in Syria indicate their wishes and aspirations to return to Syria when the war is over.

All human beings have a responsibility for each other, and we can come together and build peace if only we promote tolerance, equality and also increase the level of awareness of the societies. Maybe we can start to do this in İzmir. In the first place, we should focus on their primary requirements as long as the current actions are not effective. We need to help the policymakers to understand the urgency of the situation and propose ideas that will save more lives and provide the integration of the refugees to their new countries.