Syrian refugee looks for asylum in United States

By Marissa Roberto
May 4, 2016

refugee
Photo by Jerry Zurek

“I have been here two and a half years. Me personally, I do not think about going back.”

Ziad is a 27-year-old Syrian refugee who is trying to gain asylum in the United States. Ziad is just one of the 6.5 million Syrian refugees. Last year, the United States received approximately 249 Syrian refugees.

He left Syria in 2012 because people were criticizing the government on the social media site that he worked for.

“The government raided the office and searched all the computers. They found something on one of my friends’ computer of him talking to his parents about something [suspicious] and they took him with them,” he said. “He stayed there [in jail] for a while. When he came out, he was tortured. After this happened, I decided I have to leave so I left for Jordan.”

In January 2015, the United Nations Refugee Agency recorded that approximately 750,000 Syrian refugees reside in Jordan.

“After I left my home, I went to Jordan for a year and a half.”

Zaid wasn’t planning on staying in Jordan or the United States. His intention was always to return home once the situation in Syria improved.

“You see and hear more bad news and then eventually you think oh what are you going to do for the future because Jordan is not a stable country. I left Jordan was because the conflicts started I was planning to go home like everyone else.”

He then decided to journey to the United States in hopes of gaining asylum.

“Asylum protection is available to people who are physically present in the United States,” Michele Pistone, Villanova University law professor and immigration lawyer, said. “Only about 30 to 40 percent of the people who apply for asylum actually get protection.”

According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugees are officially defined as a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

“After I reached [the United States] I applied for asylum. I am still waiting because it’s a really long process. I applied and sent everything in on time, but it takes so long because they just have so many cases.”

The United Nations Refugee Agency indicates that approximately 149,600 Syrians requested refugee status in 2014, which is more than double the number of 2013 and 17 times more than in 2011.

Gaining asylum in the United States is difficult because refugees need to be physically present in the country. The process is long and cases are prioritized so people with a lower priority status will have to wait longer to gain asylum. If the case is not that important they do not look at that refugee right away for example, young children will generally get priority over older people who are trying to get asylum.

After being a refugee for some years, Ziad’s plan to go back home to Syria after the situation has improved.

“For me it, I have spent five years out of the country and we have to look forward and not look back. I am 27 years old and I can not [go back at this point in my life]. I need to look forward.”

Despite the fact that Ziad wants to keep moving forward, he cannot help but worry about the fate of his home country and the people still there.

“Everybody in Syria had the same problem, we never heard of ISIS and they came out of nowhere. Now they are in Syria. I had people telling me that we try to live with ISIS and then we can’t. We try to live the regime and we can’t. So what are we going to do?”

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Marissa Roberto

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