Derin is a second year student at Grinnell College in Iowa and is from Istanbul, Turkey. She is majoring in Physics and Sociology and wants to focus on refugee politics and rights. She is interested in the portrayal of the Middle East and the Syrian Refugee Crisis in the global media discourse. In her first year at college, she was elected as the Social Coordinator of the International Student Organisation and she is currently working on organizing social events for the international student community. Some of her hobbies include, dancing, reading and watching science fiction, and travelling. She is very interested in how dance can bring people from very different cultures together due to her experience at the Grinnell College Dance Ensemble as an international student.
In 2016, the largest human trafficking network in Lebanon was uncovered, in which 75 Syrian women were forced into sexual slavery. Known as the Chez Maurice Case, these women were imprisoned in the suburbs of Lebanon after fleeing their country, Syria. They were beaten, tortured, and raped. A survivor from the incident, Rama, describes her feelings by saying, “I no longer have faith after what happened. Because when we were beaten, I would say, ‘God, please save us.’ And [my trafficker] would say, ‘You whore, you think God will save you?'”
We are witnessing an international refugee crisis due to the ongoing Syrian civil war which has forced more than 5.6 million Syrians to flee their country and more than 6.2 million Syrians relocate within the country. Syrians who wish to leave their country do not have many options, as the neighbouring countries have either limited the number of refugees they will admit, or they have issued very few working visas for the ones that are let in. As a result, refugees undergo many challenges in every step of their experience in seeking asylum in a new country, which forces them to refer to illegal and dangerous routes. Oftentimes, smugglers and traffickers take advantage of their role as the “guide” and the informant of the refugees, charging them thousands of euros for a passage out of their war-torn country. With the fraudulent promise of transportation to a neighboring country in which they’ll be able to seek asylum, Syrian refugees end up being very vulnerable to be a victim of human trafficking and forced labour.
Even after being able to relocate to another country, refugees do not have many opportunities to lead a normal life. In some neighbouring host countries, 60% of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line, making them more desperate for work. Having no place to shelter, no food, and no medical aid, many refugees find themselves in situations of modern day slavery in order to survive. Trafficking of humans comes in many forms, from sexual exploitation to organ theft to forced domestic labour. Traffickers in Lebanon and in neighbouring countries, mostly target refugee women and children in order to exploit them sexually (sometimes through forced and early “temporary” marriages) or coerce them into street begging and forced labour.
The International Center for Migration Policy Development is working on an Anti-Trafficking Programme that aims to inhibit situations of migrant smuggling that might develop into one of human trafficking. You can find more information here.
Daha by Hakan Günday
City of Jasmine by Olga Grjasnowa
Featured image: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/08/syria-army-overruns-key-idlib-crossroads-town.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/30/syrians-forced-sexual-slavery-lebanon
http://schoolforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/S2019-CPD.pdf
https://humantraffickingcenter.org/the-veiled-impact-of-syrias-civil-war/
