Vol. 78/No. 47      December 29, 2014

“We want travel documents in order to move to other European countries where we can have housing and work,” said Bashem Al Mishwit, a member of the protesters’ coordinating committee, who worked as a journalist in Syria. “We want to work as a right, not receive handouts that we cannot live on.”

One young man from Homs, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals against his family in Syria, said that he paid $3,500 to cross from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos.

After the initial “revolution for freedom,” he said, as Syrians call the nationwide mobilizations that broke out against the dictatorial regime of Bashar al-Assad in 2011, Assad retaliated with his army and bombers. Opponents of the regime took up arms, but many have been pushed aside by Islamist forces pursuing their own agenda.

He particularly expressed horror at Islamic State. “They want to make us live like 1,000 years ago,” he said. “A person would be punished for something as simple as smoking.”

He described how refugees from many parts of Syria have joined together to make their demands heard. They are united, he said, Sunni Muslim, Kurds, Christians and Alawis.

They have won solidarity from unionists protesting government economic measures targeting working people. A Nov. 30 demonstration in support of the refugees drew several thousand. So far the cops have been prevented from evicting the refugees.

An estimated 30,000 refugees made their way to Greece from Syria in 2014, according to news reports. Many are trapped, without the ability to get asylum or passage to another country. Since 2011, more than 3 million Syrians have fled the fighting to neighboring countries, and another 6.5 million have been driven from their homes, according to the U.N.  
 
 
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