A warm welcome home for the Albarazi family
After seven years as a refugee fleeing a brutal war, Bader Albarazi and his family finally came home.
And there was hardly a dry eye as Bader, his sister Ayah and their parents Rima and Fakher bear-hugged their sponsors after they landed at Halifax Airport on Thursday.
The Albarazi family fled their hometown of Hama, Syria, seven years ago as civil war broke out in their homeland. They spent seven years as refugees in Turkey before sponsors from Pictou United Church finally managed to bring them to Canada this week.
“We are so excited. We’re so happy. We dreamed to be here and finally our dream came true,” said Bader, minutes after touching down in Nova Scotia.
His journey to Canada started in 2009, about two years before war broke out in Syria, when Bader went to Turkey for university.
In March 2011, widespread demonstrations broke out in Hama, Damascus and other Syrian cities against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. Protestors demanded political freedoms and social justice.
However, the government deployed troops and armed police to fire on demonstrations, killing hundreds, while many more Syrians were imprisoned, tortured and executed.
By the summer of 2011, a oncepeaceful protest movement became an armed rebellion and civil war spread across the country.
Back in Hama, Bader’s family found themselves under siege by the government army. The military blockade led to food and water shortages as well as power cuts. With internet services down, the family were cut off from the outside world.
They managed to escape the city and headed north to Turkey, joining Bader. While they were safe from the fighting raging around Hama, the family remained in limbo.
The millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon typically cannot work. Those in Turkey and Jordan are mostly confined to refugee camps, sprawling makeshift cities of tents and prefab huts.
It was thanks to the Communities Assisting Refugees Now Group in Pictou and Bader’s fluent English that the Albarazis gained their lives back.
Sponsors Donna Collins and her husband Stephen MacKenzie received help from Bader to complete the paperwork and translate documents for two other Syrian families now in Pictou County, the Casims and Albarris.
Last week, the family flew from the southern Turkish city of Urfa to Istanbul. From there, they flew via Frankfurt to Toronto, where they spent Wednesday night, arriving in Nova Scotia the following day.
“I hope I will build my new life here,” said Bader.
Their new home is a modest townhouse in Pictou set up with furniture and household essentials by their new Canadian friends.
After they arrived, the Albarazis and their sponsors shared a lively Syrian dinner including lentil soup, flavoured rice with nuts and peas and a roast chicken.
“We wish to be happy with all of you,” said Fakher.
While the Albarazis are now safe, roughly five million Syrians have fled their country’s civil war.
Most remain in the region, but nearly one million fled to Europe. In 2015, refugees streamed across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece in flimsy boats and life rafts.
From Greece, they trekked north through the Balkans towards Austria and Germany.
The Canadian government has resettled roughly 50,000 Syrians. After Justin Trudeau’s Liberals won power in late 2015, Ottawa airlifted 25,000 Syrians to Canada.
Since then, Ottawa has committed to resettling more Syrians, usually through private sponsorship groups like Communities Assisting Refugees Now.