Refugee is a word almost everyone has heard in
today’s world. The phenomenon of displaced people is rife now. Modern history
has never seen this amount of people running to save their lives from political
unrest within countries.
Media centers portray refugees trudging through
rivers and mud, hiding in forests, carrying their meager goods, and looking at
the world with desperation and hopelessness. Are these the true story? Is there
more to the story? What is the background of each of these people? Do they want
to return home or make our home nation their new home? Each of these questions
are important, but their answers are often surprising, especially the answer to
the last question. From interviews with refugees and asylum seekers, most want
to return to their home countries. Let’s consider more refugee stories and
understand them better.
In an earlier segment of this series, we heard from
refugees and asylum seekers from three countries-Burundi, DRC, and Sudan. With
this article, a refugee from Serbia and one from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo will tell of their lives in their home countries and their refuge
countries. Petra and Fabrice will answer three questions and provide color to
refugee stories so we can learn more about them and the refugee crisis.
Interviews
Petra from Serbia
Question 1: What was life like in your home country?
My home country was very beautiful in many ways. My
town of Banja Luka is beautiful. It sits on a pretty river called Vrbas and hills
surround it. It is a picturesque town and if it was not for the war, I would
have never left.
I have a great life until April 1992. Things had
become politically complex. I was a child and did not understand much. All I
knew was that the governments were changing and things were going to be
different. My parents had great jobs. We had everything I now have in the
United States. When war broke out suddenly, our very existence came into
question. We were a Muslim family in a city that was majority becoming Serb
territory.
Question 2: What made you
decide to leave your country?
Bosnia and Herzegovina was a country that suffered
horrible atrocities. The Yugoslavian Army overnight became the Serbian army and
started attacking civilians and all those that did not identify as Serbs.
We left due to the genocide that our people
experienced in the period between 1992-1995. It was the worst war crime
committed against civilians since World War 2 in the heart of Europe. Little
was done to help innocent people.
Question 3: What has life
been like in your host/adopted country?
Life in the new country was a struggle in the
beginning. We were eager to get acclimated as soon as possible. My parents are
highly educated in their native land and were factory workers in the USA when we
arrived and as we grew up. They sometimes held three jobs to keep the bills
paid. My parents never complained. They just pushed my sisters and me to get
our education.
We did not speak much English, and friends were
few. We tended to socialize with those that also came from Bosnia since it was
easier. Americans were extremely friendly, but due to coming at the awkward age
of a teenager, we did not make many friends with the nationals. It became
easier in college. Our accents always made us different and to this day I am
asked from where my accent comes.
My sisters and I did well. One works as an
accountant at a major oil firm in Dallas. The youngest is a pharmacist. I am a
psychotherapist, but also work as a consultant for the patient experience
division in a major health system in Texas.
I am telling you my story because refugees have
been painted so negatively and almost as a threat to America. In all honesty,
we just fled violence. I cannot express my gratitude to this country for welcoming
us, and allowing us to work hard and live in peace. My heart bleeds for those
that are somewhere in a camp on the other side of the world that will never get
that chance.
Fabrice from the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
Question 1: What was life
like in your home country?
First of all, my country, Congo DRC, is nice and
big. We have many riches, but people are suffering too much because they are
not getting profit from those riches. Even if they study and get degrees,
getting a job is very difficult. Some of us with degrees stayed home for a long
time without getting a job. Those who are supposed to fight for the people so
they can get profit from our natural riches are using all the riches for their
own gain.
Life is good only for those who are working for the
government. The rest of the people are suffering. Those people were supposed to
speak on behalf of all DRC people. Politicians are getting rich, they and their
families, while people are suffering. There is no food, no school, and no jobs.
My country’s politics are very bad because everyone
is seeking his own interests, not the peoples’ interests. The few politicians
who are fighting for the peoples’ interests are killed or put in prison for
reasons that are not viable. The president is not respecting the constitution
and is taking more mandate of his function by changing the constitution.
Corruption is his top purpose in my country.
Question 2: What made you
decide to leave your country?
The main reason I decided to leave my country was the
political conflict. In fact, in 2016 there was a big conflict between two
political parties, the UDPS, which was led by Mr. Tshisekedi Wa Mulumba Ethiene, and the PPRD,
which is led by the current President of the country, Kabila Kabange Joseph.
I was studying at Petroleum
and Gas Institute, which
was in the same area as the UDPS general quarter. My father was an activist of the UDPS, as well as all my
family. In the same year, our general quarter was burned by the PPRD activists.
Some of the UDPS activists were burned inside the general quarter. Some
researchers were killed by those PPRD activist. My family and I are part of the
list of UDPS that the PPRD knows about. We were unsafe in the Congo from then.
We ran from them, the
PPRD, me and my father, mother, three brothers and sister. Until now I don’t
know where they are. I mean my family. I was running from the PPRD with my wife.
We ran from the capital of Kinshasa to a city of Katanga province called
Lubumbashi, but there we were still not safe because Lubumbashi is still Congo.
I spoke with a truck driver about what happened to us and he drove us from
Lubumbashi to Zambia. When we got to Zambia, he spoke to his friend, another
driver, asking him to drive us to South Africa. He said we would be safe in
that country. That driver drove us to Cape town.
Question 3: What has life
been like in your host/adopted country?
Living in South Africa wasn’t easy
for us when we arrived. Indeed, we arrived here on 23 December 2016. I didn’t
know English. I didn’t have asylum seeker documents, and in January my wife got
pregnant. It was very difficult for us to live here because I didn’t know what
to do. Without a job and documents what could I do? Really, we suffered.
At that time, a Congolese person advised
me to go to the Scalabrini center to seek a document that would allow my wife
to be assisted, and to give birth. That time I wasn’t working and by the grace
of God my wife was doing a small job as a hairdresser. The little money she got
helped us to get food to eat and to buy baby stuff.
When the baby was born, my wife couldn’t work again. Then
one person in my church fellowship connected me to a lift job. After 3 months, that
job was finished because I don’t have asylum documents. The little I’m getting now
is helping to pay rent, to eat, and buy some baby stuff.
We were happy when Home Affairs
said that it was going to give newcomers documents here in Cape Town, but until
now they do nothing. It’s like they canceled it. We are willing to go in
Pretoria, Durban, or Messina to seek documents, but we don’t have money for
transportation.
Life in South Africa is difficult
if you are foreigner because we are facing many problems: difficulty in getting
documents, xenophobia, difficulty in getting jobs.
Conclusion
Often people consider refugees as people who will enter our
home counties and take our jobs, introduce foreign religions and cultures, and
take over our nations. Displaced people only seek asylum from the ravages of
despair, hopelessness, and fear in their countries. They seek safety, rest, and
reprieve. Refugees have no long-term goal of overthrowing and taking over
another nation. Still, people fear them, their differences, their languages,
and their influence on the people of the host countries. What will it take for us
to realize these are people made in God’s image, too? They, too, are for whom
He sent Jesus to die and give eternal life because of His sacrificial and dear
love? These stories become the voice of refugees and asylum seekers. By them,
we can learn the truth and accept these people, these voiceless and persecuted
humanity, and love them as God asks us to love them, as our neighbor. What will
it take for you to love them as your brothers and sisters?
