FEATURE - Once At Home, I Want To Build A Hospital: Refugees Share Stories Of Hardship

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th June, 2021) On June 20, UN-sponsored World Refugee Day, a Sputnik correspondent talked to refugees who are adapting to new realities in Moscow after fleeing devastating violence and deadly conflict in Afghanistan and Syria, and dreaming of peace so that they can go home.

According to a recent report from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide due to conflicts and persecution has doubled over the recent decade, and surpassed 82 million in 2020. Over 26 million of those displaced are considered to be refugees, and almost one million children were born as refugees in the period between 2018 and 2020. Sixty-eight percent of all refugees originate from just five countries - Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar.

'FEEL SORRY NOT FOR MYSELF BUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE STILL THERE'

Helai has been living in Moscow for over 20 years now. She came to the Russian capital with her parents fleeing violence in Kabul, Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

"I was a child, I was 4 years old when we left the country. I remember that there were some disturbances in the city and we decided to flee," she told Sputnik.

All her relatives also had to flee, except for her grandparents.

"They were against leaving the country, they were more like patriots of their country," she recalled.

Helai went to school in Moscow, then to the university which she graduated with flying colors. However, with refugee status and without Russian citizenship or visa, it was very hard for her to get a job. She worked informally for a while and once stayed without work for two years. Then she got an opportunity to study hairdressing and she received a professional certificate. She worked in a hair salon and now she is a VIP Master and hair and make-up stylist.

"I miss my homeland and my relatives. No matter how many people live in another country, they still have some kind of attachment to their homeland," she said.

Now, twenty years on, she still recalls her childhood in Kabul and cherishes the thought of returning to her home country.

"Since childhood, I have grandiose, bright plans, I dream. I have always wanted to return [to Afghanistan] and do something good, like building hospitals, schools, do something that would help my country, my compatriots.

I had such plans almost since childhood, because I was very sorry, not even for myself, but for many poor people who are forced to live there," she said.

Yet now she says that Russia has become her second home and is no longer a foreign country for her.

"I grew up in this atmosphere, I feel like at home. But I have a different feeling that I have another home too. It's like visiting your grandmother, you live with your parents, but you still want to come to your grandmother and there you feel at home. It's not your permanent home, but you're home there anyway," she said.

The story of Subhi began in 2012 when a devastating civil war broke out in Syria which would become one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 21st century. He lived in the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin with a predominantly Kurdish population. Even now, in 2021, the region is gripped by violence.

"There was generally a nightmare. It would be impossible to stay there and I thought that since I was in Russia before, I can go there," he told Sputnik.

So he fled to Russia alone. His ex-wife and two children fled to Germany to escape violence. In Russia, Subhi hoped to find a job in line with his training - languages and teaching. However, it was very difficult for him without a visa. So he taught at various schools, worked as a translator and interpreter, and even worked as a courier.

His two brothers, two sisters and distant relatives remain in Syria, but it is hard to survive there amid the conflict and economic blockade, he said.

"I want to return home when the situation goes back to normal, it is very difficult there, you can at least earn money here [in Russia]. I was a translator in Syria. And now there is no work there [in Afrin]. Everything is unfair there. I would like to meet with my relatives," he continued.

Yet he considers Russia to be his home now and says that he feels connected to Russian people. He even had a chance to reside in some western countries, but he decided to stay in Russia.

"This is my new home. I don't feel like I'm abroad, it's like a new home," he added.