Transcript:
The Inside Story: A World of Refugees
Episode 45 – Original Airdate: June 23, 2022
Show Open:
Unidentified Narrator:
For World Refugee Day, stories from around the world by those forced to flee from home.
From the War in Ukraine to xenophobia in Africa and the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan, refugees and their will to survive.
Now on The Inside Story: A World of Refugees
The Inside Story:
CAROLYN PRESUTTI, VOA Senior Washington Correspondent:
Hi. I’m Carolyn Presutti, VOA Senior Washington Correspondent.
100-million people.
That is the number of people internationally who, according to the United Nations, were forced to flee their homes because of conflict, war, or persecution.
World Refugee Day 2022 was marked on June 20th in communities around the world. We will take you to some of those places to show you the successes and challenges refugees face.
Right now, Russia’s war on Ukraine has displaced about 13-million Ukrainians.
More than five million have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries.
So far, Poland has absorbed the most.
VOA’s Greg Flakus has the story from Warsaw.
GREG FLAKUS, Reporting for VOA:
Ukrainian refugees have fled to every nearby country, but the largest number by far, more than three and a half million, according to the United Nations, have come to Poland. Poles have opened their homes to the mostly women and children who have arrived here, according to Agnieska Kosowicz, president of the non-profit Polish Migration Forum.
Agnieska Kosowicz, Polish Migration Forum:
An overwhelming majority of Poles are not only assisting migrants or helping migrants or declaring pro-migrant sympathy but are directly involved and host refugees in their homes.
GREG FLAKUS:
But some Poles interviewed are starting to feel the way Warsaw resident Linga Karolewska does.
LINGA KAROLEWSKA:
Certainly, this is such a big change that it has to cause some problems. I think that at the beginning the biggest problem was to provide all of them with a place to stay and shelter.
GREG FLAKUS:
Now, four months into the conflict, she worries about what the refugee impact will be on jobs and housing and what will happen if the pandemic surges again.
LINGA KAROLEWSKA:
Other problems will appear but we do not know when and of what kind. Because we are all human and each of us has some petty problems of our own. There might be problems with jobs and housing and if the virus comes back but it is really hard to foresee what kind of problems.
GREG FLAKUS:
All over Poland there are Ukrainian flags and other signs of solidarity. In this park in Warsaw flowers were planted to mimic the yellow and blue Ukrainian flag. But Kosowicz says such enthusiasm is bound to diminish.
AGNIESKA KOSOWICZ:
Maybe flowers are a good example because they die.
GREG FLAKUS:
She says as the burden grows on schools, hospitals, social welfare programs and housing, charitable feelings could wane.
AGNIESKA KOSOWICZ:
We expect it to slow down because there is something like compassion fatigue. Basically, it is difficult to maintain this high level of involvement and support for a long term.
GREG FLAKUS
Another problem could arise as Ukrainians take jobs in Poland. In a plaza where a refugee center has been established in Krakow, Sonia and her boyfriend worry that Polish workers could be displaced.
SONIA:
The Polish people don't have work because of the Ukrainians...
Flakus, off camera:
Because they take the jobs?
SONIA:
Yes.
GREG FLAKUS
Official employment records contradict that sentiment, even though in the past three months around 100,000 Ukrainian refugee women, seeking self-sufficiency, have found jobs here. But when the war started, an estimated 800,000 jobs, mostly in construction, were left vacant when Ukrainian men who had been working here for years, went back home to fight the Russian invaders.
While most Ukrainians living here in Poland want to go back to their homeland, Agnieska Kosowicz says many of them are facing a harsh reality.
AGNIESKA KOSOWICZ:
I think that right now we know there are people who will not be going back even if the war finishes tomorrow, because they have nothing to go back to. We already know 900 people who have lost everything. There are people who know that not only their house, but their village, their town, is torn to the ground. They start from square one in their life. For some people it will be difficult emotionally, knowing what has happened in Ukraine and the scale of atrocities and harm that was done to the society there.
GREG FLAKUS
And she says that while many Ukrainians and Poles have yearned for a quick end to the war, no one can say how long it will last.
Greg Flakus for VOA News, Warsaw.
CAROLYN PRESUTTI:
Back in March, President Biden announced the U.S. will accept up to 100-thousand Ukrainian refugees, saying “This is not something that Poland or Romania or Germany should carry on their own.”
This week, VOA Russian Service reporter Rafael Saakov tracked down John Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Russia. He asked him about diplomatic measures being taken to help the millions of Ukrainians uprooted from their homes.
John Sullivan, U.S. ambassador to Russia:
I think it's first important to understand the scale of the problem. And what the Russian government has done through its actions. Almost 15 million people are either refugees, ie they’ve left Ukraine, or they’re internally displaced persons. We've heard the casualties statistics 1000s upon 1000s of innocent people, men, women and children killed, but millions of refugees. So, it imposes an enormous burden on Ukraine itself. It imposes an enormous burden on Ukraine's neighbors, small countries like Moldova, who have seen their total population spike because of the vast increase in refugees fleeing the violence that the Russian government has unleashed in Ukraine.
So, the United States led by President Biden and our allies and partners have very consciously provided humanitarian and other assistance to Ukraine to neighboring countries that are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria that have had this massive influx of refugees.
Until the end of last year, we had over 1150 US companies doing business in Russia. Now we have a tiny fraction of that number. For over two years I met every two weeks virtually because of the pandemic with the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia based in Moscow. Now, there are very few members of the chamber left.
The economic relationship between the United States and Russia has been crushed - has been ground and dust and it is not coming back anytime soon. So that's been a - It's not only had a major effect on the economy of Russia, but it's had a major effect on my work because a lot of what I was doing before was engaging you with US companies that were looking to invest or have problems with this Russian government regulation or that administrative proceeding. And now all I hear from them is about their plans to depart.
CAROLYN PRESUTTI:
As millions of Ukrainians escape their homeland for safety, we are hearing so many stories about their journey to freedom.
A new VOA documentary, “Wings of Hope,” tells the compelling story of Yana, a refugee leaving her war-torn country, and the aid she received from an Argentine actor.
Iana Kuko, Ukrainian refugee:
My name is Iana, Iana Kuko. I'm from Ukraine, the southeast of Ukraine, the region of Zaporizhzhia, Orikhiv town.
Unidentified Narrator:
Iana Kuko left Ukraine by train. It took her four days to reach Poland. When she got there, she slept another two nights in the largest refugee center in Warsaw.
Iana Kuko, Ukrainian refugee:
I took a train to Helm, Poland. The trip took 35 hours. We had about 11 people in one compartment. Six women, one man, four children. The youngest child was only five months. during the night, there were some people sleeping on mattresses in the corridor. The wagon was overloaded with people.
Unidentified Volunteer:
Get on the bus so we can do this in an orderly way. Bundle up!
Unidentified Narrator:
After a 15-hour flight, Piñeyro's plane lands in the Polish capital with more than 10 tons of humanitarian aid collected in Argentina.
The following day some 250 Ukrainian refugees, most of them children and women, will fly to Rome to start a new life.
Unidentified Train Station Volunteer:
We don't have time to count people, and there are a lot of people here. We are to the point where people are asking about transportation to Berlin or Austria or somewhere like that, and we help them to find accommodations and that's it. Yeah. This is a transit point.
Iana Kuko:
I asked the volunteers about my where I was going, I showed them my passport, they saw my Ukrainian passport and I asked if I could possibility live somewhere in Warsaw. And they helped me with a bus to go to the center, the humanitarian center for refugees.
Jacob Mroczkowski, volunteer at the refugee center:
This is a reception point and transportation hub. We try to give these people shelter for a few days and then try to give them a simple flat or maybe even a place that will provide a longer stay.
Iana Kuko:
I left alone. I have a brother, he’s in the military so he can’t leave Ukraine. My mother and father decided to stay in Ukraine. They said: “we were born here and we will be here till the end.” I thought: if I stay longer, maybe my town will be occupied and I will not be able to leave, or work, or move, or have any communications with other people. So in order to have some kind of future, I decided to leave my town.
Oscar Camps, Head of NGO Open Arms:
Unfortunately, this crisis, this war, what it has done, has created a completely indiscriminate exodus to anywhere, anywhere on the border. They arrive however they can, and once they arrive, they’re at the mercy of public transportation. So, whoever has access to public transportation and can afford it, they can get to lots of safe places.”
All these people are now homeless. Their husbands, children or relatives are fighting. Obviously, they have nothing here, no relatives, no friends, no acquaintances to welcome them. And taking care of them is expensive. But they are refugees, they have requested protection.
When we arrived, the situation was chaotic, so we immediately used our experience to try to find a decent place for all those people. Well, we’re trying to make this a non-permanent reception center, more like a transit center.
Ukrainian, Female:
Happy birthday to You. Happy birthday to You. Happy birthday my daughter.
Dana, Ukrainian Refugee:
My name is Dana. I'm from Ukraine. I have my grandma and grandfather and father in Ukraine. We will go to Italy.
Unidentified journalist off-screen:
Ok, and do you have a place to stay? Do you have…
Dana, Ukrainian Refugee:
Yes, I have a place to stay.
This is my mum.
Mum, journalists from Argentina want to make an image of us when we speak. They will photograph us.
Mother of Dana, Ukrainian Refugee:
Will they take a picture of me?
Dana, Ukrainian Refugee:
Yes, yes.
Mother of Dana, Ukrainian Refugee:
I have to fix everything!
Unidentified Journalist off-screen:
Hello! Where is she?
Dana, Ukrainian Refugee:
My mum? In Ukraine. She is from Ukraine.
Unidentified Journalist off-screen:
Where?
Dana, Ukrainian Refugee:
In Cherkasy region.
Sorry.
CAROLYN PRESUTTI:
You can watch the entire documentary on VOA plus. Get it for free in your app store.
Eight million Ukrainians are considered “internally displaced,” meaning they’ve fled their homes, but are somewhere else in the country.
With the wounded and casualty rate growing, Ukrainian Railways and “Doctors without Borders” are working to transport patients from overcrowded hospitals in the eastern section of Ukraine for treatment in western Ukraine.
More from Omelyan Oshschudlya in Lviv, Ukraine.
OMELYAN OSHSCHUDLYA, Reporting for VOA:
Svyatoslav Rychkov and Ihor, both from the Donbas region of Ukraine, met in a hospital ward in Lviv. The two were wounded in eastern Ukraine during shelling; both miraculously survived.
Olena Rychkova, Svyatoslav's Mother:
His hand is bad, barely works. But he’s OK now. He can already play his favorite online games.”
OMELYAN OSHSCHUDLYA:
Olena Rychkova is a nurse from the eastern town of Lysychansk, but right now, she isn't working. Her hospital has been closed for a long time because of constant shelling in the Luhansk region.
Olena Rychkova, Svyatoslav's Mother:
We were at the gate and saw our neighbors leaving. Kolya and Zhenya, a small boy, just eight. We waved at each other. Then we heard what sounded like a whistle and … Kolya fell to one side, little Zhenya to the other. And I did not see Svyat. He stayed behind. My husband rushed to help the neighbors, and Svyat shouted, ‘Mom, my hand was torn off!’
OMELYAN OSHSCHUDLYA:
In Lviv, surgeons extracted a fragment of a Russian missile from the right lung of her 13-year-old son.
Svyatoslav Rychkov, Wounded by Missile:
It looks like a bent bullet.
OMELYAN OSHSCHUDLYA:
Svyatoslav survived, thanks to a timely evacuation via a special medical train — a project launched by Ukrainian Railways, together with Doctors Without Borders.
Yasser Kamaledin, Doctors Without Borders:
On this train, we can transfer up to 30 patients. We have 5 ICU beds with the ability to keep two patients on full mechanical ventilation.
OMELYAN OSHSCHUDLYA:
Yasser Kamaledin, an Egyptian, has been working for Doctors Without Borders for a decade. But this is his first medical train.
Yassir Kamaledin, Doctors Without Borders:
Here in this room, we have our seven oxygen generators. That’s the oxygen plant like the one you would have in any hospital.
OMELYAN OSHSCHUDLYA:
Natalia Kyniv, from Uzhhorod, says this train is a mix of an ambulance, a hospital and intensive care unit.
Natalya Kyniv, Anesthesiologist:
What I like about our train is that we can pick up whole families, or a family with friends. We can take them all out at once.
OMELYAN OSHSCHUDLYA:
The story of another medical train patient, Anastasia Pryhoda from Popasna, spread around the world.
The badly wounded 14-year-old drove four wounded adults 30 kilometers to safety through Russian shelling. She also managed to pass a mined part of the road at high speed.
Anastasia Pryhoda, Popasna Resident:
The driver's seat was somehow too high. It was high for me. My feet barely reached the pedals. But I was lucky that it was high — that's how I saw those mines.
OMELYAN OSHSCHUDLYA:
The train has managed to evacuate more than 500 patients. Doctors Without Borders says the train will continue to run as long as it is possible.
Omelyan Oshchudlyak, for VOA News, Lviv, Ukraine.
CAROLYN PRESUTTI:
Deciding to uproot and move away from home because you don’t feel safe is among the most difficult decisions you can make.
So, imagine getting to a place you think is a safe haven --- and then finding out ---you are unwanted.
That is happening to a group of refugees in South Africa.
Our Linda Givetash reports from Pretoria.
LINDA GIVETASH, Reporting for VOA:
Some of these refugees have been living in South Africa for two decades, but now they say they no longer feel safe.
Most are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they escaped war.
But increasingly, they say they’ve had their small businesses looted, homes robbed and been personally attacked amid growing waves of xenophobia.
Lillian Nyota, Congolese Refugee:
We ran away from our country, running from tribulations. We came here in South Africa, we found more trouble, more tribulations. Because xenophobic attack is real, xenophobia is real, no one can deny it. It's real.
LINDA GIVETASH:
South Africa is home to more than 250,000 asylum seekers.
This group says they’ve moved from community to community, but violence eventually follows.
They’re now asking that the United Nations refugee agency move them to a safe third country.
Lillian, Congolese Refugee:
Any place that they can take us that way we can be safe with our families. We can live and move on with our lives so that our children can go to school.
LINDA GIVETASH:
Xenophobic violence has become increasingly pronounced in South Africa with bursts of riots and murders since 2008.
Earlier this year, amid a wave of anti-migrant marches, a Zimbabwean man was killed in a Johannesburg township authorities say because of his nationality.
Experts blame the problem on the country’s history of violence, socioeconomic issues, and growing anti-foreigner politics.
Silindile Mlilo, University of Witwatersrand Researcher:
Normally, when there is xenophobic violence, is that when it happens, there is no differentiation of like, are you a refugee? Are you an asylum seeker? If government is not seen as doing anything, it also discourages migrants and refugees who are in the country, because it's like, is it safe for me?
LINDA GIVETASH:
Resettlement is not an option for most refugees.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says only 1 percent of refugees globally are moved from one host country to another for exceptional circumstances.
Laura Padoan, UNHCR South Africa:
It's really only the most vulnerable refugees who are eligible for resettlement so that can be survivors of sexual or gender-based violence. It can be women and children at risk, people at risk because of their religious persecution.” (5:30) “We really urge these refugees to take up the offer of local integration or repatriation, because no one wants to see people living out on the street.
LINDA GIVETASH:
But these refugees maintain re-integration is not an option and say will stay camped here until there’s a plan for them to leave South Africa.
Linda Givetash, for VOA News, Pretoria.
CAROLYN PRESUTTI:
11-percent of refugees who have fled their home country come from Afghanistan.
Most of them are in neighboring countries like Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.
After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the US waged war on al Qaida and the Taliban. Since then about 300-thousand Afghan refugees have come to the United States.
That includes more than 75-thousand since the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan last August.
Adjusting to life in America remains a challenge for many Afghan refugees.
From San Diego, California, our Genia Dulot takes us inside a thriving Afghan community.
GENIA DULOT, Reporting for VOA:
Back in Afghanistan, accountant Abu Baker Samoon had no plans to leave his country and every hope that a coalition government would follow the U.S. withdrawal.
Abu Baker Samoon, Afghan Refugee:
I still had hopes. Everyone had hopes that things are going to get better. There's going to be peace treaty and the current government and Taliban leadership are going to agree on peace deals, and things are going to get better and better.
GENIA DULOT:
Things did not get better. As the Taliban took over Kabul in August, Samoon feared his previous work for the U.S. government would put his family in danger.
Becoming one of the lucky few to quickly secure a special immigrant visa, he boarded a U.S. evacuation flight with his wife and their three children. The family lived in a refugee camp in Texas for 45 days before reuniting with relatives here in San Diego.
Working remotely, Samoon says he has kept one of his consulting jobs in Afghanistan.
Abu Baker Samoon, Afghan Refugee:
Because our offices start at 8 a.m. in the morning in Afghanistan, that’s 7:30 and 8:30 — between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on daylight saving —in the U.S., in San Diego. I end up working at night, and I get some sleep during the day.
GENIA DULOT:
Samoon says San Diego’s large Muslim community has welcomed his family and helped them adjust to life in the United States. So he is now volunteering to help other refugees find their way in a new country. Shakib Nawabi is the imam at the local Darululoom Mosque.
Shakib Nawabi, Darululoom Mosque Imam:
I encourage them to be patient. I encourage them that in this country, you can really achieve a lot of things by being patient and, at the same time, pursue your goals here, so you can benefit in this country.
GENIA DULOT:
Samoon has American ambitions for his children but does not want them to lose their Afghan roots.
Abu Baker Samoon, Afghan Refugee:
I do want them to become Americans, but I also do want them to be at the same time Afghans. I want both of that to go side by side, parallel. I want them to know not just one language, but three languages: both of my national languages, Pashto and Dari, as well as English. I want all of that to go parallel, and I’ll definitely work hard on making sure that I do achieve that goal.
GENIA DULOT:
Samoon is working on earning his accountant certification in the United States and hopes to own his own business, as he did in Afghanistan.
Genia Dulot, for VOA News, San Diego, California.
CAROLYN PRESUTTI:
For most of her career, Nawroz Rasho has covered the war in her country of Syria for VOA and other news outlets.
In 2018, after Turkish tanks invaded her hometown of Afrin, destroying property and killing her father, she and thousands more escaped to safety.
Now displaced in a refugee camp, Rasho (RA show) knows firsthand the damaging effects of war.
Sirwan Kajjo has her story in this week’s Press Freedom Spotlight.
SIRWAN KAJJO, VOA Correspondent:
For the past four years, journalist Nawroz Rasho has called this camp in the Shahba region of northern Syria home.
When Turkish tanks rolled into her home city of Afrin in 2018, the journalist and her family had no choice but to join thousands of others fleeing to safety.
Her home had been hit, and her father was killed in the shelling.
Now Rasho lives in a camp for people displaced by the fighting.
Nawroz Rasho, Journalist:
My father’s death made me realize even more how important journalism is. It made me understand how journalists, under these circumstances, become part of the story. They can be victims too. I realized that journalism, for people like myself, is more than just a job.
SIRWAN KAJJO:
Rasho, who is 31, spends her days reporting on the lives of those around her for VOA and other news outlets. With a shared experience, her new neighbors open up to her.
Nawroz Rasho, Journalist:
One of the things that made me decide to stay at the camp and resume my journalism was that I myself experienced the same difficulties that other displaced people did. I saw that there were still many stories that needed to be told and shared with the world.
SIRWAN KAJJO:
The more she reports, the more Rasho sees the impact her work has on the lives of others.
In 2019 she reported on a man left with permanent injuries from a bomb blast, who had learned to play the drums. When others heard his story, they encouraged him to perform in the camp.
But reporting as a displaced person is not without challenges. Journalists like Rasho often lack space or adequate equipment.
Access to information and the ability to communicate with the outside world are essential for displaced people globally, says the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
Chris Boian, UNHCR Spokesperson:
I think that really there is nothing that speaks to the elemental truth of the refugee story more powerfully than the voice of one who has lived that story and survived to tell it.
SIRWAN KAJJO:
Over 100 million people are displaced globally, the UNHCR says, including 5,000 at Rasho’s camp.
Boian says the UNHCR and its partners provide help and protection to those people and give them the opportunity to tell their own stories.
Rasho, being that voice for others displaced by conflict is what gives her the determination to keep going.
Sirwan Kajjo, VOA News.
CAROLYN PRESUTTI:
That’s all for now.
For everyone behind the scenes who makes this show possible, I am Carolyn Presutti.
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Thanks for being with us.
See you next week for The Inside Story.