 Zahir is the president of the Syrian American Medical Society, which does amazing work at great personal risk. It's a group of Syrian American physicians going into Syria to provide medical services to Syrians. They provided medical services to around 1.5 million Syrians during the course of this incredibly dangerous conflict. Zahir himself has gone into Syria at great personal risk to do some of this work. He was just in Greece providing medical services to some of the Syrian refugees in Greece. He's also frequently in touch with people within the White House about refugee policy. Suzanne is married to Zahir, and she also is an amazing advocate. She runs an organization that helps Syrian immigrants settle here in the United States. Mona Jundey is an immigration lawyer who is also Syrian American, and she came to a conference here that I saw her speak out, and I thought that you did a brilliant presentation about the necessity of changing the way we're doing business on this issue. Finally, Kutaba is himself a Syrian asylum seeker who came to this country relatively recently. Just to give you, it was almost impossible, by the way, to find a recent Syrian refugee, because we've let in so few people, and it's almost impossible to find one who speaks English, and Kutaba is one of those people. We've got a great panel. We'll start with Zahir. Thank you. Good morning, and thank you very much for having me and my wife. I give credit to New America Foundation to have the first speaking panel from the Syrian American diaspora and also Syrian refugees. I just want to give a credit to the Syrian American diaspora for what they have done over the past four years, and this is something that probably not many of us know. We have at least 18 relief organizations that were founded by the Syrian American diaspora. They spent more than $400 million in Syria, and the neighboring countries to stabilize the situation, provide humanitarian assistance and medical aid to the people in Syria, and also in the neighboring countries, and without their contribution would have seen much more and worse situation for people. I'll leave the heavy lifting to my wife as I usually defer to. What we do in SAMS and the other organizations that we try to keep people inside Syria by providing them health care and education and the humanitarian assistance keep people who are internally displaced from leaving Syria and also provide aid to people who are refugees in Lebanon and Jordan and in Turkey. But Suzan have been trying to take care of them when they come here to United States as refugees, and as you know, many of the refugees in the refugee camps will take them at least 15 to 17 years if the situation in Syria stabilized right now to go back to Syria. So we're talking about long term, and whether we like it or not, we will have to take some of these refugees. The number of the 10,000 is very low, and we're calling for more than 60,000 or 100,000 Syrian refugees to be accepted in the United States. I'm going to start by dispelling some of the myths that Peter and Mary have stressed before, that first of all, there is no Syrian refugee that was implicated in any terrorist act. The media coverage of the Paris attacks that implicated one or two Syrian nationals is wrong, they're now to be wrong. Yesterday there was a Guardian report that the third person who was implicated in the attack was actually a French national who was born in France and not a Syrian refugee. So there's two terrorists who took the pathway of the Syrian refugees, but they are not Syrian refugees. So I want to make sure that this is clear for all of us. The second thing that Syrians who are leaving Syria and going through the Mediterranean trip, and I just came in a couple of weeks ago from the Greek island of Lesbos, they're coming from inside Syria. The majority of them are coming from inside Syria, not from the neighboring countries. These are not people who've been refugees in Turkey or Jordan and Lebanon for some time. These are people who are leaving Syria because of the barrel bombing, because of the Russian attacks, because of the chemical attacks, because of the brutality of the regime. And of course some of them are leaving Syria because of the ISIS attacks, but the supermajority, according to some of the studies that were done in Germany, are leaving because of the brutality of the Assad regime and the barrel bombing. And now with the Russian bombing of some areas in Aleppo and Damascus and other areas, we have seen intensifying of this exodus. Thirdly, Syria is hemorrhaging its human capital. We're talking about doctors and lawyers and businessmen and teachers who are leaving Syria. According to UNHCR, 40% of the people who are leaving Syria through Greece to Europe have college or university degrees. And 40% are high school graduates. So these are people who are educated and Syria is losing its human resources because of this crisis. The supermajority of people who are leaving Syria are Sunni Muslims. They're not Christians. They're not Yazidis. So I want to make sure that this is clear. 85% of people who are reaching Greece, according to UNHCRs, are Sunni Muslims. And 6% of them are only Christians. So this goes against what some of the people in the Republican Party have been talking. If we really need to accept people in proportion to the need, then we need to accept more people who are implicated, which are the Sunni Muslims. And I just want to say that we owe it to the Syrian diaspora because Syrian Americans have contributed to the welfare of this country. 1% of our doctors are of Syrian origin. 1% healing and treating millions of Americans every day and every week and so forth and saving hundreds of thousands of lives every day. Steve Jobs, as you know, is the son of Syrian immigrant. Some of the Republican governors were Syrian immigrants. Mitch Daniels of Indiana was a Syrian immigrant. So I think we have to say that, and I think Anne-Marie mentioned that, that we have to embrace these refugees because they will be the engine of maybe economic recovery in some of these areas. These are people who will contribute to the welfare of our society. I have a few slides to highlight, and some of them are graphic, so I'm going to warn you. And this is a drawing of one of the second grade children in the city of Aleppo. Aleppo is considered the worst or the most dangerous city in the world. It's the largest city in Syria. And this is a second grade student who is drawing bombs, helicopters throwing barrel bombs and amputated children and children who are crying, and instead of what children usually draw, which is skies and rivers and so forth. And many of the Syrian children are traumatized because of the situation. And we don't have that many mental health specialists who are addressing the humanitarian situation and the trauma, psychiatric trauma of Syrian children. This is the impact of barrel bomb. I think the Russian ambassador to the United Nations said that there is no need for no-fly zone because there is no more barrel bomb since the Russian intervention. Since the Russian intervention, 3,800 barrel bombs were thrown on Syrian civilians in the city of Aleppo and city of Idlib and other places in Syria. Only in the last month, we had about 1,000 barrel bombs. So it continued to happen, causing a lot of destruction. And it's the main drive of Syrian exodus outside of Syria. And this is what you see after the barrel bomb. You have children who are pulled from the rubbles. And you have doctors and nurses who are struggling to meet the need of the overwhelming people who are coming with trauma related to barrel bomb. This is a picture that I took myself in the city of Aleppo and look at the desperation. This is Dr. Abdulaziz who's trying to salvage some of the medical supplies in the city of Aleppo in his hospital. It was hit by double barrel bombs. I was in Aleppo at that time. I was planning to visit his hospital. And he called me in the morning. He said, don't come because we had a barrel bomb and we had to evacuate the patients. And I said, well, I mean, there's no more barrel bombs. He said, no, wait. Usually we have after 30 minutes to 40 minutes another one. So if you want to come, come in the afternoon. And I came in the afternoon. I took these pictures for Dr. Abdulaziz. And this is, I'm sorry, a very graphic picture. This is what we see on a daily basis. And the Syrian doctors are saying on a daily basis, children who are killed, 20,000 children were killed in Syria in the crisis. 20,000. It's not only Ilan Kordi who died in Syria because of the crisis. This is one of the children who died every day and dying every day because of the barrel bombing and the Russian attacks lately, unfortunately. And these are some of the children in the city of Douma. Douma is under siege by the government for the past three years, under siege. And in spite of that, they've been bombed every day. And they're trying to heal each other. And these, by the way, are real pictures. And this is a picture and this is very hopeful picture. This is a picture of a child who was born only last week after his mother was killed by what's reported as a Russian attack in the city of Douma. So after she was killed, the doctors in one of the Sam's hospitals were able to deliver her by sea section and the child survived. And this is what we do to try to protect the doctors and the patients in Syria. We have sandbags in the emergency room. And sometimes we have to do hospitals underground. This is a hospital that Sam supported in northern Hama in a cave. And this is a hospital in the city of Aleppo that is four meters underground. Most of the hospitals that we are building right now in Syria are underground. We have Sam's had 102 hospitals inside Syria. Last year, we had 67 of them were targeted by bombs, mostly barrel bombs, compared to 30 hospitals one year before. And we try also to connect the hospitals over there by critical care specialists inside the United States by telemedicine. So we have what we call it electronic ICU. So we have satellite internet that connects ICUs inside Syria to specialists inside United States. This is one of the die-in that we had in New York last month. I think all of us agree that targeting a hospital is a war crime. But unfortunately, it's happening on a daily basis in Syria. This is the refugee camp of Al-Zatari. By the way, 80% or 85% of Syrian refugees are not in camps. This is only one of the Q camps that comes in Jordan. And this is actually I came from Greece a couple of weeks ago. And I took this picture of one Syrian refugee who made it to Lesbos Island. And he had this picture of what to do after you arrived Greece. And I have the whole picture. And it tells in steps when you take a train or when you walk across the border to Macedonia or to Serbia or to Hungary. And how much it will cost you? It will cost about 2,400 euro. By the way, if you're a refugee in Syria going from Turkey to Lesbos Island, you have to pay between 1,000 to 4,000 euros to the smuggler. And there is a weather discount. It was stormy when I was in Lesbos Island. They told me now the rate is 800 euros because the risk of dying or drowning is higher. So 800 euros, there is a stormy weather. And this is one of the capsized boats near the island. I took this picture just two weeks before I arrived. There were about 300 people who were in that boat. And 30 of them drowned. And I talked with some of the doctors who resuscitated them. And most of them were traumatized because they have seen because they could not save the children who drowned in that island. This is a picture that I did not take, but I'm sure that all of you are familiar with. Still about 1,500 people who are arriving to Lesbos Islands every day in the last few months. And this is where they leave. They have all of them life vests. But these life vests do not save them because many of the times when the boat capsized and many times the smugglers stuffed triple or quadruple the number of the refugees that are allowed in these inflatable boats, when these boats capsized in a rocky shore, the children drowned because they stuck under the boat and many of them have hypothermia. And these are what happens to these refugee camps. They are placed in temporary camps in the island for one day before they are moved to the capital of the island and then from there to Athens, where they are kept in holding camps, three holding camps, before they are transported to the border with Macedonia. And these are some of the refugees. 50% of them are from Afghanistan, by the way. About 25% of them are from Syria lately. And many of them are from Iraq and Iran. And this is our clinic that we provide health care to the refugees in there. And I want to end with this picture. The person of the year was chosen by times was Chancellor Merkel, which I agree. And we really thank the German government and the leadership of Germany for embracing the Syrian refugees. I read some reports that the German economy improved actually in the last year because of the refugees and the spending on refugees, which is great. And I think many of the countries will attest to that. But these are the people who need to be recognized, including myself. We have a physician from Norway and a physician from Palestine who went to Lesbos Island because they want to help in the situation. And I've seen 90 different NGOs in the island trying to help the refugees from Syria and Afghanistan from Iraq. They are providing very good help for them right now. And I think without their help, the situation would have been much worse. Thank you very much for having me. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Zahir. It's very difficult to follow him after whenever he gives one of his talks. And thank you to the New America Foundation and to Peter and to David and to Anne-Marie for your kind invitation. I was really proud to be here and to stand in front of you to talk about our small organization and the families that we have helped resettle in Chicago. Our organization is Syrian Community Network. And back in 2013, when Sam's national board appointed me to be the refugee resettlement coordinator to understand what the process looks like when refugees come to the United States. And so we kind of took this on as a project. And the Syrian Community Network was born from the Syrian American Medical Society from Sam. So thank you, Sam's. Our vision is to empower Syrian refugees in achieving a seamless transition into their life. I have to say that when we started the organization, I kept having flashbacks of the time when I first came to the United States at the age of 10. My father came in the 1960s to study engineering in Chicago. And he met my mother. And my mother is Canadian. So I only have Syrian. And my mother is the daughter of an Irishman and a Scottish woman. So I'm kind of all over the place, actually. So I started having all these thoughts and memories of how difficult it was to come after my father and mother got married. They went back to Syria. But I was born in Syria. So I came back at 10. And just to have those stories and remembering the difficulties as a child to come in and to acclimate and to assimilate into a new culture and to learn a new language, we were privileged to learn to know English in Syria because my mother is Canadian. So we were always speaking in English to my mom. But now having to jump in and learn a new culture and a new learning style was quite difficult. So those stories, we remember those stories. And so we try to help our families to go through them so that they're not suffering as much as some of the trauma that we went through. And my sisters and I always joke that we never got over our trauma from moving here. But with time, things get better. And so we envision a matured wave. And the reason why we put wave in our vision statement is because we wanted to, we know that Syrians have been coming to the United States for about 100 years now. So we imagine this third wave to be the refugee wave that's coming in, the asylum, asylum wave. So our goals, we work with the Resalma agencies in Chicago. We work with the Resalma agencies on a national level and we work, try to include the families in the larger community so that they don't feel that isolation. So we've done some programs for them, dental hygiene workshops. We do the e-drives after Ramadan. We try to include them in events. And I'm whizzing through them, I'm sorry, because I want to make sure I get through my time. And so, and one of the things that we also do is we try to connect them to the larger community and we try to do a cultural understanding of Syrian culture and what our faith is, whether we're Muslim or we're Christian, a lot of the groups, the church group, this is a Unitarian group that invited us to do a Syrian culture 101. And they wanted to learn about the culture and do's and don'ts and because they were going to be receiving this family the next day at the airport. So they wanted to make sure that they were receiving them very, in a way that is welcoming and to make the family feel secure and safe. So this was a really nice group to be with. And so these are some pictures of some of the families. We had a community event for them. Right now in Chicago, we have about 22 families, which is about 100 individuals. And they're mainly kids, 51% of the families that we have are children. The people that are in Chicago are children and the rest are between women and men, but we do have some single moms also who are caring for their children. So we try to help them and include them in the community and make sure that they are supported. We do volunteer trainings as well so that when we have volunteers go into their house to mentor them, we're trying to launch our mentorship program so that our volunteers are trained and ready to go in and so that they can do a great job and mentoring the families. We do back to school drives. And here's a story I wanna share about Widad. Widad is the one in the blue hijab and the blue scarf. And Widad came in, they were part of the first family that we met in January of this year. And Widad came, her father was killed by a sniper in Syria and she's one of six children. And when they were being, they were internally displaced in Syria and her house was bombed and she sustained injury and to this day she still has shrapnel in her body. And we registered her with a summer camp for girls and adolescent refugee girls. And in the summer she got the award for most improved English learner and we're really proud of her and for her to show that smile on her face because when she first came in, she did not smile as much as we tried to talk to her and try to joke with her, anything she was not smiling but to see her smile, it just, it's really heartwarming. And then she drew this picture. I look funny in the picture, but she said the organization asked her to draw a picture of someone who has helped you or has impacted you and she put our organization's name but me because I'm the one who goes and visits her and all the time but it's nice to feel that you've helped someone. Oh, I'm sorry. And part of our advocacy, one of the things that we'd like to focus on is advocacy with everything that's going on with the rhetoric that's been coming, whether it's from our lawmakers or our governors. Advocacy plays a key role in getting the stories out and we're proud to work with SAMS and all these other organizations MPAC and some of our faith partners and to help bring the stories of their Syrian refugees. So this was an event that was organized by MPAC and SAMS where we brought in fluent refugees to Washington DC and they got a chance to stand in front of the White House to speak on their own behalf and asking President Obama to increase the numbers of refugees. So it was really a proud moment to see them speak and to take leadership and to experience American civic engagement. So I thought we think that was very powerful for them and they really remember and cherish their memories. So this is them in front of the White House. This is Mayada, Fatima, the Daughters Widad, Shahad and Sheyma and they're standing. So they were excited because in Syria, you don't get to stand in front of the White House. The White House is usually on top of a mountain, there's many guards and so for them to stand in front of the White House was nice and it was empowering for them. And then also part of our advocacy efforts as the local in Chicago, Senator Dick Durbin wanted to visit with refugee families. And so these are my board members of Syrian Community Network. And so we had Senator come out and meet with the refugees. And then also in Chicago itself with the governor making those statements that refugees are not welcomed in Illinois, the Chicago City Council came up with a resolution to welcome refugees. So Alderman Ed Burke wrote a resolution with Alderman too and they recognized Syrian refugees in the city council meeting. They asked for refugees to come in and they, you know, standing ovation and welcoming them. And it was really a powerful moment, a symbolic moment for the refugees to feel welcome because they were feeling very anxious and upset that they were feeling unwanted. And another with our advocacy also with the city is this is Mayor Rahm Emanuel. They hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the refugees. So this is him serving, he went to every person and he served them turkey and stuffing and you know it was really him and the other Alderman as well. And here's Alderman Ed Burke also serving Brad and it was really a beautiful moment and these are the refugees, the refugee families. So we had about over 90 people in the room and with everybody, all the children were there and enjoyed and they all got gifts from the city and they all was very nice. So and also another organization, MOVON has been also hosting small dinners for community members and inviting refugees all over the United States. So this was a dinner that they hosted also just before Thanksgiving. So this is Anna, the director of the Chicago chapter and representative Jan Shikowsky was there and she, we invited the refugees with us. Fatima and the girls were there and my colleague Hadya also was there and she and representative Shikowsky was talking about the story of how the St. Louis in 1939 came to drop off the refugees and they were pushed back. So she was really adamant about welcoming the refugees and here she was asking them to speak as well. And this is part of the dinner and more advocacy efforts with civic and religious groups that we help in engaging and getting the refugees to get the word out and to speak on their own behalf. Again, more pictures of the dinner. And so here, these two boys, this is Usama and Abid Hakim and yesterday on Wednesday we were at a dinner with MOVON also and Senator Dick Durbin was there and Senator Al Franken and another Syrian refugee was there, her name is Mariela Shaker. She's a violinist and she got to play for everyone in the dinner and this picture was blown up in their living room. This was from the Chicago dinner and Senator Dick Durbin said, are we afraid of these two boys? I mean, are these little Usama who is two years old and Abid Hakim who is nine? So it just doesn't make sense. And I just want to end with a story and I wish I had her picture. Her name is one of the refugees. She's a Syrian Kurdish refugee. Her name is Helwa. She doesn't want to be photographed but she used to work as a seamstress and we were trying to get her, we want to get her up in her project going where we buy her a sewing machine and get her to start, you know, having her own business at home because her mother's 80 years old she needs to take care of her and her brother has leukemia and she can't leave them. And so today we were scrambling to think how what are we gonna do? How are we gonna help her? And today I got a phone call from a woman and who lives in Evanston in the north side of Chicago told me I'll do anything, just tell me what you want. I'm a marketing specialist and I told her would you like to market Helwa's business, a sewing business and she said yes. So a lot of times we try to reach and we scramble to see how we can help people but then there's people reaching out to us and asking for help. So for everyone negative Donald Trump comment that we receive, we get hundreds of comments of support and love. So thank you all for inviting me. Thank you to New America for inviting us, myself and other panel members. Oftentimes we're listening to pundits talk about Syrians and Syrian refugees are they ISIS, are they not? And we feel that they're talking around us. So it's nice that today you're talking to us or more importantly you're listening to us. So thank you for that opportunity. My name is Munal Jendi and I am chair of government relations for United for Free Syria. We are one of six organizations that are the coalition, a part of the coalition for a democratic Syria. And our focus is on advocacy here in Washington DC to try to get what we think is a better policy on Syria and so far that's not happening. So first the Syrians wondered why the world had abandoned them and then they wondered why the world hated them. Our motto in terms of our advocacy work is treat the symptoms, stop the cause. So we understand that right now there's a refugee crisis. There's a refugee crisis in Europe. There's been a refugee crisis for a long time in the regional countries. And we are now sort of learning about it here in the US. The rhetoric is about security and who should we let in and who should we not let in. And really what's missing from this discourse is what is the cause of this refugee crisis. One listening to this might think that there was an earthquake that happened or there's a hurricane. When in fact there is an intentional displacement and killing of Syrian people by the Syrian regime. And this is something that I think that we really need to focus on because Congress scrambled very quickly to say let's block Syrian refugees. Well where have we been for four years to scramble to say let us keep them in their homes. Yes, there is a crisis. Yes, as Americans it is our responsibility. It's part of our heritage. We take in refugees. We have to take our responsibility in that. What we also need to do is help people stay in their homes. Help them stop having to leave Syria. Dr. Sahdoul pointed out that most of the refugees that are going to Europe are not the ones that are sitting in camps. Which oddly enough for the US the few that have come in so far are the ones that are actually sitting in the camps. They're basically the ones that have been sitting in the camps even before ISIS existed in Syria. But the ones that are showing up to Europe are the ones that are literally still fleeing. So why are we not talking about why are Syrians still fleeing Syria? So we have 4.1 million refugees. But we have half the country is displaced internally. And they are under siege. They're besieged. They're being bombed by Assad. And they're being bombed by Russia. They're being attacked by Iran. They're being attacked by Hezbollah. They have all of these forces against them. And the main focus is on civilians. So what is happening in Syria? I'm sure many of you know Dr. Sahdoul mentioned barrel bombs. Barrel bombs are the great tool that the Assad regime uses. They're literally big metal barrels that are filled with TNT and explosives. The advantage to the regime is simple. One, they're cheap. Two, they're easy to make. And three, they can be dropped from non-military aircraft. So you get a helicopter with a bunch of barrels and you just drop them. They obviously have no ability to be targeted. So they just drop and wherever they land, they land. And the regime is focusing, of course, on civilians. Over 90% of those killed by barrel bombs are civilians. And of course, as well, we knew about the chemical weapons that the regime used. And these same barrel bombs, the regime has used to drop chlorine bombs. So they turned in their sarin gas and replaced it with chlorine. Chlorine is easier to use. And of course, after the UN security resolution, security council resolution, saying that chlorine bombs can't be used, chlorine bombs were, again, used. Surprise. So what happens? Basically when a group of the rebels take over an area, the regime comes and barrel bombs them. And that's a good thing to do for them because one, it attacks civilians and makes them feel that those that are defending Syria are now somehow the culprits. It also knocks out basic supply, so water, electricity. And of course, as Dr. Sahoon mentioned, they target hospitals, regularly targeting hospitals, field hospitals and ambulances. And once they, if they can, the regime then tries to surround an area. And when it surrounds an area, then it does not allow any humanitarian aid in. Again, UN security council resolution said humanitarian aid can go in without the permission of the regime, but then the regime still has blocked overwhelmingly the majority of the humanitarian aid convoy. You have areas like Eastern Ruta, which is just outside of Damascus that have upwards of two to 700,000 people that have been under siege for years now. And this means they don't have food. They don't, they can't get food. They only can eat that which they grow, which obviously is seasonal. And so there's a lot of hunger that happens. And what happens is they try to, it's a systematic use of starvation to force local populations into submission. So then they say, let's do the regime says, let's do these local ceasefires. And these local ceasefires say, okay, hand us over your weapons and get out. And get out means civilian populations. There is an intentional displacement of Syrian populations from within Syria. And I can give you an example of my mom's family, for example, they are from the camp of Yarmouk, which is overwhelmingly Palestinian refugees from 1948, who are in an area in Damascus that was under siege for about 18 months. Finally, when they negotiated a ceasefire, they were basically told, if this door is only being opened for a very limited time, we're going to reshut the door. So either you're going to, we're gonna shut the door and you're gonna starve, or you get out. And my aunt, my uncles, all of them ended up fleeing camp Yarmouk, and many of them made it to, actually to Lebanon. And I have several of my cousins now who made it to Germany in these death boats. And they have horrendous, horrendous stories. So there's these local ceasefires that are also an intentional way to displace Syrian populations. This is a form of collective punishment. And we know, I don't even know if I should talk about international law, because there are so many violations, whether recent or historic of our international law that just keep happening and the regime is empowered to continue its violations. And of course, now Russia's intervention only further emboldened and empowered the regime. So I'm going to conclude with this. There is no solution to the refugee crisis without a primary focus on civilian protection, civilian protection, civilian protection. That means a nose fly zone, a safe zone, some area where civilians can stay within Syria and be protected from the constant aerial bombardment of the regime and of Russia. There has to be a political transition. With Assad in power, there is no, he cannot reclaim legitimacy. He cannot have created the chaos and destruction and death, missing persons and torture and reclaim legitimacy in Syria. That is a non-starter. There has to be a political transition, Assad has to go. We feel right now, the international community feels that our solution is let's give more money to the regional countries to keep hosting these refugees. Let's go through these peace talks that really are stalled peace talks. Nobody really knows where they're going, where they're coming, what's going to happen tomorrow, what does it mean at the end? And we're also talking about resettling minuscule, minuscule numbers of refugees. We're not trying to minimize the fact that we need to do this, but that is not going to be a solution. Unless we focus on civilian protection, there will be no solution to the refugee crisis. I do have the Coalition for Democratic Syria. We have put together a policy paper called Syrian Refugees, an intentional product of Assad's war. Our policy director, Tyler Thompson and Erika Hannachek, Congressional Affairs coordinator are here. If anybody wants a copy, please feel free to take one. Thank you so much. Hello. My name is Puteba, Puteba Adilby. I want to thank Peter and David, New America for having me here. As Peter said, I'm Syrian, been raised in Syria almost all my life. I got the good English because I was fortunate to know Taylor Swift when I was 15 years old, when many Americans didn't know about it. And Backstreet Boys also helped. I was, I had like me like, yeah, the normal life for like a kid kind of, but I was kind of politically involved since I was 12. My dad was one of the leaders of the non-violent movement in Syria since the 60s, so it kind of runs in the blood. When the revolution started back in 2011, I was senior in college doing finance and banking, but I mean like with everything going on in the Middle East and the Arab Spring, there was no question what to do at that time. Because of my good English, I was the only English correspondent at that time talking to BBC, Sky News, Fox News, CNN, telling them what is going on, why the people are out on the streets, why they are risking their lives, which led at some point for me to be detained by the government. I survived the first time. It's really hard to describe being in Assad's prisons, but it's just something inhuman. And then the second time came and I also barely survived it. Then there was the question, whether should I stay or should I leave? The government didn't give me a choice back then for a long time. 10 days later, they tried to arrest me a third time, so I managed to escape. And when I escaped, they tried to kidnap my 17 years old little brother. So at that point, I felt like this is not only about myself, but it's also about affecting my family. For some time, we hid in some place out of the city of Damascus, and then we decided to leave because the government kept asking, the intelligence kept asking about us. So we left first to Lebanon. It was only me and my 17 years old brother. Lebanon was different. Relatively, it's safer than Syria, although you still have the risk of having Hezbollah militia or thugs all around. And also, the Syrian government invaded Lebanon for 30 years. So even the people who support the revolution in Syria, they got enough of 30 years with Syrians, so it wasn't really helpful. So we stayed there for six months, or like, relatively five months, and then we had to leave to Egypt because I wanted to get my brother back to high school at that time because we left when it was his graduation from high school. So I had to do his high school. So we left to Egypt where I could put him in high school, but at the same time, the Egyptian government didn't allow me to have residency, even tourist residency because I'm a youth Syrian, politically involved back in Syria. So I had to leave the country every three months to be able to be legally in Egypt, leave and come back. At that time, my mom would come and go to Egypt to take care of my brother when I'm not there. And then later on in January, 2013, the government went to our house. They wanted to arrest my other brother. My mom was in Egypt at the time, so there was no choice really for her to get back. My brother escaped to the suburbs of Damascus. And then, I mean, at that time, still at that time, when I was in Lebanon or in Egypt with my family, we were only thinking it's gonna be this year or the next and then we'll be back home. It will be different. Everything will change. But at that point, especially at the beginning of 2013, politically, everything was starting to get really depressing. Nothing is really changing. International community for us as Syrians was not really helping. So I was invited to a program with the State Department called Leaders for Democracy. And I managed to get here. When I first got to the program, I was still deciding whether I should stay or not. And the question kept in my mind was the same question the asylum officer asked me when I did my asylum interview. And all what was going in my mind that back when the revolution started, a couple weeks before we had a meeting with local activists, and we were thinking, someone actually asked, why would we ask people to come out of the streets to demonstrate for freedom and democracy if we know that Assad government is gonna shoot on people and is gonna kill them? And I remember I was the youngest in that room and that day I was like, simply because the international community would not allow this to happen. The international community would not allow innocent youth coming out of the streets demanding for freedom and democracy to be just killed without pressuring Assad to step down or without pressuring Assad at that time to make reforms. And that's why I decided that my mission is actually to talk to the media to bring that image. I mean, so no one would say that we don't know what is going on in Syria and like we didn't know what happened. But back then mean like when, two years after I realized it's not happening. I wanna go back to my country. I wanted to get back as it was, but I don't see it in the future. And I mean, wherever you go, it's like part of the process for like when I start applying for asylum, it's like any refugee actually applying for resettlement back in the region. The only difference is I'm here. I'm allowed to work after seven months of like applying for asylum, but nothing else is different really. I'm still appending as Siley. Whenever I ask mean, some people are too polite to tell me, they told me like the process and number of refugees. Some people are not, I mean, they're too frank, they tell me that. Any Syrian Arab Sunni is a potential terrorist threat. I'm a single male with relatives back in Syria. So I'm like a huge, you know, I'm just someone walking with a red badge on my head saying like terrorists watch out. But mean the main reason for me to come here is like, yeah, I don't wanna be labeled. I don't wanna be labeled like that just because I hold this passport because this is who I am. I'm still Syrian. I mean, this is, I cannot change that. And I will still be, but yeah, I didn't want to be labeled wherever I go just because of this item, just because this is how people think about Syrians. I remember the asylum officer asked me also like, like why did you choose to come here? Why didn't you, you know, stay in the Middle East? And as silly as honestly this question is, mean for 50 years here in this country we're born like, we born and live like in this atmosphere. We don't really feel what freedom means. We don't really feel being able to walk around, express yourself, express what you believe and tell who you are without actually looking back or like watching your back or like watching around and seeing like if anyone is listening to you, if anyone from the intelligence like, you know, would try to or like would they arrest you? This is, this means a lot. And for us, I mean, for me and as Syrian, like for many when the revolution started, we started this because we wanted the same thing. We wanted the American dream, not the American dream to have, you know, the fancy cars, the fancy houses. I mean, a lot of, I mean, in Syria before 2005 at least, economically things were really good. I mean, to be honest with you, if you work hard enough, like it's not that hard, you know, to find a job or like, you know, to make a living, to get married, to manage to get a house, the social environment was really supportive. But what was so horrible is like, you're not able, able to breathe. You cannot, you're not able to express yourself. You express yourself. You're not able to have what you have here. This is the American dream was for me. But, and in the Middle East, when I was like in Lebanon or in Egypt, you know, you still looked down as like, you know, a third class, you know, citizen or a world citizen because you're Syrian. In some, in Egypt, probably, yeah, you're not, you're allowed to work. It's still under the table, considered by me like no one is watching. In Jordan, you're not allowed to work. If you're, if you get caught in Jordan working, you will be sent back, not to the refugee camp, but they will actually put you on the Syrian borders, on the borders from the Syrian side. It's like you have to go back to where like all the killing, all the barrel bombs are happening. And this is as a Syrian is like coming here and like and living all of that. It was, it was hard at the beginning, like feeling like legally it's like, it felt the same as being in the Middle East. I'm still in the process. I'm still like those thousands of refugees waiting for them to get a pass to a safe heaven where they can think about their future, where they can think that they can attend college, actually. They can get a small, they can start a small business or get a small job or do things, do something for their kids in the future, where they can actually, I mean, even get married and have kids. But when you're like in a limpo and the refugee camps or either for asylum seekers here, it's like you don't know even if you're gonna be accepted. You don't know if you're like able to live your life here. But still I had the feeling that when I got here that these things doesn't really matter because I'm living and doesn't matter as much because I'm living the things that I dreamt for, that I can come here and speak to you about what is happening. Come here to speak to you about what I feel. And a lot of people, I don't know about that, a lot of people when I first come here, I was speaking at Princeton University and someone came to me after the panel and asked me like, you kept saying our American history, our government. And at the time I was speaking the obvious. I was telling about our history as a nation, as a nation of refugees about who we are and what made us a great nation. And he asked me, he was like, you're still Syrian, you're not even American. And at the time I felt it might not have the passport, might not have the green card or the ID that tells I'm an American. But actually being an American, it's not about only about having this paper that says that you're American. Being an American is being able to live this freedom, to be able to express yourself, to be able to speak here, to be able to live freely without any interference. That's what being American is for me. Thank you. Thank you all for those brilliant presentations. If you have a question, raise your hand if you could wait for the mic and also identify yourself because we'll need that for the C-SPAN audience as well. So if anybody has a question, raise their hands. They have questions. Okay. Thank you very much. I'm Ali Dodd-Mafinez on with the West Asia Council. The question has to do with the parallel goals of the removal of Bashar al-Assad on the one hand and looking after the needs, the vast needs of millions of refugees on the other. Which one do you think takes precedence? Which one do you think is more important and should one wait for one to happen for the other to be possible? Thank you. Well, maybe I can maybe address a little bit. The UNSCR had a study and I think there was another study about the Syrian refugees in Europe and they asked them, would you go back to Syria now if Assad stays in power? And the majority said no. So for the starting of the process of resettling the Syrian refugees in Syria, you have to have a political resolution of the conflict without Assad being in the picture. Of course, as we know, based on historic backgrounds, most of the refugees, even if the crisis stopped now, we're gonna take them 15 to 20 years to go back to Syria. Many of the villages and the neighborhoods were completely destroyed. So you have to couple that with a process that is based focus on developing the neighboring countries, integrating refugees, providing them with healthcare, with work, with education. More than 80% of Syrian children in Lebanon and Jordan and Turkey are not getting secular education. So 10 years from now, we're gonna have a generation of Syrians in many of the areas that are prone for extremism. They have no education. They're not gonna be participant in the economy of their countries. So this is a huge problem that will be facing us 10 years from now if we don't address it right now. So developing the countries around Syria should be a priority. There is an initiative by Middle East Investment Initiative that called Middle East Recovery Plan. I think they have a plan to redeveloping the countries and integrating Syrian refugees, providing them with jobs and education. I think that should go hand in hand with the political resolution. Slava here. Natalia Pineda, Survival of the World Organization. I'm originally from Ukraine, but I'm Ukrainian-American or American-Ukrainian. And what you're saying about refugees, very close to me because the same things happen in Ukraine. And suddenly, we are living in a danger world. Russia, I'm speaking fluently Russian, so I can see watching news and all the brainwash what they're putting in use. That they're actually helping Syrians, not the ones who are killing Syrians, which is horrible. Tell me, all of this situation is terribly affecting all the people, but I'd like to ask you about the children. What are you doing to help children because psychologically it's, I don't know if there is a way to overcome this. How are you focusing on children and how are you actually helping the Syrian children in this situation, thank you. Well, I mean, many of the NGOs that are working, international NGOs and Syrian diaspora NGOs are providing healthcare and trying to provide education to Syrian children. Unfortunately, mental health is something that there's not enough emphasis on it. The priority is to provide housing and food and less education. But this is something that the international community has to pay more attention to. There's not enough resources or expertise in the region to provide mental health to Syrian refugees. I mean, the picture that I've shown in the first picture, that's only one example of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Syrian children who are completely traumatized because of the situation, because of the violence. Not only Syrian children, by the way, Syrian women, Syrian elderly, Syrian disabled, Syrian doctors and nurses are traumatized because of what they're seeing and the apathy that they are witnessing by the international community. This is something that has to be addressed. Great, well, we're sort of running a little bit over time and we need to move on to the next panel. Thank you, all of you, for a brilliant presentation.