Connecticut accepted a Syrian refugee family that had been rejected by Indiana officials -- and the news has spread.
Connecticut has gained a reputation globally as a sanctuary for immigrants, according to Dr. Saud Anwar, a South Windsor town council member who recently returned from a trip to Jordan.
Last year, Connecticut accepted a Syrian refugee family that had been rejected by Indiana officials. The news of the state’s action spread to Syrian refugees in Jordan, some of whom Anwar met. He said they did not always know where Connecticut was, but they know it was a friendly place.
“This is the globalized world,” Anwar said onWNPR’sWhere We Live. “Because of Connecticut’s acceptance of refugees; because of our governor’s positive stance; and also the story of the Indiana refugee that came over here, this was known to many of the people over there. It brought smiles to their faces, which was quite exciting to see. This is a globalized world. We do what we do over here; it gets heard all over the world.”
Chris George, Executive Director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven, said there’s been an unprecedented response from the people of Connecticut.
“What we have seen is an enormous outpouring of support from across the state," George told WNPR. "Community groups, churches, synagogues, mosques, colleges, Rotary clubs, people want to help. I’ve never seen anything like this. Our donations are up. All of this allows us to tell Washington, D.C. -- we can take more refugees. What are we going to do with all this support -- we can’t stockpile it."
George said that he expects Connecticut to accept about 100 of the 10,000 Syrian refugees the Obama administration plans to admit to the United States.
Both George and Anwar support accepting more refugees in Connecticut.
“These refugees who are coming, they’re actually coming in legally, they are enterprising individuals,” Anwar said. “These are families who want to work. These are not ones who have broken the laws.”
Anwar said that refugees in the camps experience limited access to health care, and exposure to the elements.
While in Jordan, Anwar saw first hand the hardships refugees face in camps. He spoke with some of them at a refugee camp called Zatari, where more than 80,000 men, women, and children live.
“It’s like a big prison,” Anwar said. “They are safe with respect to no air strikes in that area, but outside of that, sanitation is not good; water supply is poor. They are able to get some food. It's almost -- people cannot come in and go out. While those services are relatively easily available in Zatari, the refugees that are in the urban areas felt better, because even though they don't have the services, they don't feel imprisoned."
Anwar said that refugees in the camps as well as the cities, like Amman, experience limited access to health care, as well as exposure to cold weather and dampness. They often lack heating equipment and have to huddle together to stay warm, and deal with leaking roofs and moldy environments.
There’s also widespread post-traumatic stress disorder, prevalent amongst both adults and children. Anwar asked a group of 40 people at an urban refugee camp if they were having trouble sleeping.
“We said: how many of the children are having difficulty sleeping at night, and do they wake up, and do they start to cry? ...Everybody raised their hands,” Anwar said. “And this is one, two, three years out from that disaster they have been living. And it sort of hits home when so many children are not able to sleep. And half the adults are having difficulty sleeping and they were obviously having crying episodes as well, when they would wake up in the middle of the night and cry about their losses, about their lives and such.”
Anwar said Jordan has been accepting refugees since the 1940s, and that seven of ten people living there now are of refugee heritage.
