Syrian refugees face death threats, slurs, vandalism

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This article was published 20/09/2017 (2409 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For safety, the Syrian kids with basement bedrooms huddle together with their parents in the living room to sleep in case their building is firebombed and they need to escape in a hurry.

They’re not in war-torn Aleppo — they’re on Dufferin Avenue in Winnipeg.

That’s the situation for six Syrian refugee families in the area near McGregor Street who, for the past five months, have been threatened with arson, had rocks and eggs thrown at their homes, and have been targeted with racist graffiti and slurs.

“It’s bad,” said Kamal Alhassan, who fled the chaos of Aleppo for Lebanon before arriving in Canada 18 months ago. Once again, he’s preparing to flee with his family for safety.

They and five other Syrian refugee families on Dufferin Avenue in the North End have been terrorized and harassed and had their property vandalized.

The latest incident occurred Monday and targeted the fence in front of the housing complex where Alhassan, his wife and six children live.

Alhassan pointed it out to a photographer but insisted on smiling for the photo because he is grateful to be in Canada, where his kids — ranging in age from five months to 16 years — live in a private rental unit.

After all that has happened to the war-affected families, the latest incident was a message scribbled in indelible marker on their fence: “Go home, go back to your country, leave Canada,” preceded by some Islamophobic and misspelled graffiti. The offender seems to have been trying to spell “Allahu akbar,” an Arabic phrase that means “God is most great” used in traditional Muslim prayers.

“I want to move,” Alhassan said, “anywhere in Winnipeg.”

The trouble started in late spring when some people moved into the area and older teens and kids as young as eight started harassing the government-assisted refugees, said Nour Ali, director of the Kurdish Initiative for Refugees, who is trying to help the Dufferin Avenue families.

“At first we were saying, ‘Maybe it’s just kids being kids,’” Ali said. The families hoped it would stop when school resumed in the fall, but it got worse, with them being terrorized outside of school hours.

“We’ll burn you alive,” is what some of the children have been told, he said.

“Three weeks ago, the house beside their house was (set on fire),” said Ali, who arrived in Canada as a Syrian refugee several years ago and is trying to help the affected Syrian families, not all of whom are Kurdish.

“This problem is bigger,” said Ali, whose organization runs a summer youth program for 250 Syrian kids. The parents on Dufferin aren’t just worried for their children’s safety — they’re worried about them getting drawn into violence.

Some of the children have said they want to band together to fight back: “‘If they have a gang, why don’t we have one?’” Ali said.

“As adults, it’s something we don’t have the answer to. There is a government and we have someone who can take care (of the public’s safety), but nothing happens.”

Winnipeg police wouldn’t comment on the incident Wednesday.

Ali said police have been helpful but told them it’s best if they leave the area for their own safety.

Manitoba Housing has agreed to meet to see if there’s any way officials can help, and Ali is hoping to find them a safer place to live.

“We left our country because we just want to live in peace,” he said. Where they are living now reminds them of the hate-filled chaos they fled.

“It brings bad memories back.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca