16 Rania Mohammed Seliman

Narrative Summary

My interviewee his name is Aziz Ali. He is from Darfur, Sudan. Aziz was born in the village of Mestray, west of El Geneina in Darfur. He was studying the Koran in another city in Khalwa. After he completed the study of the Koran returned to his village where he leaves with his family and attended primary school till 3rdgrade. Before the war, life was simple and safe despite the lack of development compared to other parts of Sudan. When the war broke out, Darfuris fled to neighboring countries. When the war began in 2003, Aziz and his family lost the possibility of living and security in their village, so they took refuge in Chad.

Aziz explains that the war began because of the conflict over farmland. Most of Darfur’s population was dependent on agriculture while small percentage dependent on pastoral. By the early 1990s, the phenomenon of pastoralists’ intervention in agricultural land had emerged. Some of these pastoralists are Sudanese and others are non – Sudanese coming from neighboring countries. The conflicts erupted between pastoralist and farmers who were trying to protect their farmland. Gradually, a group of Arab armed shepherds emerged in 1998 and the conflict took place. After that Janjaweed Arab militias who backed by the Sudanese government were formed. The conflicts speeded to turn to a war. With the emergence of a group of armed movements that were trying to defend the citizens of Darfur and protect their land from the control of the Janjaweed militias and the Sudanese government.

It was difficult to Aziz and his family to leave in the shadow of war and conflict. Groups of Janjaweed attacked villages, especially in 2002 and 2003 when the war reached their village. They have lost many relatives and acquaintances in their villages, but fortunately they have not lost a family member. Their village was close to the borders of Chad, which was easy for them to move out of the village and cross the border into Chad compering with other displaced people. Access to Chad was very difficult for people living in remote villages in the eastern, southern, and northern parts of Darfur. Most of them reached the Aziz’s village near the border with walking on their feet. Villages near the border have declared to their citizens that the war has spiraled out of control and that the villages must be evacuated and move to the state of Chad. Some citizens of the villages refused to leave their villages. For Aziz’s family, they have some relatives from Dar Masalit tribe in Chad. They took all their abstinence and their needs to them and left it there as his mother advised them. They went back to the village, a month later, the Janjaweed attacked their village, killing elder leaders and many citizens. they fled to Chad and from there they started another story of being IDPs.

Access to Chad was very difficult in April and May 2003. In one day, large numbers of displaced people arrived in Chad. Their areas were attacked simultaneously by the Janjaweed and the Sudanese army. Aziz said that he was young, but he saw a lot of tragedy that the IDPs went through. Chadian citizens assisted and received the displaced until the (UNHCR) arrived after month. Through this month, the IDPs participated and took part in building some simple shelters to house them. After the (UNHCR) presence, the IDPs began to go to the camps where most of them live there till now as refugees.

Aziz revealed that when he looks back, he sees a lot of impact of the war on his psychological wellbeing:

There is a lot of sadness and anger. When I remember I was born and raised in our village and all my family grow up there, then come some others killing us, asking us to leave and displace from our village, from our homeland to become a refugee. We have lost everything our village, our schools, and our future. Despite the security we received in the refugee camps, we were still in sadness, grief, and shock. So far everyone lives with this sadness and anger over the injustice of life. Of course, I always try to hold on to hope, strength, and positivity to go beyond what we have been through. I cannot forget the past, but I try to focus on what will come and help my family, relatives, and friends in the camp financially and morally.

There were many camps in Chad. In early 2004. Aziz resorted with his family to camps in the areas of Adre and Goungar, near El Geneina on the border with Sudan. They went to Camps Farsani and Hajar Hadid and finally camp Gaqa, where Aziz’s mother and family still there now. Gaga camp is one of the camps that were filled after all the other camps were filled with IDPs because the arrivals were the people who refused to leave their villages or who hoped to return to their villages from the boarder.  But their hopes of returning were shattered as the war continued and more people were displaced. At the beginning of Aziz’s presence in the camps there were difficulties related to insufficient food and tents. In addition to the nature of the food provided by the United Nations (UNHCR). As most of the elderly were affected by the provided processed food, leading to high cases of death from watery diarrhea. Of course, in the Darfur region before war, people ate organic food directly from the farms. Due to the nature of the food, many IDPs have avoided going to refugee camps. But over time, many have been forced to adapt to it, as there is no way to go back home or stay longer in the boarder. Now, there have been many changes in the camps. The buildings were built with self-help by the refugees instead of the tents due to the length of time the refugees stay there. Despite the change in the residence housing, the suffering persists, as there is not enough food and the refugees feel like they are prisoners in these camps.

Aziz didn’t stay much in Chad because of the poor and tough situation in the camps. He decided to leave for Libya to look for work and help His family in addition to seeking opportunities for education. He went there to join his elder brother, who left Sudan for Libya at the start of the conflicts between herders and farmers in 2001. That conflict made the situation in farms little bit difficult, so he left there to support his family financially.

In Chad, after registration, the refugee will receive a tent or a house, two identification refugee’s cards, and food assistance. Aziz name was on the refugee file in Chad camps and UNHCR opened some schools for refugees so he could attend, but he thought it’s better to move to Libya looking for work there. He was 13 years old when he went to Libya by trucks, till the border’s cities of Libya, Kufra, Jaluo and Gado. He spent two years on the border cities working very hard entry gob and sending money to his family and relatives in chad’s camps. Then he went to his brother who works as a tailor in the city of Tripoli. Him and his brother went to register for the United Nations in Libya. The (UNHCR) there recognized them as refugees but didn’t help them. They gave them the refugee’s identification card. But they didn’t help them with food or resettlement process compering with Eritreans refugees who got food assistant and opportunities for resettlement in other countries. Some Sudanese justify this distinction in the policies of the (UNHCR) between the Eritreans and the Sudanese, for the relationship between the Sudanese embassy and the United Nations overlaps. The embassy did not want refugees from Darfur to receive aid. Also, perhaps because the Eritreans flocked to Libya before the Sudanese people form Darfur start coming.

Every year in Libya, authorities campaign harshly to return refugees and migrants, including Africans, Egyptians and Moroccans, to their countries. In 2007, Libyan police attacked the refugee’s homes. They arrested Aziz and several Sudanese refugees. Despite possessing their refugee’s cards, they put them in detention center for a week and then they took them back to Chad. They returned them to the Klawat region of Chad, where is located two days far away from the camp where his mother and siblings are stay. There he found the situation in the camps was worse than it was before he left. Which made him return to Libya again to search for a job opportunity to help his family.

At the beginning of the war in 2011, the Libyan authorities were arresting all nationalities, regardless of their documents papers and sending them back to their countries. As for the Sudanese, they were placing them in detention centers due to the difficulty of returning them to Sudan. The Libyan authorities arrested Aziz again and put him in detention center for four months. When he was released, the war had become a de facto reality in Libya, and there were no livelihoods in it would be possible. He went out to Tunisia with difficulty due to the security conditions in the way from Libya to Tunisia.  There he was received with others by the United Nations (UNHCR) at the Tunisian border.

When Aziz arrived in Tunisia, there was a lot of difficulty, as a thousand refugees from Libya came to Tunisia. They were given tents to stay, provided them with food, registered them for the asylum procedure. The (UNHCR) in Tunisia was put every nationality in different sections. Aziz registered with the United Nations (UNHCR) and resided in the refugee camp for two years till he got the chance to leave to the resettlement country. In Tunisia, the situation inside the camp was much better compared to Libya and Chad. Aziz had always felt racial discrimination against Sudanese and African people in Libya. Initially, the asylum procedures were a little slow, even though Aziz hold refugee’s cards from Chad that prove he was displaced by Darfur war since 2003. After the refugees in the camp protested and complained against the slow procedures, the United Nations (UNHCR) rushed the procedures and Aziz passed through interviews and security checks toward U.S.

The day of leaving the camp to the resettlement country IOM organization gives a plastic bag containing immigration papers and medical record to the refugees, this bag has the IOM logo. With addition to tag that must be putting on the neck with the refugee name and case number. These bag and tag help the case workers or the employees of the host organization at the airport identify the refugee. Aziz has his IOM plastic pad till now as an object he loves to be with him for the sake of his journey to U.S. memories.

 

From Tunisia, Aziz came to Frankfurt, Germany, where the state that would receive him as a refugee had been changed from the state of Kentucky to the state of Massachusetts. The Lutheran Organization for Family Services received Aziz and other refugees and assigned for them case worker. they were given money to buy some clothes and pay the bills for three months. Then they were helped by applying to Food Stamp and factory job. Aziz states that “The organization that received us was not good. It didn’t help us much. We don’t feel good, we don’t feel welcomed. We asked some Sudanese in the city to help us find work and find a good apartment.”. Two months after Aziz arrived, he started work and registered at the Community College. Where he was absorbed without a high school diploma till, he gets his GED in future. He left from the state of Massachusetts to the state of Colorado, because there was no good work available, and there was no Sudanese community in Massachusetts to engage socially with them. Aziz worked as a driver in Denver, Colorado for two years “Of course, I stopped the school and I focused with work so I can help my family back in Chad”.  In 2016, He came to Iowa state, Cedar Rapids city and continued his education at Kirkwood College. He finished studying the ESL language classes, and then he started the GRD classes, in addition to the Associate Degree classes in business Major. Now he is working in Chicago to be able to help his family. He postponed the school and planning to return to finish more two semesters towered his degree next year.

Being in a new country means a lot, different culture, languages barrier, home sick, culture shock, new system, financial challenges and so on. Aziz talked about all that regarding his experience of being a refugee in United states:

The start from scratch in America is very harsh. Without family, friends, or even a familiar language. There are also many high expectations and aspirations that have been shattered by the harsh reality. Then I understood that America offers opportunities, but people must help themselves and strive to live well. The language was a barrier even though I took some English language courses in Libya. It was difficult to adapt to a different culture. But I didn’t feel home sick because since the war took place in Darfur I got used to separate from my family and relative and sometimes from my friend during my journey.

Since Aziz was a child he lived in this life with many challenges and difficulties. All the help he got was through the organizations in camps. That is why before he came to U.S., he had the desire to study law and human rights to help refugees and displaced people “I thought that after I finish my school I will work in UN and go back to help my people in camps. But with the difficulties I faced in America, it became difficult to continue in this dream. With the arrival here, it was necessary to choose between a long study trip or working to help my family in the camps.”. Aziz explains that “this is one of the most severe challenges most of the immigrant’s youth face regarding their present and future. I know many of them have completely abandoned the idea of education and they are only working to help their families in the camps. Despite these challenges, I am determined to continue my education at the college and then transfer to the university toward International Business field, at least I can make money to help.”.

Aziz hopes that peace and development will prevail in Sudan. So that all the refugees in Chad and his family and people return to Darfur “I wish that I can see them all well. I hope that all the reasons that cause the people of Sudan to take refuge in other countries are negated and addressed for the sake of stable life”

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Now My Future Begins: Stories of Resettlement Copyright © by Fall19 Global Crises and Human Rights Class. All Rights Reserved.

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