Meeting with Syrian Refugees in Armenia

Mr. Arne Dale, a programme officer at Norwegian Church Aid visited Armenia to participate at ACT Armenia Forum Annual meeting organized by the Armenia Round Table Foundation (ART) through May 15-16, 2014.

The agenda included meetings and site visits to projects supported by Armenia Round Table. One of them was meeting with a group of Syrian refugees in Armenia on May 16, 2014 at the meeting hall of the Araratyan Patriarchal Diocese of the Armenia Apostolic Church. Discussions were held on their current situation in regard to employment, requirements of labor market and their needs.

The aim of the meeting was to assess the existing needs of Syrian refugees in Armenia and clarify possibilities on future development initiatives. The questions discussed at the meeting:

1. How do you consider the aid, any problems and concerns about the aid provided by the ART since December 2012?

2. The main difficulties you are facing. Has anything been changed since you came to Armenia?

3. How do most refugees in the community currently afford their living?

4. The available human resources you have, can you organize support groups to help each other?

5. How do you see organizing vocational trainings for your future employment opportunities and development goals?

The group consisted of 20 Syrian refugees, men and women, the youth and the old who presented not only personal interests but also those of their friends and family members. These people came to Armenia since 2012 up today, and also 8 families already came from Kessab.

Considering the information provided at the meeting, the situation of the most refugees is getting worse. People have already spent their savings, and particularly those who do not get any support from abroad (family members or relatives) appeared in such miserable situation that many families moved to the regions of Armenia for lower rents or hostels. The latter are not many in the country, without any sanitary-hygienic and living conditions. They also sold jewelry and other valuable family goods to afford the living, some take debts from relatives.

A number of humanitarian organizations and agencies working in the field of emergencies: Ministry of Diaspora , AGBU, Mission Armenia, Red Cross Armenia, Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholic and Evangelical churches, Patmos, UNHCR, WFP, etc. provided different kind of support since 2012: food, medicine, milk products for children, house rents for 1-2 months, winter coats, clothing. The refugees expressed satisfaction with humanitarian support provided by ART, particularly mentioning the method of plastic cards that was new and easy to use as compared with others.

But currently these people face hardships  caused by the housing and unemployment. They need to work so that they could afford the rents and living. The Syrians were excited at the meeting and exhausted with their situation in Armenia. They complained of the government as they came relying on support. Most of them haven’t claim refugee status considering Armenia their homeland but actually they are deprived of everything and are hopeless.

Discussions on further employment opportunities moved the spirit of the participants. They currently are in need of first aid, social services, consultancy, awareness raising, capacity building and also psychological and moral support.