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WORLD NEWSTuesday 20 October 2015
Many Uruguayans fed up with complaints from Syrian refugees
L. HABERKORN
Associated Press
JUAN LACAZE, Uruguay
(AP) — When Uruguay an-
nounced last year that it
would be taking in five fam-
Syrian refugee Nada Alshebli, right, jokingly places a “hijab” veil on Uruguayan Sonia de Leon
as her sister Fatima walks behind them as they stroll through town in Juan Lacaze, Uruguay.
ilies fleeing Syria’s devastat-
ing civil war, residents of this rails.
small town pulled together
and lobbied to host one.
Then in November, locals
welcomed a newly arrived
Merhi Alshebli, his wife and
their 15 children with food
and seeds to plant veg-
etables. People in Juan
Lacaze, a coastal city of
fishermen and paper fac-
tory workers in southwest-
ern Uruguay, wanted to do
their part to help a country
where more than 200,000
have been killed in the
fighting.
But after months of the
Syrians’ complaints about
their living conditions and
demands to be sent to an-
other country, many Uru-
guayans in this town and
elsewhere have come to
see the refugees more as
rude, ungrateful guests.
This month the 51-year-old
Alshebli shocked locals by
dousing himself in gasoline
in protest, furthering Uru-
guayans’ indignation and
sense that this South Ameri-
can nation’s humanitarian
gesture has gone off the
“I’m outraged,” said Moni-
ca Benitez, who works at a
shoe store in Juan Lacaze’s
tiny downtown. “What they
are doing is offensive.”
The Syrians’ discontent is
playing out as hundreds of
thousands of their compa-
triots are risking their lives meet even though the
to migrate to Europe and
world leaders from German
Chancellor Angela Merkel
to Pope Francis have urged
nations to open their doors
to the flood. The administra-
tion of U.S. President Barack
Obama has pledged to
take in 10,000 Syrians over
the next year.
Uruguay’s attempt to help
by sheltering 42 refugees —
a largely symbolic gesture
given that over 4 million
Syrians have fled since civil
war broke out in 2011 —
appears to be backfiring,
just as earlier this year the He showed The Associated
ups and downs of six former Press a two-month winter
Guantanamo Bay detain- electricity bill totaling $475
ees taken in by the country and said everyone in the
hogged headlines. family who is able works.
Like the ex-detainees, the For example his 19-year-
old daughter Nada sells
Arab food downtown and
recently worked in an as-
sisted living facility, but
(AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico) earned just $68 in a little un- over himself in protest in the
der a month there.
refugee families complain Alshebli also complained
that life in Uruguay is expen- that the government won’t
sive and authorities aren’t let him farm beyond the
doing enough to support modest vegetable garden
them. But unlike the former the family has planted.
prisoners, who refused jobs “No sheep. No cows. No
offered to them, the adult land,” said Alshebli, re-
Syrians have worked. counting what he said of-
The Syrians’ biggest beef is ficials told him.
that they can’t make ends Political analyst Daniel
Chasquetti said the gov-
government provides hous- ernment underestimated
ing and gives each family a cultural differences be-
monthly stipend. Both gov- tween Uruguay and the
ernment officials and the refugees’ homeland and
families have declined to failed to take into account
say how much that is. their limited job skills.
“I like Uruguay. I like Uru- “And it’s not like Uruguay
guayan families. My young is a country bursting with
children all go to school opportunities,” Chasquetti
here,” Alshebli said in halt- said.
ing Spanish, standing in the The economy of this na-
living room of his sparsely tion of 3.3 million people is
furnished, multi-room home largely based on agricul-
on the outskirts of Juan tural and textile exports,
Lacaze. “But food is very and about 40 percent of
expensive. How can I feed workers earn around $500
15 children?” a month, according to a
leading union.
In August one of the Syrian
families tried to travel to
Serbia, only to be detained
23 days at the airport in Is-
tanbul because they didn’t
have the right documents.
Ultimately they returned to
Uruguay.
The refugees do not have
Syrian passports and can-
not get Uruguayan ones
because they are not citi-
zens. The government has
given them national ID
cards, but they’re insuffi-
cient to cross many of the
world’s frontiers and Uru-
guay says it can’t force
other countries to accept
the documents.
Their frustration at a boiling
point, the Syrians protested
for several days last month
in front of the Uruguayan
presidency to demand
help getting to another
country.
Then came the incident at
Alshebli’s home on Oct. 6,
when he poured gasoline
presence of officials from
Uruguay’s Human Rights
Secretariat. According to a
statement from the agen-
cy, he did so after being
told that Uruguay doesn’t
have the authority to is-
sue him a visa for another
country.
It’s unclear whether Alshe-
bli intended to light himself
on fire or simply scare the
officials, who later filed a
police complaint. Alshebli
declined to discuss the inci-
dent, and the head of the
rights body did not respond
to requests for comment.
One of Alshebli’s sons,
21-year-old Ibrahim, said
his father simply lost his
temper and didn’t mean
any harm. The elder Alshe-
bli was briefly detained and
taken to a hospital for psy-
chiatric evaluation.
Self-immolation has special
symbolism today in the Mid-
dle East. A major catalyst
for the Arab Spring, which
began in 2011 in Tunisia,
was a poor and frustrated
fruit vendor who set himself
on fire. But many Uruguay-
ans were appalled.
Lourdes Schneck, who
serves the Uruguayan spe-
cialty of fried pies in down-
town, said she wasn’t sure
whether to be angry with
her government or the Syr-
ians.
“I get the feeling they
thought they were coming
to a different class of coun-
try, with more wealth,”
said Schneck, who periodi-
cally hires one of Alshebli’s
teenage sons, 15-year-old
Mohammed.q