By Julian White-Davis, Photo Editor and Publishing Editor
When the civil war in Syria escalated, three families left their homes in the war-torn country to travel across the globe, eventually making a new home here on Vashon Island.
Nine of the families’ children now attend school in the district, including junior Huthaifa Al Mustafa, who offered to shed some light on their journey to the Pacific Northwest.
“We lived in a very small village and had our own farm,” Al Mustafa said. “Our house was very far away from the village — no one was around us.”
The family lived on the outskirts of Marata and enjoyed a peaceful life. Al Mustafa’s father was an accountant, and the family had few problems to worry about.
“Nobody expected that [the Syrian civil war] was going to happen,” Al Mustafa said. “Some kids wrote on the wall of their school some stuff about the Syrian regime, and the government arrested them. I don’t know if they killed them or not, but their parents went [after] the kids, and the government shot one of the people. That was the beginning of the war.”
After officially beginning in 2011, other countries took sides, and the civil war escalated exponentially. The Syrian people broke into different groups, all aiming to end the oppression of their dictatorial government.
“The whole area, the whole city, was bombed by the government,” he said. “Most of the people had to flee.
“[Now] we are spread out all over the world. I have some friends in Europe, in Asia and some in Syria. The whole country is affected by the war. Everything is destroyed.”
After about a year of war, the Al Mustafa family pulled up their roots in Syria and drove to Turkey. Huthaifa was ten years old when they left.
One-hundred kilometers northeast of the place the Al Mustafa family called home, another family gathered their ten-month-old daughter and their remaining possessions and hailed a taxi in their hometown of Aleppo.
The Battle of Aleppo, starting in 2012 and lasting all the way until 2016, was called by some “Syria’s Stalingrad.” Being the biggest city in Syria, Aleppo was the site of the largest confrontation between the rebels and the government. The UN High Commissioner of Human Rights claimed that “crimes of historic proportions” were being committed in Aleppo. These war crimes included the government’s use of chemical weapons, cluster munitions in populated areas of Syria and “double tap” airstrikes on rescue workers.
The parents, Iad Senan Alati and Safa Jneidi, fled the city in search of a sanctuary where they could raise their child.
“I lost my shop and so we ran away from Aleppo to Turkey,” Alati said. “There were bombings all over. Two hours after we entered Turkey, there was a terrorist attack at the border and about 200 people were killed.”
Both families lived in Turkey for about four years — the Alati family in Manisa and the Al Mustafa family in Kahramanmaras. The latter children went to a Syrian school during that period, while the Alatis looked for work wherever they could.
“I cleaned carpets, fixed air conditionings and worked in a restaurant,” Alati said. “I also had a vegetable truck for a market, sold cellphones, made belts and worked in Istanbul for a textile company.”
During their time there, the Alati family had another child and decided that their prospects would be better in the United States.
“There is no future for my children in Turkey,” Alatis said. “The work is very hard.”
The families worked for years to get their visas for the US and met with various organizations such as the United Nations to secure their entry. This was a difficult time to move to the US for a Syrian, as the Trump Administration was transitioning into the White House.
“We were one of the last Syrian families to come through,” Alati said. “Two days after we came, the travel ban was put into place.”
At this point, the two families were taken to Tukwila, Washington, and lived in a community with other Syrian refugees. After a short few months, they both decided to move to Vashon along with one other family.
“I visited Vashon once, and it was quiet, beautiful and had friendly people,” Alati said.
The three families joined an organization on the island called the Vashon Resettlement Committee to help get housing and employment.
“[The committee’s] central goal was to provide a warm and welcoming community where they could feel safe, where their children could grow and thrive in good schools and where they could rebuild their lives,” said Mary Rose, president of the Vashon Resettlement Committee.
Alati and Jneidi are still looking for jobs, but they are optimistic. Jneidi has a degree in accounting from Aleppo, so she is looking for work in that area. She is also running a weekly class in Arabic for any young islanders who want to learn the language.
It has understandably been difficult for the families to find their place in the community. However, they are making every effort to be a part of it.
“During the six years [since the war began], Syrians went all over the world,” Alati said. “We have to adapt [to] any place we go to — the culture, the language. We have to be part of the community.”
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 5 million Syrians have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, and 6.3 million are internally displaced within Syria since 2011.
The families have shown a remarkable amount of grit and courage to make the journey from their homes across the world to their new homes on Vashon Island.
“Whenever I think about my country, I feel sad,” Al Mustafa said. “Some people think that we left because we wanted to go to Turkey or America because Syria was not a good place. But no, Syria was the best place. We had to leave because we had no choice.”
After more than two months on the island, the three families have made tentative plans for their future, including trying to open a Syrian restaurant here on Vashon.
“I am enjoying life here,” Alati said. “My plan is to stay.”