Nada Moselhy CAIRO – Wessam Al-Sonbolly, a Syrian mother of four and a grandmother, sat impatiently in the big hall in the Islamic Compound of 6th of October City waiting for her name to be called out. She was there to issue a “yellow card” to legalize her stay in Egypt and put an end to the haunting fear of deportation that has gripped her for the past two months. Almost 18 months into the Syrian revolution, Al-Sonbolly, like many Syrians who fled their homeland to escape President Bashar Al-Assad's brutal military crackdown on dissent, seeking asylum in neighboring countries and leaving behind the lives they had always known. Al-Sonbolly says that she and her family came to Egypt in August, not knowing what fate awaited them or how they were going to survive. “My elder son tried to escape to Saudi Arabia at first but he couldn't. He came to Egypt before us then he called us and told us to come here,” said Al-Sonbolly. She described the fear they lived through in Syria before their escape, how the regime's troops stormed their home in search of one of the revolutionaries, and how they abducted her husband for no reason. “Everyday we heard the cracking of the machine guns and saw a hail of bullets falling on our roof. At night you can look up to the sky and see where the shells are going,” she said. “My grandchildren used to ask what are these sounds, and I would reply that this is the sound of rain.” Al-Sonbolly's story is one of many told by Syrians who have fled the war in Syria. She and her family used to live in the old city of Homs in a big apartment where she used to run her own pastry business. Now they are living in a two bedroom apartment in 6th of October City, with no income. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that the total number of registered Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon has reached more than of 270,000. In a recent meeting in Cairo, the UN refugee agency said that according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Syrian refugees who fled to Egypt have exceeded 150,000, a number significantly higher than last month's estimated of 95,000. According to Ahmed Abu Ghazala, the UNHCR public information associate in Egypt, the number of registered Syrian refugees in Egypt is only 5,451, but is expected to reach 12,000 by the end of this year. “They were afraid of registering. They had the wrong idea that whoever registers with the UN their names and files will be sent back to Syria, it's a baseless rumor,” said Rasha Abo El-Maati, member of Egypt and Syria Together Till Victory, a Cairo-based independent group of Syrian and Egyptian women who give support to Syrian refugees. Yet during a three-day event organized by the UNHCR in collaboration with the Egyptian Women's Association and the Administration of the Islamic Compound of Sheikh Zayed, many Syrians registered their refugee status, after realizing their misconceptions about registering. “Once they understand that this is not the case and know that staying in Egypt on a tourist visa might lead to deportation later on and that registering will prevent that, they are convinced,” said Abo El-Maati. Hundreds of Syrian families came with their children to this three-day mobile registration, which facilitated the issuance of yellow residence cards. “We knew that to get an appointment with the UNHCR could take up to two months. To speed up the process, we contacted the UN refugee agency and they agreed as long as we provide the space. So we secured this compound hall for free to gather the Syrians at one place with the UN agency,” El-Maati said. Although more than a thousand Syrian refugees registered in just three days, tons of thousands have yet to register. A Cairo-based independent Syrian humanitarian worker known as Um Farouk and who has been focusing her efforts on the Syrian refugees file, said that many Syrians in Egypt can't be tracked down. “There are a lot of Syrians here but we don't know where they are, there are a lot of people who need help, there are a lot of people here who are not registered with the UN,” Um Farouk said. “They arrive at the airport on the grounds that they know someone, who may help them or give them a place to stay. But, after they leave the airport if they don't go and register, we lose track of them.” But registering is the least of their problems. Syrian refugees face huge challenges starting a life here. The monthly rent of two bedroom apartment has gone up from LE600-700 ($100) to around LE1,100 ($180) because of the increased demand. Even after a family settles down in an apartment, they still need the means to start a life here. Al-Sonbolly says that she needs to have a steady job in order to support her family. “My husband ran his own business and due to the circumstances back home he stayed behind,” she said. “We had already spent all our savings while we were in Syria and we just had enough cash to buy the plane tickets to come here.” Al-Maati says that part of their support strategy is to help Syrians set up small businesses. – Egypt Monocle
