Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
TURKEY / IZMIR SYRIANS
STORY: TURKEY / IZMIR SYRIANS
TRT: 02:45
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 6 MAY 2016, IZMIR, TURKEY
1. Various shots, Firaz leaving residence
2. Wide shot, Firaz leaving residence with his son down the street
3. Wide shot, Firaz and Uday walking over bridge
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Firaz, Syrian Refugee:
“Some Syrians told me about this working of collecting cartons. I have to do this because I don’t have any other job to be able to feed my kids.”
5. Various shots, Firaz digging through trash
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Firaz, Syrian Refugee:
“Nobody will give me a job, they look at me and my situation, I’m disabled; they will say I would not be able to work.”
7. Wide shot, Uday running up the street to dig into trash
8. Motion Image, Uday and Firaz digging into trash
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Uday, Syrian Refugee:
“I want to work with my father because he has both hands cut off.”
10. Various shots, Firaz fixing his load of findings
11. Pan right, Firaz Moving his load of findings on wheels
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Firaz, Syrian Refugee:
“A day or two every week I might not have food for my kids. If I have some money on me I go buy some bread or bulgur if not, nothing.”
13. Various shots, Firaz and Uday Moving his load of findings on wheels
14. Motion Image, Uday and Firaz Moving load of findings on
15. Various shots, Firaz playing with infants at home
16. Med shot, Amina playing with infants
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Amina, Syrian Refugee:
“We cannot always be sad. We don’t want to let the kids know what we feel so that they won’t get depressed.”
18. Wide shot, Amina playing with children
19. Close up, Firaz playing with his infant
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Firaz, Syrian Refugee:
“This is my future; hard work to feed my kids, this reality is my future. There is probably a day I won’t be able to feed them.”
21. Motion Image, family
The great majority of the 2.75 million Syrian refugees in Turkey are not in camps but live in towns and cities. Life for them is often a struggle, even more so for those refugees with disabilities.
At 6 AM Firaz and his son Uday set out on the hunt. Firaz’s tool is a large bag, his prey are scraps of carton, plastic and metal to be recycled. The long day begins under the sculpted gaze of modern Turkey’s founder, Ataturk.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Firaz, Syrian Refugee:
“Some Syrians told me about this working of collecting cartons. I have to do this because I don’t have any other job to be able to feed my kids.”
The work is hard, doubly hard for Firaz who lost an arm and fingers on his other hand in industrial accidents. Then the war in Syria destroyed his house and forced his family to flee.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Firaz, Syrian Refugee:
“Nobody will give me a job, they look at me and my situation, I’m disabled; they will say I would not be able to work.”
Firaz’s son Uday is 7 and of school age, but he sometimes helps because of his father’s handicap. He can get to the bottom of a bin and hand out his finds.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Uday, Syrian Refugee:
“I want to work with my father because he has both hands cut off.”
The days are long and the money at the end of a day often very little, people in the street help with small donations. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and ASAM have identified him as vulnerable and given his family clothes, blankets and other help. But it isn’t enough for the family. More funding support is needed for them and all refugees.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Firaz, Syrian Refugee:
“A day or two every week I might not have food for my kids. If I have some money on me I go buy some bread or bulgur if not, nothing.”
The collection point is in sight. He brings in 35 kilos, including valuable aluminium cans. They’re worth much more than cartons. And father and son are paid the equivalent of $6.
Home is a refuge, a place where he can play with his seven children, along with his wife Amina. Her imperative is to lighten the load.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Amina, Syrian Refugee:
“We cannot always be sad. We don’t want to let the kids know what we feel so that they won’t get depressed.”
Firaz and his family have been refugees for a year and a half. He is resigned to months, maybe years more of just getting by.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Firaz, Syrian Refugee:
“This is my future; hard work to feed my kids, this reality is my future. There is probably a day I won’t be able to feed them.”
A life and a family built on hard work and hope.
Download
There is no media available to download.
