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Discover the true story of Kunkush the cat’s incredible journey home

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The Treasure Box by Margaret Wild & Freya Blackwood

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Read aloud of the book

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After ten years, Syria remains the world's largest refugee crisis. More than 6.6 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes since 2011 and another 6.7 million people remain displaced inside the country. The vast majority - approximately 5.5 million refugees - have found refuge in neighboring countries, primarily in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

Here's What You Need to Know:

When did the Syrian refugee crisis begin?

The Syrian refugee crisis is the result of a March 2011 violent government crackdown on public demonstrations in support of a group of teenagers who were arrested for anti-government graffiti in the southern town of Daraa. The arrests sparked public demonstrations throughout Syria which were violently suppressed by government security forces.Conflict quickly escalated and the country descended into a civil war that forced millions of Syrian families out of their homes. Ten years later, the number of Syrian refugees has hardly declined and more than 13 million people still need humanitarian assistance - including 6 million who are in acute need.

What is happening in Syria's northwest region - specifically in Idlib - right now?

Torrential rains, strong winds and floods have been lashing the country's northwest region this winter, destroying tents, food supplies and leaving tens of thousands of displaced Syrian families homeless during the coldest months. More than 140,000 people have been affected and at least 25,000 tents have been destroyed.

Outbreaks of violence in Idlib in December 2019 and February 2020 forced an additional one million people to flee their homes. The majority - about 80 percent - of those who have fled Idlib and the surrounding areas are women and children.

Where do Syrian refugees live? Do all Syrian refugees live in refugee camps?

Syrian refugees have sought asylum in more than 130 countries, but the vast majority live in neighboring countries within the region, such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Turkey alone hosts the largest population - 3.6 million.

Approximately 92 percent of refugees who have fled to neighboring countries live in rural and urban settings, with only roughly five percent living in refugee camps. However, living outside refugee camps does not necessarily mean success or stability. More than 70 percent of Syrian refugees are living in poverty, with limited access to basic services, education or job opportunities and few prospects of returning home.

What are Syrian's greatest challenges?

Poverty and unemployment are some of the biggest challenges Syrian refugees face, which have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 70 percent of Syrian refugees live in poverty and a World Bank - UNHCR report estimates that an additional one million Syrian refugees, along with 4.4 million members of their host communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, were pushed into poverty in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. Millions have lost their livelihoods and are increasingly unable to meet their basic needs - including accessing clean water, electricity, food, medicine and paying rent. The economic downturn has also exposed them to multiple protection risks, such as child labor, gender-based violence, early marriage and other forms of exploitation.

Refugees living in refugee camps or camp-like situations also face an increased risk of COVID-19 infection. Overcrowded conditions in refugee camps make it difficult to practice public health measures like frequent handwashing and physical distancing.

How are Syrian children impacted by this crisis?

Ten years of crisis have had a profound impact on Syrian children. They have been exposed to violence and indiscriminate attacks, losing their loved ones, their homes, their possessions and everything they once knew. They have grown up knowing nothing but the crisis. Today, approximately 45 percent of Syrian refugees in the region are under 18 years old and more than a third of them do not have access to education.

Children's rights during the crisis are undermined on a daily basis. An increasing number of Syrian children have fallen victims of child labor, with cases in Lebanon almost doubling in just one year.

What is the UN Refugee Agency doing to help Syrians?

The UN Refugee Agency has been on the ground since the start of the crisis providing shelter, lifesaving supplies, clean water, hot meals and medical care to families who have been forced to flee their homes. UNHCR has also helped repair civilian infrastructure - including homes, school facilities and recreation centers -, supported educational activities for children and provided psycho-social support.

During the pandemic, UNHCR has ramped up efforts to confront and contain the spread of COVID-19 through the provision of protective equipment to hospitals and health clinics, the distribution of medicine, and the construction of quarantine areas and hygiene facilities. It has also supported close to 800,000 additional Syrian refugees with emergency cash assistance to help them meet their most basic and urgent needs.

Help protect Syrian refugees...

Monthly giving is the most convenient, effective and efficient way you can help people fleeing conflict. Start making a lifesaving difference today. Please become USA for UNHCR's newest monthly donor.

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After ten years, Syria remains the world's largest refugee crisis. More than 6.6 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes since 2011 and another 6.7 million people remain displaced inside the country. The vast majority - approximately 5.5 million refugees - have found refuge in neighboring countries, primarily in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

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On 13 May 1939, more than 900 Jews fled Germany aboard a luxury cruise liner, the SS St Louis. They hoped to reach Cuba and then travel to the US - but were turned away in Havana and forced to return to Europe, where more than 250 were killed by the Nazis.

"It was really something to be going on a luxury liner," says Gisela Feldman. "We didn't really know where we were heading, or how we would cope when we got there."

At the age of 90, Feldman still clearly remembers the raw and mixed emotions she felt as a 15-year-old girl boarding the St Louis at Hamburg docks with her mother and younger sister.

"I was always aware of how anxious my mother looked, embarking on such a long journey, on her own with two teenage daughters," she says.

In the years following the rise to power of Hitler's Nazi party, ordinary Jewish families like Feldman's had been left in no doubt about the increasing dangers they were facing.

Jewish properties had been confiscated, synagogues and businesses burned down. After Feldman's Polish father was arrested and deported to Poland her mother decided it was time to leave.

Feldman remembers her father pleading with her mother to wait for him to return but her mother was adamant and always replied: "I have to take the girls away to safety."

So, armed with visas for Cuba which she had bought in Berlin, 10 German marks in her purse and another 200 hidden in her underclothes, she headed for Hamburg and the St Louis.

"We were fortunate that my mother was so brave," says Feldman with a note of pride in her voice.

Tearful relatives waved them off at the station in Berlin. "They knew we would never see each other again," she says softly. "We were the lucky ones - we managed to get out." She would never see her father or more than 30 other close family members again.

By early 1939, the Nazis had closed most of Germany's borders and many countries had imposed quotas limiting the number of Jewish refugees they would allow in.

Cuba was seen as a temporary transit point to get to America and officials at the Cuban embassy in Berlin were offering visas for about $200 or $300 each - $3,000 to $5,000 (£1,800 to £3,000) at today's prices.

When six-year-old Gerald Granston was told by his father that they were leaving their small town in southern Germany to take a ship to the other side of the world, he struggled to understand what that meant.

"I'd never heard of Cuba and I couldn't imagine what was going to happen. I remember being scared all the time," he says, now aged 81.

For many of the young passengers and their parents however, the trepidation and anxiety soon faded as the St Louis began its two-week transatlantic voyage.

Feldman, who shared a cabin in the lower part of the ship with her sister Sonja, spent her time walking around the deck chatting with boys of her own age, or swimming in the ship's pool.

On board, there was a dance band in the evenings and even a cinema. There were regular meals with a variety of food that the passengers rarely saw back home.

Under orders from the ship's captain, Gustav Schroder, the waiters and crew members treated the passengers politely, in stark contrast to the open hostility Jewish families had become accustomed to under the Nazis.

The captain allowed traditional Friday night prayers to be held, during which he gave permission for the portrait of Adolf Hitler hanging in the main dining room to be taken down.

Six-year-old Sol Messinger, who was travelling with his father and mother, recalls how happy everyone seemed. In fact, he says, the youngsters were constantly being told by the adults that they were now safe from harm: "We're going away," he heard people say again and again on that outward journey. "We don't have to look over our shoulders any more."

But as the luxury liner reached the coast of Havana on 27 May, that sense of optimism disappeared to be replaced by fear, then dread.

Granston was up on deck with his father and dozens of other families, their suitcases packed and ready to disembark, when the Cuban officials, all smiles, first came aboard.

It quickly became clear that the ship was not going to dock and that no-one was being allowed off. He kept hearing the words "manana, manana" - tomorrow, tomorrow. When the Cubans left and the ship's captain announced that people would have to wait, he could feel, even as a little boy, that something was wrong.

For the next seven days, Captain Schroder tried in vain to persuade the Cuban authorities to allow them in. In fact, the Cubans had already decided to revoke all but a handful of the visas - probably out of fear of being inundated with more refugees fleeing Europe.

The captain then steered the St Louis towards the Florida coast, but the US authorities also refused it the right to dock, despite direct appeals to President Franklin Roosevelt. Granston thinks he too was worried about the potential flood of migrants.

By early June, Captain Schroder had no option but to turn the giant liner back towards Europe. "The joy had gone out of everything," Feldman recalls. "No-one was talking about what would happen now."

As the ship headed back across the Atlantic, six-year-old Granston kept asking his father whether they were going back to see their grandparents. His father just shook his head in silent despair.

By then, people were openly crying as they wandered the ship - one passenger even slit his wrists and threw himself overboard out of sheer desperation. "If I close my eyes, I can still hear his shrieks and see the blood," Granston says quietly.

In the end, the ship's passengers did not have to go back to Nazi Germany. Instead, Belgium, France, Holland and the UK agreed to take the refugees. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) posted a cash guarantee of $500,000 - or $8 million (£4.7m) in today's money - as part of an agreement to cover any associated costs.

On 17 June, the liner docked at the Belgian port of Antwerp, more than a month after it had set sail from Hamburg. Feldman, her mother and sisters all went on to England, as did Granston and his father.

They both survived the war but between them they lost scores of relatives in the Holocaust, including Feldman's father who never managed to get out of Poland.

Messinger and his parents went to live in France but then had to flee the Nazis for a second time, leaving just six weeks before Hitler invaded.

Two-hundred-and-fifty-four other passengers from the St Louis were not so fortunate and were killed as the Nazis swept across Western Europe.

Gisela Feldman, Gerald Granston and Sol Messinger spoke to Witness - which airs weekdays on BBC World Service radio.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

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SS St Louis: The ship of Jewish refugees nobody wanted

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On 13 May 1939, more than 900 Jews fled Germany aboard a luxury cruise liner, the SS St Louis. They hoped to reach Cuba and then travel to the US - but were turned away in Havana and forced to return to Europe, where more than 250 were killed by the Nazis.

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Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story is the Museum’s primary exhibition program for young people and their families. The exhibition tells the story of one family’s experiences during the Holocaust from the perspective of a boy growing up in Nazi Germany.

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El 13 de agosto de 1994, el Presidente de Cuba, Fidel Castro, ante el aumento de la salida ilegal marítima de los cubanos, anunció en un discurso, que a partir de ese momento se retirarían los guardas fronterizos de las costas cubanas y se permitiría marcharse del país a cualquier persona que así lo quisiera, provocando así la crisis mayor de balseros conocida en la historia de este continente. Ante esta situación la Administración del Presidente Clinton ordenó, el 19 de agosto, la intercepción de los refugiados cubanos en alta mar y el transladó de los mismos al "refugio seguro" en GITMO. En el período comprendido entre agosto y septiembre de 1994, un total de 32,362 ciudadanos cubanos fueron interceptados en alta mar y trasladados a Guantánamo por el Servicio de Guardacostas de los EE.UU. Con la presencia de los cubanos, el total de la población de refugiados en la base aumento a cerca de 50,000.

A la llegada de los refugiados cubanos, los ya existentes campamentos para los haitianos estaban situados en el área del antiguo aeropuerto de McCalla, al este de la entrada de la bahía de Guantánamo, sobre la superficie de las abandonadas pistas de aterrizaje. Cada uno de los campamentos se encontraba rodeado completamente por varios de rollos de alambre de púas y de guardias militares cuidando el perímetro de los mismos. Los refugiados vivían en tiendas militares de lona, teniendo como piso la superficie del terreno y para dormir les facilitaron catres de aluminio del ejercito. Muy pocos campamentos tenían acceso a agua corriente, lo que limitaba extraordinariamente el aseo personal y sus necesidades personales las hacían en letrinas portátiles. La alimentación consistía principalmente, en los paquetes de comida ya preparadas que usa el ejército y que también son usadas por la Cruz Roja en caso de desastres. Las posibilidades de entretenimiento y de educación para los niños eran apenas inexistentes.

Estas limitadas condiciones de vida, aumentadas por la frustración ante un futuro incierto que sentían los refugiados haitianos que allí se encontraban, dieron lugar a fuerte protestas e inclusive a revueltas por parte de los mismos. Esta situación empeora con la llegada, en menos de dos meses de mas de 30,000 refugiados cubanos que también se vieron obligados a vivir en estas condiciones. La infraestructura existente en la base, en el momento de llegar los refugiados haitianos y cubanos, era para 5,000 personas. El incremento de la población en cerca de 50,000 personas, en unos meses, le presentaba al Departamento de Defensa un extraordinario reto logístico y operacional.

Para alojar a los cubanos, la Fuerza Conjunta de Trabajo-160, estableció más de 25 campamentos en otros sectores de la base, la mayoría en la zona cercana a la costa y en algunos casos en áreas cercanas a las viviendas de los militares que están asignados permanentemente a la base, obligando así al Departamento de Defensa a todos los familiares de los mismos hacia los EE.UU. por "razones de seguridad", lo cual creó un fuerte malestar y resentimiento entre esta tropa contra los refugiados con serias consecuencias. En la mayoría de los casos los campamentos de los cubanos se establecieron en zonas bien áridas sobre un suelo polvoriento y/o rocoso, rodeadas también por cercas de alambre de púas y con las mismas condiciones de vida, alimentación, aseo, etc., de los haitianos.

En octubre de 1994, el Departamento de Estado anuncia las medidas, que se habían comenzado a tomar y las que se tomarían en un futuro cercano para mejorar la calidad de vida de los haitianos y cubanos en el "refugio seguro" de Guantánamo y que reflejaban en gran medida la situación precaria que existía y que solamente se veía aliviada por las donaciones, de organizaciones no gubernamentales, principalmente religiosas y de la comunidad cubana en los Estados Unidos. Estas medidas anunciadas por el Departamento de Estado describen en muchos casos la situación existente.

Aumento en el acceso a agua corriente en todos los campamentos haitianos y el 75% de los de los cubanos. Construir pisos de madera para todas las tiendas de campaña. Incrementar el ciclo de limpieza de las letrinas portátiles que había, una por cada 30 refugiados, de una vez cada dos días a todos los días. Aumentar el suministro de leche y mejoramiento de las comidas calientes que finalmente se habían comenzado a preparar y distribuir. Desarrollar el cuidado medico preventivo que venían dando primitivamente los médicos refugiados que se encontraban en los campamentos dándole mayor facilidades y suministros. Abrir facilidades para las mujeres en estado y los niños recién nacidos. Comenzar un servicio regular de correo, hasta ese momento las posibilidades de comunicarse eran unas tarjetas de la Cruz Roja. Proveer teléfonos públicos en los campamentos para que los refugiados pudieran hacer llamadas de cobro revertido a sus familiares. Facilitar acceso al mundo exterior por medio de radios y periódicos, así como también permitir que los refugiados pudieran también hacer sus propios periódicos. Construir facilidades de recreación como lo fueron los campos de baloncesto.

Para mediados de noviembre de 1994, la mayoría de los refugiados haitianos habían regresado a Haití, después de la invasión norteamericana y el regreso del Presidente Aristide. Solo el anuncio de la salida hacia los EE.UU., de los ancianos, enfermos y de los niños y sus familiares, y la implementación de estas salidas pudieron traer un poco de esperanza para los cubanos que allí quedaban. Esperanza que se vio culminada con el anuncio hecho por la Fiscal General de los EE.UU., Janet Reno, de que todos los refugiados cubanos que se encontraban en la base, con excepción de las personas con antecedentes penales, podrían viajar a los Estados Unidos. A finales de enero de 1996 el último refugiado cubano había abandonado el "refugio seguro", cerrándose así una página gris en la historia de las inmigraciones a este país. La última época fue muy distinta a la inicial, los campamentos mejoraron, las tiendas de campaña se convirtieron en pequeñas cabañitas, cada campamento tenía su propia cocina, dispensario, salón de reunión y esparcimiento, duchas y baños con agua corriente constante, clases para adultos y lo que fue más importante, se eliminaron las alambradas de púas y se permitió la libertad de movimiento.

(1) Siro del Castillo es el Comisionado del Caribe de la Comisión Latinoamericana por los Derechos y Libertades de los Trabajadores y sus Pueblos (CLADEHLT). A petición de la Administración del Presidente Clinton visitó la Base Naval de Guantánamo varias veces en octubre, noviembre y diciembre de 1994, y como parte de la Asistencia Guantánamo Refugiados y del Programa de Servicios (GRASP), volvió durante el verano de 1995.

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Cuban Rafter Crisis In the early '90's, Cuban rafters began to cast off in alarming numbers. On July 13, 1994, Cuban government boats sank a commandeered tugboat that left at least 39 people dead. The next month, outraged Cuban citizens watched the government retake a hijacked ferry in Havana Bay to thwart another escape attempt.

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Two decades ago, in the midst of rioting and anti-government protests in Cuba, Fidel Castro announced that 'whoever wanted to leave, could go'-indicating that his forces would not prevent refugees from fleeing the country. More than 35,000 took the opportunity to leave, most heading to the United States. Men, women, and children packed into small boats and makeshift rafts and set off for Florida in the largest exodus from Cuba since the 1980 Mariel Boatlift. Reuters photographer Enrique de la Osa recently caught up with some of those 1994 refugees in Miami, photographing them at work and at home in their new country, 20 years later.
An earlier version of this photo essay misattributed a photo. The credit has been corrected.
View this page Hints: full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.

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20 Years After the 1994 Cuban Raft Exodus

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In 1994, more than 35,000 people took the opportunity to leave, most heading to the United States. Men, women, and children packed into small boats and makeshift rafts and set off for Florida in the largest exodus from Cuba since the 1980 Mariel Boatlift.

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Based on numerous interviews with Cuban dissidents, recent exiles and human rights monitors both inside and outside of the country, Human Rights Watch offers the following conclusions regarding human rights in Cuba, the Cuban exodus of 1994, and the U.S. response.

In early August 1994, hundreds of Cubans began leaving their country by boat, heading north toward the United States ninety miles away. Initially, the drama of these perilous journeys was localized, and the influx was treated as just a South Florida news story. The flow of Cubans had rapidly become an exodus, and their story of danger and desperation an international news event. For the U.S. government, the rafters were both a domestic political issue and a crisis that could shape the future of U.S.-Cuban relations.

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Cuba: Repression, the Exodus of August 1994, and the U.S. Response

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In early August 1994, hundreds of Cubans began leaving their country by boat, heading north toward the United States ninety miles away. Initially, the drama of these perilous journeys was localized, and the influx was treated as just a South Florida news story.

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After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and particularly after the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 9-10, 1938, nations in western Europe and the Americas feared an influx of refugees. About 85,000 Jewish refugees (out of 120,000 Jewish emigrants) reached the United States between March 1938 and September 1939, but this level of immigration was far below the number seeking refuge. In late 1938, 125,000 applicants lined up outside US consulates hoping to obtain 27,000 visas under the existing immigration quota. By June 1939, the number of applicants had increased to over 300,000. Most visa applicants were unsuccessful. At the Evian Conference in July 1938, only the Dominican Republic stated that it was prepared to admit significant numbers of refugees, although Bolivia would admit around 30,000 Jewish immigrants between 1938 and 1941.

In a highly publicized event in May-June 1939, the United States refused to admit over 900 Jewish refugees who had sailed from Hamburg, Germany, on the St. Louis. The St. Louis appeared off the coast of Florida shortly after Cuban authorities cancelled the refugees' transit visas and denied entry to most of the passengers, who were still waiting to receive visas to enter the United States. Denied permission to land in the United States, the ship was forced to return to Europe. The governments of Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium each agreed to accept some of the passengers as refugees. Of the 908 St. Louis passengers who returned to Europe, 254 (nearly 28 percent) are known to have died in the Holocaust. 288 passengers found refuge in Britain. Of the 620 who returned to the continent, 366 (just over 59 percent) are known to have survived the war.

Palestine

Over 60,000 German Jews immigrated to Palestine during the 1930s, most under the terms of the Haavara (Transfer) Agreement. This agreement between Germany and the Jewish authorities in Palestine facilitated Jewish emigration to Palestine. The main obstacle to emigration of Jews from Germany was German legislation banning the export of foreign currency. According to the agreement, Jewish assets in Germany would be disposed of in an orderly manner and the resulting capital transferred to Palestine through the export of German products. The British White Paper in May 1939, a policy statement approved by the British Parliament, contained measures that severely limited Jewish entry into Palestine.

Shanghai

As the number of hospitable destinations dwindled, tens of thousands of German, Austrian, and Polish Jews emigrated to Shanghai, one destination that did not require a visa. Shanghai's International Settlements quarter, effectively under Japanese control, admitted 17,000 Jews.

United States and Great Britain

During the second half of 1941, even as unconfirmed reports of the mass murder perpetrated by the Nazis filtered to the West, the US Department of State placed even stricter limits on immigration based on national security concerns. Despite British restrictions, limited numbers of Jews entered Palestine during the war through "illegal" immigration (Aliyah Bet). Great Britain itself limited its own intake of immigrants in 1938-1939, though the British government did permit the entry of some 10,000 Jewish children in a special Kindertransport (Children's Transport) program. At the Bermuda Conference in April 1943, the Allies offered no concrete proposals for rescue.

Switzerland and Spain

Switzerland took in approximately 30,000 Jews, but turned back about the same number at the border. About 100,000 Jews reached the Iberian Peninsula. Spain took in a limited number of refugees and then speedily sent them on to the Portuguese port of Lisbon. From there, thousands managed to sail to the United States in 1940-1941, although thousands more were unable to obtain US entry visas.

After World War II

After the war, hundreds of thousands of survivors found shelter as displaced persons in camps administered by the western Allies in Germany, Austria, and Italy. In the US, immigration restrictions were still in effect, although the Truman Directive of 1945, which authorized priority to be given within the quota system to displaced persons, permitted 16,000 Jewish DPs to enter the United States.

I had to wait three long years. There were quotas. There were always quotas.
-Charlene Schiff

Immigration to Palestine ( Aliyah) remained severely limited until the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948. Thousands of Jewish displaced persons sought to enter Palestine illegally: between 1945 and 1948, the British authorities interned many of these would-be immigrants to Palestine in detention camps on Cyprus.

With the establishment of Israel in May 1948, Jewish refugees began streaming into that new sovereign state. Some 140,000 Holocaust survivors entered Israel during the next few years. The United States admitted 400,000 displaced persons between 1945 and 1952. Approximately 96,000 (roughly 24 percent) of them were Jews who had survived the Holocaust.

The search for refuge frames both the years before the Holocaust and its aftermath.

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After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and particularly after the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 9-10, 1938, nations in western Europe and the Americas feared an influx of refugees. About 85,000 Jewish refugees (out of 120,000 Jewish emigrants) reached the United States between March 1938 and September 1939, but this level of immigration was far below the number seeking refuge.