This is KPBS midday edition I am Maureen Cavanaugh. The civil war in Syria which is now five years old has had devastating world conflict want to the U. S. another major powers continue airstrikes in Syria and the uprising against President Bashir Assad continues and the turmoil has given rise to the terror group Isys. It also continues to have devastating personal consequences is an estimated 5 million Syrians have been driven from their homes. Hundreds of thousands trying to make their way to Europe and United States. Last year President Obama committed the U. S. it taking in an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees the vetting of those refugees is moving slowly, so for this fiscal year San Diego has accepted 29 Syrian refugees. Joining me is David Murphy, executive director of the San Diego International Rescue Committee and David welcome to the program. Thank you very much. Lines back training us to is Marwan Chehadeh whose family relocated to San Diego after fleeing violence and aerial and Marwan Chehadeh welcome. How many Syrians to expect to resettle in San Diego this year David? San Diego is always been a welcoming community and historically San Diego will receive about 4% of all of the refugees that come to the United states for your. We are expecting around 400 Syrians in a total of 3500 refugees from all around the world. But there has only been 29 resettled in San Diego this year, why is it, why is there from a delay # The refugee resettlement process takes about a year and a half on the time a refugee is identified for resettlement to the United states to go through quite a number of background checks cut security checks got any security vetting process that takes about a year and a half to two years. So I refugees was just fled Syria cannot expect to come to the U. S. for a couple more years because of the vetting process. San Diego is already reset refugees before this year. And many of resettled? There been 1000 cereals in San Diego County. Has the vetting process change, as I got more stringent and all of the publicity about terror attacks in the right devices? Line It is actually difficult for someone to come through the refugee screening process that does not make it through all of the checks. It has become even more stringent in the last year. Even more stringent? How so? More background checks and more security checks biometric data the run you through several databases, FBI, CIA cut Department of Homeland security, there are individual securities, people will travel to the refugee camps to do interviews a person can't to make sure that a refugee is who they say they are. Well Marwan your family and you left Syria four years ago how did you know was time to get out Russian Mark I started to settle my family in Jordan in the beginning just to get them away from the turbulence and we were asked acting it would take three years to come down and we did not know that it was going to be what it would come to be. At the end of 2013 I realized that the country's debt that it is not going to come back, and there are so many changes that are happening and I want to go on with my life and my family's life so that was a decision. It is a big decision. I left too many things behind but I have to save the future of my family. We had planned since they were born, we had musical goals internationally and I do not want to be that, it is more important than money. You had a unique situation that you relocated with family already here in the United States. What is your status in this country. I have no status, I am waiting for an interview, have been here for a year and a half waiting and I hope this will end soon because it is really, I feel very desperate, I need identity. We need nationality, we need to feel like we are home. You are seeking asylum? I am seeking asylum. It is taking quite a lot of time. Second is taking a long time and you don't know when it will be. It might take another two or three years God only knows and the situation is always changing and we are affected by the news and all what is happening. I wanted to get to this with David and Marwan his family is Christian, there is then heated rhetoric against admitting Syrian Muslims Actually all Muslims to this country what are some of the actual results of those words when they are spoken in public? Are refugees frightened? Absolutely, the rhetoric coming out of the political process is horrific we are a nation of immigrants. We are all immigrants cut we have all come from somewhere, we do not differentiate people based upon where they come from, what the color of the skin is our what religion they are. So now for us to try to get out and say we don't want this religion or that religion to come in a goes against the very fabric of what America is made of. Isys is claimed responsibility for the attacks this week in Brussels, the Isys terrorists organization has it reads in Syria is this another problem than for Syrian refugees trying to resettle every time this happens? Yes it makes it more difficult every time these incidents have been around the world and frankly there will probably be more horrific incidents in the future and it will continue to be challenging for refugees to come. Well Marwan I understand living in the United States is not strictly because you went to school here at how has resettlement and for your family? At the beginning it was not easy. Especially for my daughters got to change schools, to change cultures, my wife lost her job, she is a doctor, she has to start studying again and the whole process. It was not easy got but the decision was obvious even though it was not easy. It was very clear for me. I have no doubt that they made the right decision because it is not just only I am saving their body I am saving their identity, their future, their dream. What is the reaction you get from San Diego citizens when you say that you are from Syria? To get a very good reaction I have no problems at the American people and if they have a reaction is understandable and it makes sense. I still say that I had a special situation, I am very close to the American culture, I know how to approach them with any discussion, but this is not for all Syrians. The cultural difference sometimes makes a lot of troubles. I approach them with the American way of thinking and this makes it easy for me. In fact, I have a lot of help from a lot of people that like my children, they have lessons in the music that in the San Diego Symphony for no expense, I do have from a Jewish family service my low air -- my lawyer, I have some sympathy. [Indiscernible-multiple speakers] I did not find anything that I can explain that is terrible. And David go ahead. So while there has been quite a bit of negative outpouring on the refugee crisis and refugees in general, we here in San Diego have actually been a very positive outpouring of support or refugees from just more rural -- from just normal San Diego's that are appalled at the negativity towards refugees and the political process. We have seen a positive that is coming out of the negativity. Oh we will certainly check in with you again as this process continues, David Murphy with the International Rescue Committee in San Diego and Marwan Chehadeh has been here talking with us about his journey from Syria thank you. Line Thank you.
San Diego has welcomed fewer Syrian refugees than expected since October, when President Barack Obama announced a national increase in the number of approved asylum seekers.
The Syrian refugee crisis entered its fifth year in March. The embattled country has been entrenched in conflict since a series of uprisings in the Middle East known as the 2011 Arab Spring. More than 5 million people who lived in the war-torn nation have been displaced.
Marwan Chehadeh was forced to flee the country with his family in the summer of 2012. He views the destruction in his home country as irreversible and has no hope it will return to normal.
“You have a generation that’s grown up on blood and bombs,” he said.
Chehadeh was compelled to leave after his daughters were nearly killed on their way to school one morning. By his account, a roadside bomb exploded just five minutes after their school bus drove by on one of the busiest highways in Damascus.
His daughter’s teacher was killed in an attack on the school soon after.
“It was very obvious for my kids, just to get away from Syria,” Chehadeh said.
His family first traveled to Jordan. In the first few months, Chehadeh would go back to Syria to run his business, a family-owned manufacturing company.
“I was very scared,” he said. “I drank half a liter of scotch before going.”
They lived in Jordan for two years before traveling to the U.S. to stay with family.
“I could not withstand anymore,” Chehadeh said. “It’s a hopeless case. The society that’s created as a consequence of the war is unbearable.”
Chehadeh and his family arrived in San Diego in 2014. He is applying for official asylum. He says that only then can he settle down and feel truly at home. He has no plans to return to Syria.
Chehadeh discusses his experience on KPBS Midday Edition Wednesday along with David Murphy, who leads The International Rescue Committee, a local refugee resettlement agency.
