Fort McMurray fires disperse Syrian refugees

Rasa – Fleeing for their lives for the second time in months, some of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees were forced to abandon their new homes in Fort McMurray to live once again in temporary shelters.

News ID: 422334

Date: 11 May 2016 - 18:04

RNA – Fleeing for their lives for the second time in months, some of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees were forced to abandon their new homes in Fort McMurray to live once again in temporary shelters.

“I’m lost again,” 24-year-old Ahmad Kanawati told Edmonton Journal.

“It’s the same feeling that something is chasing me … I’m being pushed to go out.”

Kanawati, a Syrian refugee from Aleppo who arrived in Fort McMurray last winter, was forced to escape the blaze in Fort McMurray.

Enrolled in English language classes at Fort McMurray’s Keyano College, Kanawati hoped to begin his new life in Canada as an accountant.

Yet, the wildfire forced him to flee for the second time in months, abandon his home, and wait out the days taking shelter at a relief centre.

“Everybody had to get out and everybody was in a disaster emergency centre or in a shelter, and now here we are five six days later, if you have friends or family you move from those families or shelters into a more supportive living arrangement,” said Nick Parkinson, CEO and president of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of northern Alberta.

“If you don’t have that network, you just end up having to be in those shelters because you just don’t have the network.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the province of Alberta declared a state of emergency after a massive wildfire destroyed 1,600 homes and buildings in Fort McMurray and forced more than 80,000 residents to evacuate to surrounding towns and cities.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police when went door to door in Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates, and Fort McMurray First Nation, which had all been accommodating evacuees, after a mandatory evacuation order was issued for them.

Open Mosques

Kanwati is staying at the al-Rashid Mosque with his brother-in-law’s family, where mosque volunteers are busy searching for a long-term accommodation for the family.

“We’re offering donations to those in dire needs,” said Abdul Salam Abdo, president of the Fort McMurray Markaz al-Islam, an Islamic congregation that services the approximately 10,000 Muslims living in Fort McMurray.

“People are proud. Even though with the difficulty, they feel very proud to be Canadian and they feel very lucky they live in this part of the world.”

Apart from refugees’ accommodation, temporary foreign workers are worried about making ends meet.

“My family’s back home in Pakistan, and I’m here all alone,” said Haji Choudhry, 52, a bus driver from the Thickwood neighborhood in Fort McMurray.

Choudhry, a Canadian citizen, is out of a job and unable to provide for his family after he fled Fort McMurray for the safety of the Edmonton Expo Centre.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do because you know there are so many responsibilities … I am the only one earning hand here,” he said. “I still don’t know that how it’s going to work.”

al-Rashid Mosque has been collecting data-x-items and delivering them to various hosting centres and to the Metis settlement in the area.

In Toronto, Imams at Masjid Toronto, which hosts the largest gathering of Muslims in downtown Toronto with 6 prayer services at 2 mosques weekly, offered prayers and issued an appeal for donations to support the people affected by the wildfires.

The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) also opened up its mosques in Cold Lake and Edmonton to host the fire evacuees.

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