Refugee in US hopes to spotlight Syrian suffering

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

A Syrian scientist invited to U.S. President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address hopes his attendance will help draw attention to the plight of his countrymen.

Attending the address “means so much [to me],” Refaai Hamo told Anadolu Agency just hours before attending Obama’s final annual address on Tuesday. “And that is to reflect the suffering of the refugees who are suffering because of war.”

“The reason I’m going is because I may better represent the Syrian people’s endurance,” he added in remarks translated from Arabic. “It might be an occasion to stop the bleeding in Syria.”

The scientist is one of more than 4.3 million Syrians who have fled their homeland in the midst of a devastating civil war. More than 200,000 people have died in the conflict as it inches closer to entering its sixth year.

He was profiled by the popular Humans of New York blog just before being granted asylum in the U.S. in December, bringing his harrowing story to high-profile attention, including that of the American president.

The 54-year-old recounted how Syrian government rockets struck his home, fatally wounding his wife and daughter, as well as other family members living in an adjacent building in Afrin, Syria. In all, he said 16 people died during the 2013 strikes, seven of whom were his relatives.

He then fled to Turkey with his son and three daughters, but was unable to receive medical care to treat a debilitating case of stomach cancer.

Hamo said he sought refuge in Turkey “because we look highly to Turkey and because we love Turkey and the Turkish people,” but his deteriorating health and barriers preventing him from fulfilling his aspirations as an engineer led him to pursue his dreams in the U.S.

His story prompted Obama to call Hamo and his family “an inspiration”, a statement that the Syrian scientist took to heart.

In addition to his worsening health, he came to the U.S. “because Mr. Obama commented and said that he would love to embrace me [in the U.S.] when I needed to be embraced the most and that is why we took refuge in America.”

A month after being admitted into the U.S., Hamo sat in the First Lady’s guest box during Tuesday’s State of the Union alongside Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, who thwarted an extremist attack on a French train last summer; former undocumented migrant Oscar Vazquez and Iraq war veteran Naveed Shah.

Hamo and his family now live just outside of the city of Detroit in the state of Michigan.

He said he now hopes “to work in science and fulfill my ambition in the field of science, but before anything else my health issue takes precedence.”