Fight Government: Canada Brazil and Refugee Camps

fight government: As Syria death toll grows, so does indifference He says he faced a terrible choice: the government demanded he join the army to fight the rebels, while the rebels insisted he fight the government. "And in both sides, we are killing each other, we are Syrians," he says. "So I choose not to kill anybody and I leave the country." But where to go Most of his friends ended up in European or Middle Eastern refugee camps — safe, but essentially imprisoned. "Canada and Brazil, they are the only two countries they are giving Syrians a safe way to make a new life," Abjada says, according to CBC. Alex Cuelho, a priest who runs the shelter for refugees at Sao Joao Batista church, says the tide of public opinion seems to be turning against them. He spends most of his days in a dusty church courtyard perched over his Portuguese phrase book. "How did I get here Ya!" he laughs. "It was a little bit … complicated." When Syria civil war tore apart his city of Aleppo three years ago, he says, his brother was arrested and tortured. "Fifteen days, horrifying, torturing, abusing, and he did not see the sunlight," Abjada says. Abjada is one of more than 2,200 Syrians who have settled in this country of 200 million. The church has become a way station for close to 30 refugees. Brazil has accepted the third-most Syrians in the Americas behind Canada and the U.S. He arrived this year via Turkey, and has been staying at Sao Joao Batista, a small church in the Botafogo neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.