A SYRIAN refugee family now living in Scotland said they “lost everything” after some of their relatives were killed in the earthquake that devastated wide areas of their homeland and neighbouring Turkey this week.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck early on Monday, with more than 7000 confirmed deaths across the affected countries.
Abdul Karim, 49, who fled war-torn Syria and found refuge in Greenock with his wife and children, says his family was living on the ground floor of a five-storey apartment block in Latakia, 75 miles from Idlib, which collapsed yesterday.
Watching events unfold, Abdul said he was “terrified”.
He said: “When we first heard the news, we were so scared. The last time we spoke with our family was the day before the earthquake.
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“We then heard from one of my brothers who was alive, as he was out the house at the time. He told us that I lost all my family - my father, my mother, my brother, my sister.
“It was Ismail’s birthday today (he turned 10). Abira said to me, ‘He kept talking about his birthday, but then today he said ‘I don’t want a birthday’.”
In the house when the earthquake hit was Abdul’s brother Ibrahim with his wife and family, his sister, as well as his parents, Fatima and Adel.
Ibrahim died along with his wife Lina and one of their three sons – Mohamed.
Their other two sons, Adel, 18, and Amir, aged 5, have survived but remain in critical condition in hospital; one of them in a coma, while Abdul’s father, mother, and sister remain missing.
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Speaking of his brother’s death, Abdul said: “I can’t get over the way he died. The images, the way they found him. One boy is alive but has multiple broken bones in his body.
“I haven’t slept these few days. It’s a sad and difficult time – not knowing if my family is alive or not.
“To not hear from my family and then hear some are dead and others missing. To not be able to even go and get their bodies from the ground until today.
“It feels like my life has stopped, like I can’t live any more. I lost everything.”
Abdul says he is particularly worried about his father who has a serious heart condition and was only recently treated for cancer.
He said: “Even if my dad is alive, I worry what the news will do to him. He already lost my brother Mustafa during the war.
“From there he started being very sad. His health then got worse and worse. He had the heart problem and then cancer in his stomach. My dad is a simple man. He was always with us and there for us.
“He loved his family and wanted us to be together but because of this war our family was torn in different directions.”
The Syrian refugee moved to Greenock five years ago with his wife Abira and his two young sons, Aled and Ismail – now aged 11 and 10.
They fled the war-torn region of Idlib – which has been held by the opposition party in Syria and seen frequent air strikes by the government and Russia – and found refuge in Lebanon before moving to Scotland in 2017.
However, they had to leave the rest of their family behind, who then fled Idlib for Latakia, and have been trying to re-unite with them and bring them to safety since.
Abdul says the process should be easier so no family should have to go through the loss they felt.
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He said: “We started the process two years ago, so it is frustrating. The process of bringing people here and bringing families together should be easier. I feel that if it was, maybe nothing like what happened to my family now would have happened. They would have been here with us.”
Abdul hopes to see the community come together and support each other.
He added: “My message is to everyone - whether here or in Syria - to stand alongside the families that have lost their loved ones. Please help people, even if not financially, but just showing solidarity.”
Three British nationals are missing after the huge earthquake with UK aid charities warning that reports of the devastation are just the “tip of the iceberg”.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverley said the department’s Crisis Response Hub is working to support at least 35 Britons caught up in the disaster.
He added: “We assess that the likelihood of large-scale British casualties remains low.”
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A number of relief organisations have urged the public to dig deep and donate, saying the help they are able to provide over the next few days “will save lives”.
Difficult conditions, including freezing temperatures, are hampering efforts, particularly in rebel-held Syria, where people have fewer resources and there is a lack of routes to deliver aid through.
A plane carrying 77 UK search and rescue specialists, state-of-the-art equipment and four search dogs landed in Gaziantep last night in response to a request from the Turkish government.
The team, made up of firefighters and staff from 14 fire and rescue services from across the country, will cut their way into buildings and help locate survivors in the rubble of the earthquakes.
James Denselow, UK head of conflict and humanitarian advocacy for Save the Children UK, said:”Providing shelter is the most urgent type of aid from our perspective because the cold will kill people in ways that are less spectacular than the earthquake but equally deadly.
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