1. April, 2012, Ecuador.
In her first assignment as Special Envoy, Jolie called on the Ecuadorian government to perpetuate the long history of refugee protection and the tradition of helping vulnerable people in need. She also assessed the situation in urban and rural areas for Colombian refugees, such as the neighborhood of San Valentin, where more than 60% of the community is refugee living in extreme poverty. She met young Ecuadoreans and Colombian refugees, who told her about their difficult lives in an area where they are often targeted for recruitment by armed groups and traffickers. “Nobody wants to be a refugee, to have to leave their home. Nobody wants to live on borrowed land and to have to beg for a visa every year and not be able to know what their life or their children´s life will be, or whether they can access any jobs or obtain medical help.”. Jolie also stressed the importance of raising the awareness of local people about what a refugee is: “what they’ve come from, what they’ve survived, what their intentions are. And their intentions are simply that they want to be safe and to have a decent life for their family”.
2. September, 2012, Jordan.
The Special Envoy and the High Commissioner António Guterres began a joint visit to Jordan by countries hosting thousands of Syrian refugees. Jolie visited Zaatari camp and met with a group of 200 traumatized refugees, including many children, moments after they crossed the border, some with injuries and many telling stories of loss and brutality. “It has been a very heavy experience because often times you come to these camps and we have all been around people in conflict situations, but very rarely do you come when you meet them as they cross the border and you get to know know people the moment they become a refugee, the moment they have forever lost their home, their schooling, their livelihood, their education, everything that they have been is gone, and I ask them, ‘what did you bring?’ and they say ‘this, the shirt on my back’, narrated Jolie. The Envoy also told how difficult it was to hear the children describing the terrible experiences they had before reaching security in Jordan: “Little children, when asked what they saw, they described body parts separated, burned people being pulled apart like chicken. It was a little nine-year-old girl who said that. It is also very emotional to be with people who are wondering who is on their side.”. “I am so grateful to Jordan and all the borders countries for keeping their borders open for saving these people’s lives, they are dying in Syria. If they were unable to escape with their families, many of the people here, many people I met today would in fact be dead. It’s a horrible situation and very, very critical. So for all politicians, and we are not them, but we have hope and we pray for them to solve something soon, because people are dying, hundreds and hundreds of people are dying every day. The number of innocent children who are dead, the number of innocent children I have found here and who are injured, unaccompanied, with their parents killed and on their own. It is impossible to imagine any mother abstaining and not doing anything to prevent it”.
3. September, 2012, Lebanon.
On the second day of the joint mission, Jolie and Guterres heard about the difficulties people face in escaping the Syrian conflict and the challenge of finding shelter in Lebanon. They met senior officials of the Lebanese government to discuss UNHCR’s humanitarian response and thank them for their support, and also heard the painful stories of the refugees who managed to reach Lebanon after risky paths of terror. Jolie and Guterres also heard stories of Lebanese families volunteering to the border and picking up Syrian refugee families, taking them to their own homes, some sharing their small apartments since the conflict began. Showing special concern for children, Jolie visited a school where UNHCR and Save the Children have provided reinforcement and psychological and social support classes as many of the children have lost up to two years of school and are traumatized. Lebanese children also participate in the program to promote integration.
4. September, 2012, Turkey.
Jolie and Guterres visited two of the twelve refugee camps located on the Turkey-Syrian border and thanked the Turkish government for its efforts to keep its borders open and to ensure that no Syrians would be forced to return. The role of the Turkish Red Crescent in providing aid to refugees has also been commended. “Syrians have a history of welcoming people in need. Now it is their hour of need and I am grateful to Turkey and all the neighboring countries for their extraordinary generosity.” Education was a recurring theme during the visit and some families of refugees expressed to UNHCR representatives their concern for the future of children: “There is no way to advance as a refugee. Life stops. Even though we are alive, life has ended.” said a Syrian.
5. September, 2012, Iraq.
Jolie met with senior government officials and thanked Iraq for its willingness to welcome Syrian refugees. Many politicians with whom she spoke were refugees and told the Envoy: “We know how they feel.” The actress also met with other Iraqis, formerly refugees in Syria, who were repatriated because of the conflict in the neighboring country (about 30,000 Iraqis have suddenly returned home).
6. December, 2012, Jordan.
Jolie traveled to the Jordan-Syrian border to find the Syrian refugees who had just completed the dangerous crossing to Jordan. “What I saw last night is a dramatic example of the plight of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have been uprooted by the fighting and are in a desperate search for safety”, Jolie reported. The Special Envoy praised Jordan’s stance in the face of the mass displacement crisis: “The incredible compassion shown to these traumatized refugee families by the Jordanian border guards tonight was extremely moving. Jordan has welcomed the refugees even though it has placed a huge burden on the country. The international community needs to show more solidarity and to support Jordan and the other countries in the region who continue to keep their borders open.”. The doctors at the border post told the Envoy that by then at least six people arriving at night had to be hospitalized, some with gunshot wounds. Jolie was stunned to learn of the story of a boy who had his leg amputated. “It was extremely upsetting to hear the story of an eight-year-old boy who upon arrival in Jordan explained to doctors that he had asked his family to carry his severed leg along on the journey in hopes that it could be reattached.”
7. June, 2013, Jordan.
On a new visit to the Zaatari refugee camp on the occasion of World Refugee Day, Jolie listened to reports of pain and loss of newly arrived men, women and children from Homs, Dara’a and Qusair, three cities drastically devastated by Syrian civil war. “We can’t know your pain,” he said.
According to Jolie, the purpose of the visit was to “show support for Syria’s refugees, to call on the world to address their plight, and to better understand needs in Jordan and other countries in the region most directly affected by this devastating conflict.”. After listening to the refugees’ grief and sadness stories, Jolie met with General Hussein Al-Zyoud, commander of the border security forces, and his team.
Jolie also visited refugees who do not live in the Zaatari camp: “But the majority of refugees live elsewhere. Those not in camps are invisible. Refugees struggling to survive in villages, towns and cities across the region.”. The Special Envoy has witnessed reports of sexual violence against women and children in Syria and noted that these are the victims who suffer most from the conflict: “Over 50 percent of refugees are children. Hundreds of thousands are traumatized and thousands have died.”.
Jolie also reiterated to the world the call for more help to the Syrian people. “the international response to this crisis falls short of the vast scale of this human tragedy”, she said.
