Let Them In! Campaign for Syrian Refugees in Tunisia

Running head: CAMPAIGN DESIGN
CAMPAIGN DESIGN
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1CAMPAIGN DESIGN
Introduction
The aim of this paper is to discuss and elaborate on the mock campaign titled ‘Let
them in!’ This campaign has been designed keeping in mind the grave issue of Syrian refugee
crisis owing to the perpetual conflict in conflict in Syria leading to the large-scale
displacement of people from their homeland. The campaign has began to request Tunisia to
act as an asylum for Syria. The motivation behind selecting Tunisia as a country for
providing asylum can be attributed to the fact that Tunisia have shown benevolence towards
the refugee crisis by embracing an open-door policy for people who have faced persecution
and fled from conflict. Therefore, this paper contextualizes the refugee crisis in Syria, the
current challenges plaguing the refugees in the 21st c, the aims and strategies of the
campaign, critical examination of the campaign and the objectives of our group in
addressing the issue, and finally the position of this campaign within the wider context
of the human rights movement.
Discussion
Studies have shown that Syrian civil war that commenced on March 15, 2011 have
led to the brutal sufferings of family and genocide of thousands of people. The Syrian civil
war have wrecked havoc on the social fabric of the nation and have led to extreme regression
of standards of living for the people. Currently, there are 13. 1 million refugees that have
been generated to the Syrian crisis and they are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. An
estimate shows that more than 5.6 million people have fled the country and now they have
been termed as refugees (Sharara and Kanj 2014). More than 6.1 million people are displaced
within the geographical region of the country therefore, turning them into Internally displaced
People (IDPs) (Acarturk et al. 2015). More than half of the population who have been
affected due to the Syrian civil war are women and children. The perpetual state of war have

2CAMPAIGN DESIGN
led to the destruction of schools, utilities, hospitals, healthcare centres, historical landmarks,
marketplace and other public institutions. The civil war commenced as a result of the
atrocious military repression that was aimed to curbing down the protests similar to that of
the Arab Spring that spawned all over Syria. In August 2012, UNHRC found that Syria have
committed gross violation of human rights that includes war crimes like rape, maiming of
children, genocide, bombing and so on. In the year 2013, it was reported that there were 1
million Syrian refugees (Ruys 2014). There were reports of chemical attacks perpetrated on
the citizens by the President if the country, Assad. By the end of September 2013, it was
found that there were 2 million Syrian refugees a huge leap from the 1 million estimated in
March in the same year (Hokayem 2014). With the increase of the Syrian refugee population
and the scenario of refugees fleeing into the territories of the neighbouring countries, the
latter started taking action by blocking the channels of communication for the refugees. One
such country is Hungary that erected a wall in the year 2015 by closing its border to the
Syrian refugees, thus closing the path for Syrian refugees to enter into Europe (De Juan and
Bank 2015). On the other hand, Jordan and Lebanon two countries that provide asylum to the
Syrian refugees since the inception of the war had to strike down on the ration for food due to
the shortfall in funding. In 2016, US and Russia jointly exercised temporary cessation of the
refugees therefore, leading to a condition where thousands of Syrian refugees were trapped
in their homeland without any aid. By the year 2015, the number of Syrian refugees who have
fled the conflict zone of rose to 5 million and more than 58 people were killed in the gas
attack. In the present context of 2018, the civil war continues to operate and affect the lives
of millions of Syrian nationals despite the hope of de-escalation (El-Khatib, Scales, Vearey
and Forsberg 2013). A glaring number of 2.9 million people are confined in the hard-to-reach
zones where it is difficult to provide aid facilities (Dahi 2014). March 2018 marks the eighth
year of the Syrian civil war.