Othmans 1st pass

Speaker 1: My name is Marwa Ottoman from Eritrea, born in Libya and now I am in Canada, since about a month... and 7 days, so 5 weeks. Speaker 2: My name is Aly Ottoman born in Libya an Eritrean and came to Canada on 12 Dec, 2018. I know Libya more than I know Eritrea as I never saw Eritrea, and lived my whole life in Libya. Speaker 1: We are seven... eight siblings 7 of us came to Canada, and a brother lives in Germany for about 8 years now. Speaker 2: Regarding living in Libya before... Libya's history can be divided to before 2011 and after 2011. Before 2011, the country was calm living there held no problems, one can provide for himself it was safe, after 2011, February revolution, a change occurred. The... There was chaos, no safety fear... and yet, Libya is somehow good. Speaker 1: For me, I only studied, I mean... I didn't work, studied in a school, then university. I study in Engineering college. Speaker 2: Personally, elementary, secondary and high school stages. During high school, I started working, so study a while and work a while During college, I would resume studies sometimes, and stop sometimes then work for a while, and resume studies. After graduation, I worked in my field for a while later on, the companies due to war in Libya, no companies, work stopped so had to work anything, temp job to cover my expenses. In 2011... On...17 February to be specific Libya in general went through... Starting 17 February and till the airport events which are commonly known as Libya Dawn This period, 2011, 2012 and 2013 I think may be 2014 beginnings too, Libya was marketable. Living was good, markets were active, plenty of work there was pressure on the government for liquidity, people are happy Owners... or business men were happy, markets in general were active, and the country was marketable. Later on came the relapse. The deterioration in Libya happened after airport events exactly crime rate increased, there was abductions wars between what was called Militias. I mean families were killed, during those wars. A lot to talk about, unless you have a specific question. Among our family, there was Nagy. My brother Nagy was imprisoned, or captivated at Mitiga international airport He was going to his work at 8 am, there was a checkpoint he was stopped, asked for ID, he showed his college ID. His university wasn't in Tripoli, it was in a city called Tarhuna, a known university but the security said they don't acknowledge this ID, and that it's forged. A forged college ID. So he stayed in jail... for how long? - 20, 23 days. - 20 to 25 days. The... The only thing that got him out after a long while was that he had a refugee certificate A UN refugee certificate. The other thing is that the word Eritrean in Libyan streets for a security guy meant a deal. Eritreans were known to arrive to Libya then move to Italy so whenever you say Eritrean, either you mean... money, or... someone who had a chance to... [Unintelligible] Speaker 2: No, eventually you will have to admit you are Eritrean. As a family, we didn't face problems, we were born in Libya, so Libyan dialect... So I didn't face that, if he saw you and you said you are Eritrean while you speak Libyan, he would know you have been in the country for long, not just recently. So he wouldn't try such stuff with you. Speaker 1: As for the place they held Nagy at, it was unofficial they weren't from the police, or anything official. These were groups with weapons, whom held specific places settled there, issued rules, and start catching people from the streets they consider themselves security officials and that they are officials of the country, but they were illegal. We registered in UN since 2007, so we applied for asylum since 2007. As for the resettlement and asylum in Canada, it was in 2017, January 2017. It took about a year, but the problem was the refugee organization in Libya, there wasn't an official announcement regarding the resettlement so knowing about it was totally a coincidence. And it was pretty hard so it took a whole year but was hard, there were obstructions, even from those working in the organization whenever you ask them about resettlement or asylum, they would say no, applications are closed now. Except for a few, very few, but for them, the subject was kept in the dark. So there was no cooperation at all. Speaker 2: Regarding the asylum in Libya, the refugee office, the commission. The commission had... The problems we faced, was that the employees were Libyan. A huge percent of the employees were Libyan. Except for a few, it's rare to find a Libyan who would cooperate with you. If you are applying for asylum, as Marwa mentioned, you wouldn't be able to know if... I mean, we knew about resettlement by coincidence. The Libyan employee, we felt he was trying to hold us back and hold the asylum request, as he forgot where he works and that he has a salary and job requirements to work on. He just focused that the person in front of him was foreign and might have a chance to go to Europe or America. This caused a psychological problem and a contradiction with his work. The... I think the refugee commission hires people based on language skills so anyone with English or French proficiency would be hired. They didn't care on educating that employee that his work is humanitarian work in first place not just a salary and... Speaker 1: It felt good, we felt warmness in our reception all the people would say "Come to Canada", they are happy that you... came to Canada, they received us well, and the place is good, I mean... It's really a good opportunity. No one, as a foreigner, it's hard to have a bank account. Mostly, you need papers and Libyan nationality to have a bank account. - I think some foreigners had? - Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: So you can as a foreigner have a bank account but it's hard, basically you don't have income or a sum of money that you would want to put in the bank and if you had, you would face problems. I mean, that period after the war, after that... hard period, after the war, after 2011 Even the Libyans themselves who had money in the bank, also feared to put it in the bank. So you would fear putting it, cause you might not be able to take it back due to lack of liquidity. Speaker 2: Maybe, the... about that thing with banks We as a family didn't deal with banks, there was nothing to do with a bank. There wasn't the ability to put anything, generally, banks in Libya even when you had a sum of money that you would want to put in the bank, you would fear after 2011, the... The ability to retrieve the money during that period was hard, even for Libyans, it was hard. A Libyan who had his money in the bank would want to withdraw 500-1000 Libyan dinar so it was hard, and even harder for foreigners. So honestly, I didn't have any experience with banks, but when I came here people helped us, organization supervisors helped us so things were fine, I don't know everything fully, but there are days still to come. Speaker 1: It was good, I thought it would be hard, but it was actually easy. The bank female employee was here, made all the arrangements if you need to withdraw, you would do from downstairs she would teach you how to withdraw, and retrieve your card how to deal with the bank, show you what are you allowed to do how many times can you use your card, and explain what to do step by step. So it was good and easy, pretty easy. Speaker 2: Resettlement, once we arrived at the airport I think it was Vancouver airport. They took us in, we arrived at the "ISS", or the "ICC"... we were met with warm reception, honestly. The housing was available. First day, they asked us to rest, the next day the program started. Introductory lectures on residence, on banks and on transportation, it was a good and intensified program. Regarding the bank, they really helped us in that lecture. They got us a female bank employee, thankfully she came with them, and explained to us... the transactions, how to use cards, about the card how to withdraw, and the... I mean, it's hard to explain all, everything was provided. I had that sheet in my hands. Speaker 1: This Friday, we will be moving to our home. It feels good to know you got a home and settle in it. Home is the base for settlement. So whenever you are at home, you can now rest. You can be unrestrained, start studying or do whatever you wish to do. So a home is the first step for everything. Speaker 2: This Friday, on Friday, we will move to our house, our residence. A family residence. I fear first day might be a little odd. About a month and half ago, at the Welcome Center people were around us, employees, and people you got used to. Now a whole family will face reality now, living alone how would they act? That's the real test. How would they deal with the Canadians? That's the real test. But we are excited though, feeling no troubles. Speaker 1: Everyone has his own dream. For me, I must finish my college first, my studies. I must finish my studies, and acquire my degree, Then as for dreams, I have many, I wish I start a small cafe with a pastry store. Pastry bakery... So like that, and other things. Speaker 2: Personally... The priority to fulfill my dream, is to equalize my degree. I hope to work in my field of study. To work in the field after I equalize my degree. We will try to stick together as a family, and protect each other. A lot of dreams, so one can't be specific here. But to be better in general, add to ourselves, and to the Canadian community. And surely we will add to it. Normally, humans fear of sudden changes so personally, as a family coming to Canada, from a third world country the culture, the traditions and the religions here in Canada the races, it's not like... not like what we used to in Libya, and the Arab region. At the Arab region, most are Arabs, most are Muslims but here in Canada, there is a diversity, so the fear was how to deal with that diversity and how would they accept us. Certainly, they are familiar with people from third world, specially from Africa but I consider myself the first one to come to Canada I am not counting there were other Africans, and that the Canadian community is used to that and would accept me So I am treating this as if I was the first African to come to Canada. How would they treat me? That is the cause of fear. There are some advantages, and just a few notes. Speaker 1: Almost the same, but maybe mostly the different religions and cultures people talking a different language than you are One would feel it's hard, that combination, whenever you walk a street, you would see different people. Different nationalities, different religions even the weather and environment is different, so it's all different. So one would try to accept the surroundings, it's already good and when you see people, you try to accept there differences while they accept yours, so the things is... you see someone, as he is, that's his looks, his culture, his religion his country, and you accept that, then see another person, and so on...