Earlier this week, one of the unsung heroes of the Syrian Civil War was on his way to Washington to receive an award for his role in rescuing bombing survivors. However, he was inexplicably turned away at the airport and hustled back out out of the country.
Raed Saleh is the head of Syria Civil Defence, a group of volunteer rescue workers that pulls victims out of the rubble of bombing raids at considerable risk to their own lives. The group is popularly known as “the White Helmets” for the white hard hats they wear out in the field. It is strictly nonpartisan and nonsectarian; indeed, its code of conduct states that all rescue missions are to be carried out without regard to race, political affiliation or religious affiliation.
Saleh was an electronics dealer before the civil war began in 2011. He fled to Turkey in 2012, but returned to Syria in 2013 to organize a relief effort. By SCD’s estimate, it has rescued some 40,000 people over the last three years. Its members receive a stipend of $150 a month for going out into these war zones. Over the years, it has received some $20 million from the United States Agency for International Development.
Saleh arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday afternoon after an 11-hour flight from Istanbul. Through an interpreter, he told NPR’s “All Things Considered” that out of nowhere, two security agents pulled him out of the line at immigration. Two hours later, he was told that his visa had been canceled and he had to go back to Turkey. Saleh was dumbfounded; his visa was good for six months. However, no one was able to give an explanation. He was bundled back on a plane to Geneva before going back to Istanbul.
According to Saleh, Syrians have been profiled in this manner at airports around the world since the civil war began. Apparently someone was aware that he could have been ensnared in profiling. According to Zouhieir Albounni, who was due to interpret for him at the gala, Saleh had a letter from USAID that should have made it easy for him to get through customs and immigration. Albounni works for a USAID implementer that provides aid to the White Helmets.
However, what makes this particularly hard to comprehend is that he has traveled to this country several times before without incident. At the 2014 UN General Assembly, he urged diplomats to do more to help areas controlled by the moderate Syrian rebels. And just last June, he was one of several witnesses who told the UN Security Council that the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad uses flying IEDs, or barrel bombs, even though they are almost certainly illegal under international law.
Not surprisingly, the White Helmets’ supporters were dumbfounded. Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma, probably spoke for most of them when he called Saleh’s treatment “a scandal,” considering that the White Helmets are one of the few outfits in Syria that is “above reproach.” Nancy Wilson of Relief International, who nominated Saleh for the award, was equally mystified, considering that he was able to board the original flight in Istanbul without serious difficulty.
In a statement read on his behalf at the gala, Saleh said that the White Helmets are not on any side other than “the side of life.” The gala attendees protested this travesty in one of the most meaningful ways that they could–wearing white helmets in a show of solidarity.
RI Staff & colleagues wear white helmets to honor @SyriaCivilDefense and @RaedAlSaleh3, who was denied entry to US pic.twitter.com/i5ZLCNZj4W
— Relief International (@ReliefIntl) April 20, 2016
In solidarity with @RaedAlSaleh3, our staff & colleagues @ReliefIntl put on signature @SyriaCivilDef white helmets: pic.twitter.com/8GalNYUK8d
— InterAction (@InterActionOrg) April 19, 2016
When Saleh saw this, he called it an example of “the unity of humanity.”
A State Department spokesman wouldn’t offer any specifics, but only said that in general, traveler records are cross-referenced with “available information in real time,” allowing agencies to share that information when it becomes available. However, USAID tacitly admitted that Saleh’s situation was completely mishandled; it apologized to him soon after he returned to Istanbul.
That’s not nearly good enough. Saleh and his team are doing invaluable work to ease the burden of those affected by the civil war, and this is the thanks he gets? To put it in the most diplomatic and printable terms I can use, this is an absolute outrage. Someone in either the State Department or Homeland Security owes the nation and the world an explanation–and now.
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