Jamal fled Aleppo in northwestern Syria with his family in September of 2011 after the civil war in their native country caused food and water shortages, shut down his children’s schools and destroyed the mattress factory where he worked.
Jamal, who asked that his last name not be published to protect relatives still in Syria, was smuggled with his family out to Lebanon. Then they traveled to Egypt, where they applied for refugee status in April of 2013. Fingerprinted and photographed, the family submitted to a half-dozen interviews in Cairo, each lasting three to four hours, Jamal said. They didn’t arrive in Georgia until more than two years later, in August of this year.
Now living in Clarkston, Jamal is caught in the middle of the contentious debate about whether Georgia and the rest of the U.S. should admit more Syrian refugees. Just days after terrorist attacks killed 130 people in Paris this month, more than two dozen U.S. governors — including Georgia's — vowed to halt the resettlement of Syrians in their communities.
“We escaped death,” Jamal, 36, said as his wife and five young children sat across from him in their den, listening intently. “We didn’t come here to do any harm to anyone. We came here to build our lives and take care of our kids.”
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