Who Is Being Killed, Persecuted?

Being killed, persecuted, or tortured for having a personal opinion or physical attribute is a horrifying thought, but for some, it’s a reality. There are many regions in the world where the government controls the entire country, using fear as their main factor. Refugees from these parts of the world, such as Syria, or Afghanistan try and escape their home countries due to war, or other extreme conditions. To experience what refugees had to go through in order to flee their country, my class and I played a game, called “Against All Odds.” The class went through the stress and anxious and numerous other emotions that refugees must feel for their impending departure. The game opened my eyes and helped me mold my views on refugees. The class

When it came to the part where I had to escape the military, it was stressful and fearful, because if I made the wrong move, I might be caught and killed. When I finally escaped the city into a van, I was forced to choose between leaving friends and precious items, or risk getting caught by the government. One of the choices was to leave a friend who didn’t have his ID. If anyone didn’t have their papers, all of us would be thrown into jail. It was sad, leaving your best friend, instead of risking being caught by the government. Yet, I only felt these emotions over a span of an hour, but real life refugees relive these emotions over and over again, everyday of their life, Once they wake up from their slumber, they start to feel anxious, wondering if today is the day they might finally escape, or the day they might be thrown into jail by the government. In a game, no matter how many times I failed, I always got another chance at fixing my mistakes. Real life refugees don’t have that power. If they mess up only in the littlest way possible, they get caught and killed. They only have one chance, so all the emotions I felt whilst navigating through the game would increase tenfold for

Before playing the game, I empathized with refugees, and how much they had to go through before settling down in Canada, or the USA, etc. The main reason refugees become refugees is because they are forced out of their home country because of an ongoing war, or a controlling government, or other various push factors. They don’t become refugees by choice, it’s by force. After playing the game though, after actually experiencing the emotions refugees feel while escaping their country, it made me more aware as to how much terror is embedded into their minds. A lot of refugees are children, and to feel that much sorrow in such early years of their lives, it’s heartbreaking. There are people who are as old as me, and even younger, that are forced to abide by the governments opinions until they have a chance to escape. It may not even be the government that those kids are running from. It can be from forced marriages that their families arranged for them, forcing their 13 year old daughter to marry a 46 year old