When Syrian refugee Khattab al Mohammad heard that the 700 inhabitants of the town of Seyðisjörður in Iceland had had to be evacuated because of mudslides his first reaction was to offer them help.
Khattab, an English teacher from Aleppo has been in Iceland as a refugee from the civil war in Syria since 2016. He came to Iceland from a UNHCR camp with his wife, mother and six children. They now live in Reykjavik, the capital, with the three youngest children.
He knew what displaced people needed
Khattab did not hesitate to offer another family to share the 2-bedroom apartment in the northern town of Akureyri where his three oldest children live and study. In addition, he offered clothes, food, blankets or any other items which he knows from experience that displaced people need.
“I am a part of this society now” Khattab told UNRIC. “I am just trying to help, like the Icelanders helped us. I have never been to Seyðisfjörður but neither had the Icelanders been to Syria, who have helped Syrians. It is a question of humanity.”
No one has had to seek refuge from war in the past eight or nine centuries in Iceland, since a senseless civil war in the 13th century. Natural catastrophes are, however, as common in Iceland as conflicts in the Middle-East. Thankfully, there were no casualties in the mudslides in Seyðisfjörður although houses were swept away. Several people were lucky not to be trapped when a mudslide from the overlooking mountain hit the town. The fishing and ferry-port town of Seyðisfjörður, population 700, is located in a deep narrow fiord with the same name.
Trapped
However, mudslides in mid-December are quite unusual. Seyðisfjörður is known for its snow. Indeed, exteriors of the Netflix series “Trapped” were filmed partly in the town. It was, indeed, the perfect setting for a story of crime committed in a town cut off from the outside world due to harsh winter conditions. Seyðisfjörður has a history of bigger and smaller avalanches through the years. In January 1885 after three weeks of constant snowfall an avalanche fell on the town and killed 24 people.
This time there was there was no reason to fear an avalanche, quite simply due to the lack of snow in mid-December.
Is climate change to blame? Possibly, but the jury is still out according to climate expert Halldór Björnsson of the Icelandic Met Office. One thing that is certain is that there were bizarre weather patterns in the run-up to the mudslides and several historical records beaten when it comes to precipitations.
“There was constant rain for ten days. Each of five out of those ten days would have been record-breaking in an average year, including two with unheard-of precipitations,” Björnsson told UNRIC. “We end up with a combination that we have never seen before. We cannot say for sure that climate change is to blame. But it certainly fits into what we expected, although in a slightly different way.”
However, the UN has warned time and again that climate change is not only about increased temperatures. A major UN World Meteorological Organization report in October 2020 argued that extreme weather and climate events have increased in frequency, intensity and severity as a result of climate change, and will do so increasingly in the future.
Memories of Syria
Meanwhile, most of the inhabitants of Seyðisfjörður have been allowed to return home. Many will not be able to spend Christmas at home since a part of the town is still a no-go zone. That is unfortunate, but obviously pales in comparison with the plight of Syrians.
Nevertheless, hearing of people fleeing in fear from their homes in his new country, brought back memories from Syria to Al-Muhammad and his family. Khattab says that, now in his fifties, he is not sure he will see his homeland again. “Even if the conflict was brought to an end right now, it would take ten years to rebuild it. Hopefully, my children will be able to visit.”
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