Amersfoort University in the Netherlands’ city of Utrecht hosted a symposium under the title of “Twice as a refugee, refugee from Palestine and then from Syria”, which highlighted the Palestinian Syrian refugees issue, life before and during the events of the war and the trip towards Europe for asylum.
During the symposium, two Palestinian refugees “Mamoun Abu Nasser” and “Nawras Ali” along with the drama professor Rene Paulinga spoke to the university audience about their experience as Palestinian Syrians, gave an overview of lives of Palestinian refugees before and during the war, and the reasons for the Palestinian refugees to leave Syria, passing through the “death trip” towards the European countries, and how the Netherlands government and people dealt positively with the refugees.
It is noteworthy that the Palestinian communities in Europe are active through art exhibitions, conferences and seminars to deliver the suffering of the Palestinian refugees’ image, as well as to preserve the identity of the Palestinian refugees and keep their issue active and alive.
There is no official statistics for the number of the Palestinian Syrian refugees who arrived to Europe during the conflict in Syria, but the AGPS reports mentioned that approximately 36,000 Palestinian Syrian refugees claimed asylum in European countries.