The Word You Would Prefer Not to Learn: "Sexugee"

A derivative from two words sex and refugee: "sexugee".

Obviously not an easy word to use.

One needs to think on it for a while to understand how come sex can be related to running away from terror, war or political executions due to one’s race, religion, nationality, or engagement in a particular social or political opinion.

Imagine you find yourself in a situation that you have to leave your country to rebuild your life and selling sex becomes the only option for you to survive.

Istanbul is home for many “sexugees” this piece from Politico reads, with striking photos.

Having lost everything—their homes, jobs, families, friends and language … Syrians in Turkey are eager to become “normal citizens” of their new country.

“Nevertheless, as soon as we were saved—and most of us had to be saved several times—we started our new lives and tried to follow as closely as possible all the good advice our saviors passed on to us. We were told to forget; and we forgot quicker than anybody ever could imagine,” Hannah Arendt wrote in 1943 in a Jewish periodical called Menorah Journal.

She also wrote “in a friendly way we were reminded that the new country would become a new home …” In 2017 refugees are not welcome in Europe, some even sail to the Mediterranean to stop them. 

Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Turkey has accepted more than three million refugees, but their coexistence with the locals is not easy, with the growing problems of Turkey with terror and political tensions. Syrian refugees became an easy target for many sides to blame.

Many of them have overcome challenges to push for a brighter future.

Some are not that lucky: Meet Istanbul’s sexugees.