Syrians Accommodated

A Syrian family sits in the lobby of the Days Inn Hotel in Windsor// Feb 2, 2016//photo by Aaron Lombardi

Aaron Lombardi

 

Syrians Accommodated

 

Feb 2, 2016

 

About 50 Syrian refugees are currently living in a hotel in Windsor’s downtown core with more families on their way.

 

Children run through the halls of the Days Inn Hotel on Ouellette Ave. and play with the buttons on the elevator. They laugh as their fathers sit in the lobby talking to one another while wearing new winter coats given to them by Windsorites. The families arrived in Windsor over the holiday season and will be living at the hotel until they are moved into their own housing. Hotel manager Asar Ahmed said he is happy to give the families a place to call home, even for a short period of time.

 

“We want to help whoever we can,” said Ahmed. “We let them use all our facilities and we are accepting that they are different. Anyone who comes from a different country is going to be different.”

 

Ahmed has been the manager at the Days Inn for three years and said he is glad to be helping the newcomers, including opening the hotel basement so they have a place to conduct their daily prayers and bringing coffee to share with the men in the lobby. Ahmed’s desk clerk, who only wanted to be known as Sandy, spends most of her working day taking care of the families in the building. Each day Sandy opens the basement for the daily prayer and jokingly tells the children to stop running in the hallways.

 

“Sometimes it can be a little intimidating,” said Sandy.  “The women stay upstairs and the men normally hang out in the lobby. Keeping an eye on 15 men can be a little bit intimidating, but it has nothing to do with where they come from.”

 

Sandy, who is a mother, said she frequently enjoys playing with the children who roam the hotel’s corridors. Receiving packages of food and clothing daily from Windsorites, she says the community couldn’t be more supportive.

 

“These people were scared. Every day they were seeing buildings getting blown up, people getting hurt,” said Sandy. “They are so glad to be here and people in the community are making them feel very welcome.”

 

The Days Inn has a contract with the federal government to offer accommodations to those who are new to the country before they are moved to permanent residences. Ahmed said they are not responsible for bringing food or clothing to the refugees.

 

“When people think refugee, they think of skinny people in rags but that’s not true,” said

Ahmed. “A lot of these people have money, they just want to come to a new country for safety reasons.”

 

Included in the 50 Syrians are 20-25 small children. Once the government provides the families with their permanent residences the hotel will open to a new wave of arrivals.