london
CNN
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“For the past few years, I have wondered if I will leave my country and die,” said Abdulaziz Almasi, recounting the questions he and millions of other displaced people have asked themselves. “Will I be able to go home and see my mom and dad again?”
For years they seemed like a distant hope. But hours after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime, al-Masi braved the stormy weather to celebrate in his new home in London, surrounded by hundreds of ecstatic compatriots.
“This is just a dream,” he told CNN after organizing a rally in the city’s historic Trafalgar Square. “It’s emotional and it really sinks in that Assad is gone.”
Almasi has lived in the UK since 2009 but has been unable to return to Syria due to his political activities and outspoken opposition to the ousted dictator. He was granted refugee status, is now a British citizen, and founded the Syria Solidarity Campaign (SSC) in London. “Both of my grandmothers passed away while I was there (in London),” he said. “I didn’t come to say goodbye. I was wondering if I would ever be able to see her grave and lay flowers.”
Now everything feels possible. “I want to go back to my home country as soon as possible…I really want to be part of Syria’s future.”
But Almasi’s enthusiasm was quickly dashed. With the future of the Syrian government uncertain, the UK, along with Germany, Austria, Ireland and a number of other European countries, announced it would suspend decisions on Syrian refugee claims. Austria also said it would consider deporting people to Syria.
It was a sudden response that governments said was necessary to keep track of the rapidly changing situation at home. However, this has upset many in Europe’s large Syrian diaspora, particularly those with outstanding asylum claims and those who have not obtained citizenship in their host countries. More than a million Syrians live across the continent, many of whom arrived during the 2015 migration crisis that erupted as a result of the civil war.
And it comes just as European governments are hardening their stance on immigration in order to quell a surge in support for populist and far-right groups that have tied immigration increases to the availability of housing, health care and public services. This is what happened right around that time.
“They have really ruined the well-being of so many Syrians across Europe,” says Almasi, the continent’s leader. “What shocked me most was how quickly this decision was made.”
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, criticized leaders for suspending asylum procedures. But the U.N. refugee agency said the situation on the ground was “uncertain and highly fluid” and said it would accept as many Syrians as they could.
The coming weeks are particularly tense for Germany, which has taken in more than a million Syrian refugees since 2015. Asylum procedures there have been suspended. The country’s opposition leader, who is expected to take power in February elections, has raised the possibility of Syrians returning to the country in the past.
Neighboring Austria went a step further. “I have instructed my ministry to prepare an orderly return and deportation program to Syria,” Interior Minister Gerhard Kerner said this week. Family gatherings have also been canceled, the ministry said. According to the ministry, around 95,000 Syrians live in Austria. Some 13,000 asylum applications have been filed so far this year.
Tarek Alaous, a Syrian-German who came to Syria as a refugee in 2015, said the conversation was “incomprehensible.” “Emotionally, many Syrians are eager to return and actively participate in the reconstruction of their homeland. But rationally speaking, the situation is still very uncertain.”
“We have high hopes for a democratic Syria, but for that to happen we need the support of the international community, including German politics,” he added. “Instead, we are faced with deportation arguments that are deeply upsetting and sometimes re-traumatizing for many Syrians.”
It is ironic that nearly a decade after the migrant crisis sparked a populist backlash, the fall of Syria’s dictatorship coincided with its return. Centrist politicians across Europe have tightened immigration policies in recent months, spooked by the electoral success of charismatic right-wing, anti-immigration leaders.
Syrians have contributed to several European economies. The largest group of foreign doctors in Germany is Syrian, with around 10,000 working in German hospitals, according to Germany’s Syrian Association of Physicians and Pharmacists. Gerald Gass, president of the German Hospital Federation, told Reuters: “If a large number of people leave the country, health care provision will not collapse, but there will be significant disparities.”
But inflation, housing shortages and strained services are fueling discontent among migrants and refugees in many European countries, with unrest surfacing at voting booths in several countries including Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
“The migration situation in Europe is pretty dire at the moment,” said Kay Marsh, community engagement co-ordinator at British charity Sunfire. Her group works with refugees in the coastal town of Dover. Dover is where many of the small boats ferry asylum seekers across the Channel to the UK arrive. “Some people will see[the fall of Assad’s regime]as a way to get rid of people,” she predicted.
The dialogue begins at a time of uncertainty over Syria’s governance. Many Western countries classify the victorious rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a terrorist organization, and the country’s years of war have left it lacking infrastructure and basic necessities. are.
“It is too early to understand the situation on the ground in Syria,” says Yasmin Nahrawi, a London-based legal consultant whose work focuses on applying international legal frameworks to the Syrian conflict. he says. “There are still many security issues that need to be assessed,” she said, calling the European governments’ decision an “insult” to the Syrian people.
For now, most Syrians in Europe are keen to celebrate the fall of a regime that seemed unchallenged just a month ago.
“I never imagined something like this would happen,” said Esther Barre, a 22-year-old London-based fashion designer who fled Syria with her family in 2014. As President Assad fled Damascus, Barre and her friends “started calling each other” and congratulating each other, she said. “I felt like my identity was being rebuilt.”
For Almasi and many other Syrians across Europe, Barre’s excitement is accompanied by growing alarm. “At the moment there is no safe place to return to in Syria,” she said. But, she added, “potentially it could be if we know it’s safe.” “My dream is to go back and rebuild the country.”
