Syria’s new regime gives hope to a million refugees in Europe

London
CNN
—

“I’ve been thinking about it for the past few years: Will I die away from my country?” Abdulaziz Almashi said, reciting the question he and millions of displaced Syrians have asked themselves. “Will I be able to go back and see my mother and father again?”

For years they seemed like distant hopes. But hours after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime, Almashi braved the stormy weather to celebrate in his new home of London, surrounded by hundreds of enthusiastic compatriots.

“It’s just a dream,” he told CNN after organizing a rally in the city’s historic Trafalgar Square. “It’s emotional and you realize: Really, Assad is gone.”

Almashi has lived in Britain since 2009 and has been unable to return to Syria due to his political activism and strong opposition to the deposed dictator. He was granted refugee status, now has British citizenship and founded the London Syria Solidarity Campaign (SSC). “Both my grandmothers died when I was (in London),” he said. “I wasn’t there to say goodbye. I wondered if I would ever be able to see her grave and lay flowers.”

Now anything feels possible. “I want to return to my country as soon as possible… I really want to be part of the future of Syria.”

But Almashi’s enthusiasm quickly faded. Amid uncertainty over the future of the Syrian government, Britain – along with Germany, Austria, Ireland and a number of other European countries – agreed to do so Suspend decisions on Syrian asylum applications. Austria It also said it would consider deporting people to Syria.

It was a sudden reaction that these governments felt was necessary to take stock of the rapidly changing situation in the country. But it unsettled much of Europe’s vast Syrian diaspora, particularly those whose asylum applications were pending or who had not gained citizenship in their host countries. More than a million Syrians live across the continent, many of whom arrived during the 2015 refugee crisis that erupted as a result of the country’s civil war.

And it comes as governments across Europe are toughening their stance on migration in a bid to quell growing support for populist and far-right forces that have linked rising migration to the availability of housing, healthcare and public services have.

“They have really ruined the happiness of so many Syrians across Europe,” Almashi said of the continent’s leaders. “What shocked me most was how quickly this decision was made.”

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, criticized leaders for suspending asylum processing. However, the UN refugee agency said it was acceptable as long as Syrians could still apply for asylum, noting that the situation on the ground was “unsafe and extremely volatile”.

In Germany, which has taken in more than a million Syrian refugees since 2015, the coming weeks will be particularly tense. Asylum processing rests there; The country’s opposition leader, who is expected to take power in February elections, has in the past raised the prospect of Syrians returning to the country.

Neighboring Austria went one step further. “I have instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly return and deportation program to Syria,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said this week. Family reunifications have also been suspended, the ministry said. According to the ministry, around 95,000 Syrians live in Austria. So far this year, almost 13,000 asylum applications have been submitted.

The conversations were “incomprehensible,” said Tareq Alaows, a German of Syrian origin who came to the country as a refugee in 2015. “Many Syrians have an emotional longing to return and take an active part in rebuilding their country.” But rationally, the situation remains extremely uncertain.”

“There are great hopes for a democratic Syria, but for this we need the support of the international community – including German politics,” he added. “Instead, we are confronted with deportation debates that greatly unsettle and sometimes even retraumatize many Syrians.”

There is a certain irony in the fact that almost a decade after the refugee crisis sparked a populist backlash, the fall of the Syrian dictatorship coincided with its resurgence. Fearful of the electoral success of charismatic right-wing and anti-immigrant leaders, centrist politicians across Europe have tightened their migration policies in recent months.

Syrians have contributed to several European economies; According to the Syrian Society of Doctors and Pharmacists in Germany, Syrians make up the largest group of foreign doctors in Germany. Around 10,000 Syrians work in the hospitals. “If many people were to leave the country, care would not collapse, but there would be noticeable gaps,” Gerald Gass, chairman of the German Hospital Association, told Reuters.

But inflation, housing shortages and strained services have fueled frustration with migrant and refugee populations in many European countries, and unrest has manifested itself at the ballot box in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and several other countries.

“The migration situation in Europe is pretty dire at the moment,” said Kay Marsh, community engagement coordinator at the British charity Samphire. Her group works with refugees in the coastal town of Dover, the landing site for many of the small boats that bring asylum seekers across the English Channel to Britain. “There will be people who see (Assad’s overthrow) as a way to get rid of people,” she predicted.

The talks begin at a time when Syria’s governance is unclear. Many Western countries classify the victorious rebel group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) as a terrorist organization, and years of war in the country have left it lacking infrastructure and basic needs.

“It is far too early to understand the situation on the ground in Syria,” said Yasmine Nahlawi, a London-based legal adviser whose work focuses on the application of international legal frameworks to the conflict in Syria. “There are still so many security issues to be assessed,” she said, calling European governments’ decisions an “insult” to Syrians.

Currently, most Syrians in Europe are determined to celebrate the fall of a regime that seemed unshakable just a month ago.

“This is something I never would have thought of,” said Esther Baleh, a 22-year-old fashion designer from London who fled Syria with her family in 2014. When Assad fled Damascus, “Baleh and her friends started calling each other and we congratulate each other,” she said. “I felt like my identity had been rebuilt.”

As for Almashi and many Syrians across Europe, caution reigns amid Baleh’s excitement. “Right now there is no safe place in Syria” to return to, she said. But “maybe once I know it’s safe,” she added; “It would be my dream to go back and rebuild my country.”