The interior ministers of the federal states are currently discussing the option of deporting criminals and perpetrators to Syria – the deportation ban expires at the end of the year. But many Syrian refugees do not want to return out of fear for their lives – and the situation on the ground seems to confirm their fears.
How dangerous is Syria for refugees returning? The Conference of Interior Ministers (from 28 November in Magdeburg) deals with the option, u. a. Deport offenders and perpetrators to Syria. In addition, there is a situation report of the Foreign Office for Syria. The deportation stop there ends at the end of the year.
In the small town of Jdeidet Yabous, on the Syrian-Lebanese border, there is a transit camp for refugees returning to Syria. Russian is also spoken here. „The camp was set up by the Russian military, in cooperation with Syrian authorities,“ says head Ruslan Nigmatullin.
Fear of returning
However, there is still no question of a return wave. 1.5 million Syrians have returned to their hometown, said recently in Moscow Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev of the Russian Defense Ministry. Most of them would have been on the run in the country. Only just under 270,000 have so far come back from abroad.
At least five million Syrians still live abroad, mostly in neighboring countries, such as Lebanon.
„If I go back now, the army will pick me up immediately,“ says Beirut, 18-year-old Muhammed, who escaped from Aleppo with his family seven years ago.
„Go to Syria and see for yourself,“ adds the Syrian Abu Hassan. „There are no young men anymore. In the houses you will find only women, children and old men. The boys are either abroad or in the army. “
Especially men in combatable age are afraid of returning, because of the threat of military service. But others hesitate too. In the Syrian state media, they are witnessing how they are being rushed against refugees, such as Ahmed Badr Eddin Hassoun, the country’s Grand Mufti: Those who are called refugees are often Syrians who have been murdered by the West as mercenaries in the fight against the government , Now they lived in Europe because they had not achieved their goals in Syria.
Assad: Syrian society has become „healthier“
Hussain Makhlouf, Minister of Local Government, even stated that all refugees who had not passed state passport control when leaving the country would be brought to justice on their return.
Syrian war refugees are at least as traitors or cowards – if not immediately as a regime opponent. It is enough to be confused. Or to be related or known to somebody who had at some point engaged with the Assad regime. Those who return to the government must fear being arrested, tortured or killed. There are plenty of credible reports from organizations documenting such cases.
Maybe the regime does not want people to return. President Bashar al-Assad seems to see something good in the mass exodus and death of so many people. In 2017 he said: „We lost the best of our youth, that’s right. But we have gained a healthier, more homogeneous society. “
So without oppositionists and critics, without so-called „cowards“ or „traitors“. A company entirely to Assad’s taste.
