Refugee camp for Syrians, May 19, 2019, in Azez, Syria. By hikrcn @ Adobe Stock
When fighting first broke out in Syria during “Arab Spring,” refugees from the country, as well as others experiencing their own upheavals, fled to Europe. Now that things have settled down, and Assad’s government is no longer in power in Syria, will the refugees return? Hollie McKay reports in The New York Sun:
One moment, Samer Scher was a hopeful college student marching for democracy in the streets of Modamiyeh, Syria; the next, gunfire erupted, silencing chants of freedom and turning dreams into nightmares.
As bullets tore through the air and friends fell lifeless beside him at the dawn of the Arab Spring in 2011, Mr. Scher realized their peaceful revolution had spiraled into a merciless war. Dragged from his home by tyrant Bashar Al-Assad’s soldiers, Mr. Scher was beaten, humiliated, shot six times — and left for dead in a pool of his own blood.
Against all odds, Mr. Scher survived, enduring years of terror before fleeing Syria for Germany in 2015. Now 33, Mr. Scher, an Information Technology consultant, is one of more than 1.2 million Syrians living in Germany. Most arrived after Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the border and allowed refugees to enter without restrictions.
For the first time in years, Mr. Scher is now considering what was unrealistic and unthinkable a week ago: whether he can finally go home. In a lightning-fast offensive that shocked the world, Syrian rebels — led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — reached the capital, Damascus, late Saturday, toppling the Assad family’s 54-year rule.
“Today, our homeland is back to us, and we no longer need to remain refugees. I will be very proud when this description disappears from me,” Mr. Scher tells The New York Sun via encrypted messenger this week. “Most Syrian refugees will return to the country to contribute to its reconstruction despite the many challenges and fears. But everything is possible now after the removal of the dictator.”
In a message to “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Commander Hasan Abdul Ghani urged in a tweet over the weekend for “the displaced all over the world” to return, writing that “free Syria awaits you.” Given that persecution, compulsory military service, and retribution are now less of a worry with Mr. Assad and his family now political asylees in Moscow, does this mean that the world’s largest refugee crisis will finally abate?
As of November, Syria faced the world’s largest displacement catastrophe, with 13.8 million uprooted since the conflict erupted. Refugees in neighboring countries, including Lebanon and Turkey, hosts to the biggest number of Syrians — 3 million and 1.1 million, respectively — have already begun the journey in cars and on foot to their native land, a place many haven’t seen in years.
Read more here.
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