The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime was greeted with great joy among the Syrian diaspora around the world, especially among those who had to leave the country during a civil war that lasted more than 13 years. In many European cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, celebratory rallies were organized in mid-December. In Spain there are nearly 20,000 Syrian refugees or asylum seekers registered. The possibility of returning to Syria has been part of their regular conversations in recent weeks. Many of them want to return to their country, but they face serious obstacles that make it difficult.
Majid Hamdan, 33, is one of the lucky ones who have Spanish nationality and have been able to travel to Syria for a few days “to see how the situation is.” “I feel a mixture of joy for being here in Syria, and sadness for the poverty I see. Many people can barely buy bread,” he comments from the north, the province of Idlib, the fiefdom of the Islamist militias that overthrew Assad. “Here, things are better. At least there is electricity all day. In the rest of the country, there are only a couple of hours… In my village, Zabadani, my family’s house and many others are in ruins. Right now, it is impossible for my family to move to Syria,” adds Hamdan, who lives with his wife and three children in Zamora.
“There are people who work here and cannot break contracts. Others have their homes destroyed. And there are also those who suffer from serious illnesses,” says Okba Mohamed, refugee journalist and co-founder of the media. on-lineinformation on Syria Baynana. According to ophthalmologist Mouafak Asaad, for the latter, the sick, it would be crazy to return. “I have visited many public hospitals in the country, and I have only seen one that is more or less functional. Some looked like a stable more than a hospital,” laments Assad, head of the Ophthalmology Service of the Terrassa Health Consortium (Barcelona).
Resident in Spain for more than 40 years, in his case the reason for the visit to Syria was to evaluate the state of the public health system to design a future cooperation project or coordinate the sending of aid. “The war has changed everything. In 2008, the level of hospitals were not very different from those in Catalonia,” he recalls, sitting in a Damascus restaurant. Currently, it is estimated that 90% of the Syrian population lives below the poverty line and, according to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, some 16 million inhabitants, 75% of the total, require humanitarian aid. “Not only are the salaries very low, the prices are not that cheap. Having a coffee costs almost the same as in Barcelona,” Asaad asserts.
The problems of returning to Syria are not only economic. Bureaucracy also influences. “It makes no sense to stay in Spain now. But, at the moment, I can’t go back because I’m in legal limbo. I have been trapped here for six years,” explains Mohamed. Like many other members of the diaspora, this refugee journalist does not have his Syrian passport in order and has not yet received Spanish nationality. During the conflict, many embassies in the Arab country refused to renew the documents of people who had sought refuge abroad, a kind of punishment for assuming that they supported the rebels. “The new authorities have said that now the embassies will once again issue documents to all Syrians. But I have called the one in Madrid and they don’t pick up the phone,” says Mohamed, a 26-year-old young man living in the Spanish capital.
Bassem Bedawi, a 32-year-old English literature graduate from the University of Barcelona, is in a similar legal situation. “I would like to be able to go to see how the situation is and evaluate the option of returning. But, at the moment, I can’t do it because I don’t have papers,” says Bedawi in a telephone conversation. Türkiye, which hosts some three million Syrian refugees, has found a formula to overcome this obstacle and facilitate return plans. “The Government allows one member of each family to travel to Syria up to three times during a six-month period without losing their residence permit,” explains Muhsen Mustafa while sipping a glass of tea in the center of Damascus. He has lived in Istanbul for a decade and is the father of a 13-year-old daughter. He is not considering moving until the summer, when the school year is over. Many families with school-age children make a very similar reflection.
Return of 125,000 people
Of the nearly seven million Syrians who took refuge abroad during the war, some 125,000 have returned in the month since the fall of the old regime, according to UNHCR. Apart from Germany, the countries that welcomed the largest number of refugees are Syria’s neighbors: Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. Therefore, it is not surprising that the majority of returnees are from Türkiye and Jordan (50,000 from each of these two countries). In addition, nearly 500,000 of the 7.4 million internally displaced people have also returned to their homes. UNHCR calls for an effort from the international community to provide help to those who want to return. “If we do not move from words to actions, for many returnees their new life will mean sleeping surrounded by plastic sheets,” said Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR representative in Syria.
In the rest of the countries of the European Union, Syrian refugees face a situation similar to that of Spain. “I think very often about the question of return. But the decision will depend on whether there is an improvement in the situation on the ground, whether there is a more stable and secure environment,” says Ammar Naquib from Brussels.
Belgium is part of the group of EU countries along with countries such as Germany, Austria, Finland and Sweden that a few weeks after Assad’s flight to Russia decided to suspend the asylum request processes. However, this does not mean that Syrians residing in these countries will be deported. According to the European Commission, currently, “the conditions for a safe, voluntary and dignified return to Syria do not exist.” For now, the majority of Syrians will have to wait to fulfill their dream of returning to their country.
