Life in Syria is out of the question | Middle East | '
The old, strong tree at the side entrance of the American University Beirut is a meeting place for many people. The Palestinian Syrian Qaes Said meets acquaintances there. He is not as rooted as this tree in Beirut, but he says, "I live here now, I have made my peace with the fact that I will not return to Syria."
Today, the 32-year-old has come to participate in an event on "Syrian returnees" at the Issam Fares Institute. The topic is virulent in Lebanon. Recently, the Lebanese government issued a decree: Syrians who came into the country after April 2019 can be deported, no matter what danger they might face in their homeland. In addition, once a month, the Lebanese security authorities bring volunteers back to the Syrian border by bus.
"There's a lot of pressure in Lebanon, and I do not condemn anyone for wanting to go back, for personal reasons," says Qaes Said. For him, who does not want to give his real name, that would not be an option. He entered Lebanon legally five years ago and was able to catch up with his mother and sister a year later. Initially, three of them lived in two rooms in southern Beirut, but his sister is now in Canada. She received a scholarship for studying in 2017. "I'll take care of my mother," her brother explains: "She's traumatized by what happened in Syria, and I did not feel well in Lebanon for the first few months."
Qaes Said does not want to leave Lebanon
Disappeared in Syria
Qaes Said grew up with his younger sister and younger brother in the Palestinian refugee camp Jarmouk near Damascus. They were fine, he reports. Although the war raged in much of the country in 2012, he graduated from the University of Damascus with a degree in economics. Shortly thereafter, several warring parties besieged Jarmouk: "The people fled when the first air raids on the camp occurred, and my family and I moved to a hotel in Damascus." But Said returned to the camp a little later. He already worked as a casually with a youth organization. And he wanted to help the young and old backslider: "I will never forget the image of the women and children who begged us to help them – as if we were their last hope."
But in 2013, what Said had heard many times, but had never thought to experience it himself, happened: "The Syrian secret service stormed the hotel where my family was." He took everyone away-my parents and siblings. " As he talks about it, his voice lowers: "My parents and my sister came home a few weeks later, and my brother has not had any trace of it since." He is silent and looks at the floor. "My mother wanted me to go to Beirut, she was worried about me because working in the camp did not tell anyone if I would be next." Even before he left in the spring of 2014, his father died. Qaes Said found it difficult to leave his mother and sister behind. He was able to travel to Lebanon, although he was conscripted. As a student, he was allowed to postpone his service in the army.
Military service or jail?
But now five years have passed and the Syrian regime does not know that he and his family are in Lebanon. "I do not know what would happen if I went back, but it could be that I'm either in the army or in jail."
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly stressed that refugees could return without fear of reprisals. But reports from various organizations, including Amnesty International and Sawa, a Syrian NGO in Beirut, speak a different language: some returnees were arrested, some tortured. Syria's dreaded chief of the Air Force intelligence service, Jamil Hassan, also speaks openly of wanted lists containing opposition figures and their relatives.
Qaes Said does not want to take the risk: "The same people are still in power, but in Syria nothing has changed politically, so why should this be different?" He is certain: "Assad wants non-political people in Syria, he wants Syrians who are neutral." He was no longer. "As Palestinian refugees, my family and I used to stay out of political discussions."
For a free life
Said no longer wants to live in political bondage. Because one thing is clear: As long as Bashar al-Assad is in office, there will be no security. The regime needs insecurity, so that no one rebels against the rulers.
The Syrian Quaes Said misses his homeland, but does not want to go back to bondage
"I did not expect much from Lebanon and I was lucky in relation to others," he says. By this he means that since his arrival he constantly has jobs with non-governmental organizations and thus can feed his mother and himself. "I know many who want to go back, because they can not pay everything here anymore and the Syrians are blamed for all the problems in the country." The climate is often tense. On the one hand, the additional refugees have increased the pressure on the informal labor market and, on the other hand, cheap living space is scarce. A good 950,000 Syrians are registered in Lebanon, according to the UNHCR, the number of unreported cases is said to be much higher.
Deportations to Syria
He now knew where to identify himself as a Syrian and where not, says Said: "Some time ago I would not have been able to tell the story of my family so easily, I would have found it very difficult, but I learned it to live." Qaes Said wants a life of dignity, he says. "I'm not the only one who has done this, it's a pain many Syrians share." Of course, he often thinks of his homeland Syria: "But I want to live in a place where I can travel, move, be free, I never want to hear again that someone has been abducted or tortured."
He therefore worries about those Syrians who are forcibly returned by the Lebanese state. Eight Lebanese organizations have already called on the government to end this practice. Because Syrians have the right to seek asylum in Lebanon, it says in the appeal of the Beirut organization "The Legal Agenda". "Even if it concerns those who have been in the country since April, it is not out of the question that Lebanon could expand the deportations," says Qaes Said worriedly: "You never know what's coming next, and I have to live with that too . "
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