Denmark offers Syrian refugees money to return home or be put in a deportation centre

naveen al-raha is from damascus in october when his residence permit in

denmark

was rejected he also walked along the copenhagen seafront to say goodbye to the little mermaid two women trapped between two worlds if his appeal fails he will have to

return

to damascus voluntarily or be placed in a

deportation

center our filming is interrupted by a video call from our 10 year old son who is still in damascus naveen arrived here in 2014 with her father due to her activism against Assad it was agreed that she would leave her husband and two children to go to

denmark

the idea that she would travel first and then apply for family reunification did not work out so her husband eventually remarried denmark is the first eu country to revoke residence permits that were never permanent for people like naveen Considering that Damascus and its The surrounding areas are safe to

return

to and, in fact, bombs no longer fall in neighborhoods like Yarmouk, where Naveen is from.

Naveen lives with her father and his mother on the outskirts of Copenhagen and supported the accommodation with benefits. They have invited Rahab, 66, for coffee. rahab is in the same position as naveen residence revoked pending appeal and possible

deportation

the difference she has no family or connections in damascus everyone in this room is now in europe including rahab on the right in white this is what remains of the house from rahab in damascus filmed a few years ago there are about a hundred

syrian

s in the same position who naveen and rahab in denmark ready to return with residence refused if they refuse to return they could be put in a deportation center if they return voluntarily they could receive an incentive 30,000 euros per adult to do it. about 130 Syrians have chosen this option.

An estimated 30,000 have arrived in Denmark since the war in Syria began. The Danish government's perspective is: I guess why should the Danish state have to look? After you forever, yes, it is like that, but why should the daily status take care of you forever? Why do they say we are welcome in the first place? Yes, if they don't, if they can't help us or can't take care of us. of people why they accept those people, well their argument was that it was probably never a permanent arrangement, that it was all just a temporary arrangement and now that's coming to an end for some people, so that's the end of the deal but we try to be part of this country we did what they want we work we are working we are studying we are trying to be we are trying to get a

home

here we are traveling to one of the deportation centers where some Syrians await deportation on the way to a stopover in hamlet's cronenberg castle the social democrat minority government has co-opted the hardline immigration policies of the right-wing populist danish people's party the prime minister here talks about zero tolerance when it comes to new asylum seekers people who represent for some voters an assault to the welfare system here something rotten in denmark there is something right here we have people who have lived for 20 30 years they do not speak danish they do not give anything back and they come and claim social assistance from the first day and that is wrong, on the other hand, Denmark has accepted fewer

refugees

than some neighbors, Sweden, for example, neighboring Sweden, has accepted three times the number of Syrians, although it is a larger country for other voters, this is the security policy lying in fear normally when you see that you have problems you have to find an enemy and then you find these people, I think so, then you think these people are being scapegoated, yes, finally, the deportation center near the castle, the Danish government has a big The problem is that they don't They can send back anyone who doesn't want to go because the government doesn't talk to the Assad regime, so people could be stuck in places like this for years like this Kardashian we met outside, how long do you wait? we have to pass here the danish parliament castle sets the stage for nordic film noir and the government's immigration hard line how close do you think we are to someone being physically and forcibly removed yes to syria in the short term is not enough that is likely to happen because we don't cooperate with Assad and as long as we don't we can't force anyone to return to Syria, yes, so they will be stuck somewhere else for years until the Syrian conflict comes that they will have to live in. in a center until the situation changes in Syria or they choose to return voluntarily as some of their compatriots have already done.

This is where politics and people collide because the bombs have stopped but the regime endures and when you ask her about her return, she remembers being on a bus at a checkpoint in Damascus seven years ago, a soldier overheard a woman with children complaining about the weight trying to push this minibus and saying some bad words to all of us and saying: I will kill you all. you and in the end she gave up she preferred to be killed or arrested so as not to put us all in this situation can you imagine this moment you are not your country it is not a country to live in why what she said just one word she does not deserve that I was looking at her I don't know what happened to her the questions then when a refugee stops being one when

home

stops being that and when she will never stop having nightmares where she is the woman On the bus