Denmark wants to send Syrian refugees home | SBS Dateline

Say hello to the new Syria. A sunny place to relax, unwind and leave the world behind. Explosion of history, culture and emotion. Syria is "always beautiful." At least that is the official line used by the Syrian government in its tourism campaigns. Yes, tourism campaigns. I know people are excited. and in these posts from a horde of travel vloggers who spend their holidays under the supervision of the regime. Let's go in. Under president and accused war criminal Bashar al-Assad, the message is that the worst of the war is over. The new Syria is open not only to visitors and investors, but also to the millions of

refugees

who fled the regime and the war.

It seems almost too good to be true. After 12 years of civil war, a growing number of countries now say it is safe for Syrian

refugees

to return

home

. But with 6 million people still displaced, we have come to discover whether returning to Syria could actually be a deadly mistake. Denmark may seem like an odd place to start a story about the war in Syria, but the country has taken in more than 34,000 Syrian refugees since the war broke out in 2011. The Awad brothers fled the Syrian capital, Damascus, with their parents. almost a decade ago. back. After obtaining temporary residency, the brothers have prospered in Denmark.

Maryam, 22, works in a nursing

home

. Aya, 19, recently finished high school and Mohamad, 17, is still studying. They tell their memories of Syria in fluent Danish. Sparked by pro-democracy protests in 2011, the Syrian civil war has left the country violently scarred. Fighting between President Assad's forces, backed by Russia, and a host of rebel groups has killed more than 350,000 people, inflicted barbaric human rights abuses and seen 7 million Syrians flee the country and another 6 million displaced in their homes. But today, after regaining control of about 70% of the country, the Assad regime says it is time for citizens to return. Talking about the future of Syria.

It is completely open. Despite the claims, stories of regime intimidation and abuse of returnees are common, and only 6% of Syrians, once labeled traitors for fleeing the war, have returned voluntarily. So what was it you wanted to show me? Yes, I want to show it to you here. After escaping the horrors of the Syrian war, the Awad thought they would never return. But in 2019, Maryam and Aya received a devastating letter from the Danish government. So what does it mean for you and your sister? Claiming that some parts of Syria are now safe, Denmark's Immigration Ministry canceled the sisters' visas and ordered them to return.

In a cruel twist, their parents have permanent asylum as political refugees and Mohamad is a minor, so he cannot be deported, leaving the sisters alone to return to Syria. The sisters now join more than 1,000 Syrians who have had their visas re-evaluated thanks to a seismic shift in Danish immigration policy. Charlotte Slente of the Danish Refugee Council explains. It was a law introduced in Denmark in 2015 to grant temporary permits to refugees in Denmark not based on their individual type of human rights or security situation, but based on the widespread situation of war and fighting in Syria. And it was also established that if the combat conditions improve just a little, we could consider

send

ing people back.

According to the assessment of Danish authorities, refugees from designated conflict zones were granted temporary refuge, but their visas could be revoked if the war ended in their areas. In 2019, Assad's forces retook large areas of the country. Denmark classified Damascus and its outer regions as safe, canceling hundreds of protection visas in the process. We do not understand why Denmark

wants

to stand out as the only country in Europe that returns Syrians to Syria. I mean, these are people who have been through a lot of hardship. They have found refuge in Denmark. They are trying to build a life here.

Their children go to school here. People have learned Danish. It is very, very difficult to understand these decisions of the Danish government. I have to admit. Facing deportation, Maryam and Aya have requested a hearing before the Danish Refugee Appeals Board. With the help of a lawyer, the sisters will argue that they cannot safely return to Syria because the regime is searching for their father. What do you think would happen to you if you were sent back to Syria? Maryam and Aya believe they have a strong case. But two years have passed since they filed their appeal and they still do not have a hearing date.

The Awad sisters face an anxious wait. Refugees who lose their appeals are taken to Avenstrup to await deportation. Last year, Hadiya and her children lost their temporary protected status after living in Denmark for almost a decade. Hadiya refused to leave and now she cannot be forcibly deported due to the Geneva Convention. Denmark and other Western governments do not recognize Bashar al-Assad's government, meaning that an agreement cannot really be reached with that regime on the return of Syrians. And until that happens, they won't be able to

send

anyone back. They are going to send them to these centers.

Yes. It seems like they could be there forever. I mean, they could be there for a long, long time. I would do it, I would evaluate it. Indefinite detention seems at odds with Denmark's socially progressive reputation, but the country is changing. Hoping to steal votes from rising populist parties, Denmark's left-wing government has introduced a series of hardline immigration reforms reminiscent of Australia's "Stop the Boats" plan. Our goal is for them to return home. Aiming to have no asylum seekers, refugees can now be sent to Rwanda for processing, their assets confiscated to pay for detention and those without visas who can be legally deported are being forcibly removed.

What happens next with Hadiya depends entirely on the Danish authorities. But this mother is convinced that there is one place she will never go. But is returning to Syria really a death sentence? Türkiye has been the most affected by the Syrian refugee crisis. It is hosting some 3.6 million refugees, almost four times more than the entire European Union. In cities near the border, like Gaziantep, many Syrians have heard the regime's promise of peace. We are here to find out what happens to those who return to Syria. Hello Evan. Good day. How are you? Good. Yes ok.

Thank you. Mohamad Taha is a prominent Syrian activist and founder of the NGO Justice for Life. Mohamad has been inside Syria interviewing returnees and their families. Today he agreed to share his findings and take us to the Syrian border. We can arrive? We stopped at a police checkpoint. Can we bring the press card please? Recent violence and mortar attacks near the border have authorities on high alert. But with Syria just a short distance away, this is as far as we can go. Just ten kilometers from here, Turkish forces have been fighting various militias and, in November last year, Kurdish rebels were bombed in regime-held Aleppo.

Clashes continue between Assad's forces and opposition groups in Idlib province. And last month Damascus was hit by Israeli airstrikes. But despite the continued fighting, it appears that the biggest threat facing the returnees is not war. What are you finding about people who have returned to Syria in recent years? Far from the border, we managed to get an interview with a young man who recently returned to Syria and says that he was detained by the regime. His story is terrifying. Ibrahim and his family fled Syria to Jordan when he was just a child. They returned to his village when they thought he was safe.

But when Ibrahim visited Damascus in 2019 to apply for a passport, he says he was a victim of the regime. Ibrahim says he was released without charge after a relative bribed prison officials. But he was immediately drafted into the army and served six months before fleeing and then paying human traffickers to take him to Turkey. What do you think would happen to you if you went back to Syria now? Surprisingly, Ibrahim and others like him could soon face that situation. There are rumors that the Assad regime is negotiating the forced return of Syrians from Türkiye. I ask Ibrahim why he believes the regime

wants

them back.

Some governments in Europe now say it is safe to return to Syria. What would you say about that? We presented these accusations to the Syrian government, but they did not respond. According to human rights groups, more than 95,000 people have been forcibly disappeared at the hands of the regime since the war began. A world away, Maryam and Aya's fight against deportation to Syria is at a critical point. The sisters' case is finally being heard by the Danish Refugee Appeals Board. They hope that by presenting evidence similar to that of Mohamad and Ibrahim, the board will rule that deporting them to Syria is inhumane.

After a two-year wait, the sisters are finally called before the board. With its future in the hands of the Danish authorities. I want to know how they ended up here in the first place. Denmark has revoked the temporary protection visas of hundreds of Syrian refugees, threatening to deport them back into danger. We are present in almost 40 countries around the world where we have operations. Founded in 1956, the Danish Refugee Council is Denmark's largest nonprofit organization and one of the world's leading refugee protection groups. Therefore, our humanitarian assistance is closely related to supporting both internally displaced people in the countries and refugees who are welcomed in neighboring countries in conflict.

But when Danish authorities classified parts of Syria as safe, their decision was based in part on the findings of a 2019 report co-authored by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Syria report was a report on the security situation in Syria at that time, in 2019, when it was produced. And what was the result of your report? I mean, the report itself doesn't provide any conclusions. He only talked about the security situation and said that yes, the security conditions have improved in Damascus and Rural Damascus, that is, in the entire Syrian area. But the Danish government decided to interpret the fact that there is no fighting as if it were safe to send Syrians back to Syria.

Is that basically the problem with the report that you just allowed it to be used in this world? No, I think the main problem here is the law that was passed in 2015, which even says that slight improvements in the fighting situation in a given country could pave the way to start considering returns. That was known before his report was written. So by then coming to the conclusion that there is some peace in some parts of the country, were they consciously getting themselves into that situation where the report would be used as a basis? I don't think you can say that.

This report says nothing about whether it is safe for Syrians to return. Yes, but you knew the government was looking for a reason to send people back. They had the visa category for that. Again, was it the right thing to get involved? Wouldn't it perhaps be better not to have participated in the report that is now being selected? There is always the risk that a report could be used incorrectly, as was done here. Does it make you reconsider whether the DRC should do this type of reporting in the future? In fact, every time we are invited to participate in one of these research reports, we consider whether we want to contribute or not.

And obviously we have serious conversations with the authorities here about these issues and continue to do so. Historically, the third largest contributor to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's budget has been the Danish government. The DRC vehemently maintains that this has no bearing on its work or its reporting. After a two-year wait, the Refugee Board finally reached a verdict in the Awad sisters' case. Maryam and Aya have been granted a continuous residence visa, overturning their deportation and paving the way to full citizenship. But the moment is bittersweet. A third of the appeals that reached the court failed, leaving families to choose between a detention center or returning to Syria.