February 7, 2018 The Skanner Portland Page 13
News
Still a Trickle, But Refugees Sick of Exile Return to Syria
By Bassem Mroue
Associated Press
ALEPPO, Syria — Des-
perate to escape Syria’s
terrors, Ammar Maara-
wi bolted. In early 2016,
he paid smugglers and
endured a dangerous sea
crossing to Greece and
an exhausting journey
by train, bus and foot
through Europe.
Two years later, the
36-year-old is back home
in Aleppo. He returned
last summer — de-
pressed, homesick and
dreading another winter,
he couldn’t bear life in
the German city of Suhl.
Germany, he said, “was
boring, boring, boring.”
Maarawi is among a
small number of refu-
gees who have come back
to Syria from among the
more than 5.4 million
who fled their homeland
since the civil war erupt-
ed in 2011. So far, they are
just a trickle, numbering
in the tens of thousands.
The United Nations and
host governments in Eu-
rope are not encouraging
returns, saying the coun-
try is not safe.
But the stream of re-
turnees may grow over
the coming year as sta-
bility returns to Syria
and as hostility grows to
refugees in host nations.
The Russia- and Iran-
backed military of Pres-
ident Bashar Assad has
retaken almost all major
cities, and the Islamic
State group has been
driven out of almost all
the territory it once held.
Motivations for going
back are many. Simple
homesickness is one.
Many refugees have
burned through what-
ever savings they have
and either can’t find or
aren’t allowed to work.
Hundreds of thousands
languish in camps in
the neighbor countries.
Those who make it to Eu-
rope often get assistance,
but some find the West
doesn’t hold the oppor-
tunities they hoped — or
they face discrimination
or they feel alienated in
a different culture with
language barriers and
harsh weather.
Still, the reasons to
remain in exile also
weigh heavily. The calm
in some parts of Syria
relies on tenuous local
truces. Fighting still rag-
es in some areas, includ-
ing between Assad and
rebels in the northwest
and other pockets. Many
young men won’t come
back fearing they’ll have
to do their compulsory
military service. Even in
parts where fighting has
stopped and seems un-
likely to return for the
moment, cities have suf-
fered massive destruc-
“
the most recent figures
available, according to
spokesman Andrej Mah-
ecic. He said the number
of returnees is dwarfed
by those remaining in
Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey
and Europe, and those
still leaving Syria.
Turkey, home to 3.5
million Syrian refugees,
seized a pocket of terri-
tory in northwest Syr-
ia along the countries’
shared border last year.
Since then, some 130,000
Syrians from that area
have returned.
From Jordan, home to
650,000 refugees, only
around 8,000 Syrians
returned home in all of
2017, according to UNHCR
figures. Most went soon
after a local truce was
reached in part of south-
ern Syria in July, then
the numbers tapered off
later in
the year.
In Leba-
non, the
UNHCR
said last
month
that the
number
of regis-
tered refugees dropped
to below one million for
the first time since 2014.
Some had resettled in
third countries or had
died, but a few thousand
returned home.
Not all are going back
because they are ready.
One woman, Umm Wis-
sam, told The Associat-
ed Press she returned
to Syria in August after
six years in Jordan. Her
husband was deported
several months earlier
— one of around 2,300
deported by Jordan in
2017. He had been work-
ing in construction in
Jordan and without his
income, Umm Wissam
and the couple’s five chil-
dren couldn’t continue
to live there. The family
is from Aleppo, but the
The situation here,
unfortunately, is no
water, no electricity,
no work. Our situa-
tion is very tiring, I
swear to God
tion. An estimate 6.1 mil-
lion Syrians still in the
country are displaced
from their homes — so
refugees are not the only
ones waiting to go back.
Figures on returnees
are difficult to pin down.
Syrian officials say they
do not have exact num-
bers, adding that many
come back through Leb-
anon and are not ques-
tioned if they were refu-
gees or simply travelling
Syrians. European coun-
tries and Turkey do not
track whether Syrians
leaving are returning
home.
The UNHCR has ob-
served some 68,000 ref-
ugees who returned on
their own from neigh-
boring countries from
January to October 2017,
cost of living there has
forced them to settle in
the southern Syrian city
of Daraa.
“The situation here, un-
fortunately, is no water,
no electricity, no work.
Our situation is very tir-
ing, I swear to God,” she
wrote on WhatsApp.
Maarawi, meanwhile,
is happy to be home. He
sat behind a desk in his
tire repair shop near
Aleppo’s main Saadallah
al-Jabiri Square. The city
is largely at peace now
after government forces
defeated rebels there in
December 2016.
Like many others,
Maarawi embarked on
an epic journey to reach
safety in Europe. He left
Syria in January 2016.
From Turkey, he took
one of the crowded, in-
flatable smugglers’ boats
to the Greek island of
Lesbos — an especially
hazardous trip, because
he doesn’t know how to
swim. He made his way
across Macedonia, Ser-
bia, Slovenia, Croatia and
Austria, enduring long
train rides and walks
through forests.
In Germany, he began
AP PHOTO/HASSAN AMMAR
Stream of returnees may grow as stability returns to the country
In this Jan. 19, 2018 photo, Adeeb Ayoub, 13, who had left Syriai with
his uncle in 2015 to Germany, runs next to homemade cannon, in
Aleppo, Syria. A small but growing number of refugees are returning
to Syria, including some who made a dangerous sea journey to
Europe to flee the war. Unable to stand the cold weather, language
barrier, unemployment and depression, they have chosen to return
to their war-torn country rather than stay in Europe.
learning the language
and training for work.
The Germans provided
food, clothes and a sti-
pend, but, “in the town
where I was staying
there was no life, there
were few people, you suf-
fer psychological pres-
sure, depression, and it
is cold,” he said.
He lasted just a few
months, returning in
July.
Adeeb Ayoub, a 13-year-
old, took the sea trip to
Greece with his uncle in
2015. “I felt that the pos-
sibility of surviving the
sea is bigger than surviv-
ing in Aleppo,” said his
father, Firas Ayoub.
“Before, if you had giv-
en me Europe, America
and all the continents of
the world, I would not
leave my country,” said
Firas, who owns a choco-
late shop in central Alep-
po. “The idea of leav-
ing came when the war
crushed everything. Can
someone stay and live in
a ball of fire? Wherever
you go, it’s fire, shells and
rockets.”