Middle East Journal | Syria | Sep 2024
The Dream of Europe
Since the start of the war in Syria in March 2011, over 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes, taking refuge both internally and abroad. Many of the refugees fled to neighbouring states such as Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, and many made the journey to settle in Europe, Germany being the most welcoming and accepting over 850,000 people since the start of the conflict. To this day many still make the potentially life-threatening journey either across land via Turkey and Eastern Europe, or by crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Western Europe, often in dangerously overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels. In 2023, around 252,900 Syrians were thought to be in Europe without a legal presence. Although the conflict has stopped in many areas of the country, and people are beginning to return home, with over 38,000 Syrians returning to the country in 2023, many factors still push many to make the dangerous trip to Europe.
Western sanctions have severely impacted the economy of Syria, with the Syrian Pound incredibly weak compared to before 2011, it has caused serious inflation and has severely hindered much of the country’s reconstruction. All across Syria, it is almost impossible to find somewhere that hasn’t been touched by the conflict, The main road from Damascus to Aleppo is littered with villages and towns that have been completely abandoned and mostly destroyed. Even large cities such as Homs and Aleppo are still recovering from the conflict with large parts of the cities destroyed with slow reconstruction due to economic constraints. In addition to the destruction, some parts of the country are still under rebel control, with cities such as Al-Raqqa and Idlib under Opposition and Kurdish control respectively, the Syrian government as of 2024 controls about 70% of the country, preventing some from being physically able to return to their homes in occupied areas. Assad’s government itself acts as a push factor for some, due to severe authoritarian policies, use of secret police and virtually no political or press freedoms, some leave for Europe in fear of persecution from the authorities. One Man I met in Damascus called Abbas told me the story of how he tried to send his son to Europe via a smuggler. His son, Kalib, who I went on to meet later that day was only 17 when they tried to send him.
Abbas, his wife and their two sons live in the Christian quarter in Damascus, I had met him and his sons in a small restaurant in the evening of the day I had arrived in the city, and he had helped me order. Abbas spoke English very well as he had worked for various European companies in Syria before the war had broken out and all the business left, he had taught his sons fairly good English as well. His eldest son was Youseff and his youngest was Kalib, both of the boys were at university in the city studying international business and Engineering respectively. Four years prior he had tried to send Kalib to Europe to live with his brother who had moved to Germany at the start of the conflict. His brother had been working as a Dental assistant in Jordan before he decided to move himself and his family to Europe and had gotten a job as a warehouse worker once there. The plan was to get Kalib to his brother’s family and then to claim asylum, as it would be likely granted if he had travelled there without a family member over 18. Abbas tells me he wanted his son to go to have a better chance at succeeding in life and to get a better education, something that is hard in Syria post 2011. In order to get Kalib to Germany, Abbas had to start looking for someone who could smuggle him there, and that is when he consulted a mutual friend who worked for a Syrian travel agency.
The plan to get Kalib to Europe involved two flights, one from Beirut to Lagos, Nigeria, and the next one to Germany. The smuggler told Abbas that they would get him a fake Schengen visa once in Nigeria, and that the whole process would cost $4000. Concerned with the route, Abbas agreed and paid the deposit of $2000 up front and gave them Kalib’s passport. It would be two months of missed calls and unanswered messages before he would hear from the smuggler again, they had finally gotten Kalib’s Nigerian Visa, and was in his passport, however before returning it they demanded another $1000. Angered by this, Abbas refused to pay, telling them that a Visa for Nigeria should only cost $100, and this was all he was going to pay. The excuse from the smuggler was that they had to pay someone to do all the paperwork and embassy visits, and after back and forth arguing, he agreed to pay $500. It would be another two months before he actually got a flight to Nigeria, the smuggler said he would notify Abbas when he was to book the flights, which cost an additional $600. He explains how he began to have doubts about the smuggler, they had told him that they have a one hundred percent success rate with this route and that it had never failed, but the lack of communication and long waits were starting to make him think otherwise.
Al-Hamidiyah Souk, Damascus.
Eventually the day came around and he left with the smuggler for Beirut airport, the smuggler had to come with him to get past passport control as he was under 18 and on a tourist visa. They flew Ethiopian airlines to Lagos via Addis Ababa and got to Nigeria late the next evening. They passed through security with no issues. Abbas was initially told they would not be in the country longer than a week, but that soon turned into two weeks, and they still had not given Kalib the fake Schengen Visa. Abbas stayed in contact with his son throughout the day every day, as well as the smuggler, who kept promising him it would only be a few days. By the start of the third week in Lagos, he got a call from the smuggler asking for another $500 because of the issue with getting the fake visa, and regretfully he paid. Expecting after the payment he would get his Visa; it wouldn’t be for another three weeks in Lagos that they would book his flight to Frankfurt with Lufthansa.
It was the day Kalib was to fly to Germany, Abbas tells me he was on the phone to both him and the smuggler all morning, the smuggler was to take him to the airport security and from there he would be escorted to the gate. The visa had been stuck inside his passport and his boarding pass printed, and he passed through security without issues. He stayed on the phone all the way to passport control when he had to hang up. Abbas would not hear from Kalib or the smuggler for over 24 hours and began to seriously worry. It was the early hours of the morning two days later Abbas would finally get a phone call from Kalib. Distressed, he told his father that the border official suspected the Schengen visa to be fraudulent, as its location of issue was Damascus, and there was no German embassy or consulate in the city. Kalib had been taken aside, detained and released a day later.
Abbas called the smuggler up right away and demanded that his son was flown back to Beirut immediately but was met with bargaining that the visa was a mistake and that they could re issue it for another $1000. He repeatedly told the smuggler to put Kalib on the next plane out but was bombarded with prices to get Kalib to Germany still. With no other options, Abbas had to book the flight back to Beirut for him himself, spending an additional $600 as the smuggler refused to send him home. Within three days, Kalib was back in Damascus, and Abbas was out of over $4000. As Kalib had been out of school for so long, he had to beg the teachers to let him back into his old class, to which the teacher agreed to do.
For months, Abbas tried to contact the smuggler, they did not answer texts, emails or phone calls, he even regularly went to the travel agents where he had first met them but could not get in contact no matter how hard he tried. Eventually about 4 months from Kalib returning home, his call was answered. Their excuse was that they had been working in the UAE and were using a different phone, something he tells me that he thinks is a lie. Abbas demanded all the money that he had given them right away, even though the smuggler continuously blamed everybody else involved in the operation. Abbas did not care, he wanted his money back, and had to resort to threatening them, with what he refused to tell me, but was able to recover $2000 from them within a few days. The agreement that he made with the smuggler was that on their return from the UAE in a weeks’ time, he would receive the rest of his money in person. One week turned to two, then three and by the fourth week their phone number stopped working after he received a text explaining they were stuck in the UAE. Believing this was fabricated to stop them from paying, Abbas used a friend’s cell phone to call the smuggler, and as he suspected, they answered as the Syrian travel agent in Damascus. Upon realising it was Abbas they hung up, and that was the last he ever heard of the smuggler. He could not find them in Damascus, their phone number stop dialing and the website and contact information soon disappeared, although he continued to look for them for a few years after. To this day, Abbas has lost over $2000 to the smuggler, he believes they are not in Syria anymore.
I spoke with Kalib who tells me he is still planning on leaving Syria for Europe, he has decided to finish his university education and get his degree before he tries again, with his current plan to get a job as an engineer in Europe, ideally Germany. I meet two of his friends who also intend on going to Europe and tell me that they need to save up money to pay someone to get them there. Some boys that Kalib knew from school made the journey to Europe, with some making it across the Mediterranean to Italy. Kalib explains how his passport is useless, being the second weakest in the world and on par with countries like Somalia and Afghanistan. His dream is to bring the rest of his family with him, but this can be very difficult. Abbas has been saving up again since the last time he tried to get his son to Europe in case they need to try again, this time with his brother too likely whose desire is also to go to Europe.Meeting the people who intend to enter Europe via illegal means puts a face and story to the situation, seeing the conditions of life in Syria, with a sanctioned and fractured economy, instability and now the new threat of a wider conflict in the middle east following October 7th 2023, it becomes clear why some are willing to risk their lives to build a better life for themselves and their families. And whilst Assad remains in power and international powers play chess in Syria with various factions and rebel groups, the situation is unlikely to change, and the Syrian people are unlikely to return to the peace and stability they had before 2011.
A group of boys near Lattakia, West Syria (Unrelated to story)