Refugees in France hit by reality of returning home to post-Assad Syria

Europe‘s cautious optimism on the rebel group that has taken over most of the country

Syrian writer and husband of Samira Khalil, Yassin al-Haj Saleh at the Samira Al Khalil Prize ceremony in Paris. EPA

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France's Syrian community is anxiously watching developments in Syria despite the initial euphoria triggered by the fall of Bashar Al Assad as uncertainties remain over how rebels will rule from Damascus.

“I was on a cloud for a few days, but now reality has smacked me in the face,” said Rudi Osman, 37, who fled to France in 2012 and obtained political asylum.

It is no longer the threat of arrest and torture from the Assad regime that is keeping Mr Osman from his homeland. Travelling back, even if it was only intended to be briefly to meet relatives or friends, could mean choosing between his birthplace and the country where he has rebuilt his life over the last decade.

Refugees like Mr Osman lose their refugee status if they go home. The reasoning is that they have put themselves under the protection of their host state. If they can return, this means they are not in danger any more and are thus not entitled to refugee status.

Mr Osman had been detained and tortured for organising anti-Assad protests as a law student in the Syrian capital at the start of a popular uprising which later morphed into civil war, killing 500,000 people and displacing millions.

There have been several red flags in the conduct of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham since it led a rebel takeover of Damascus on Sunday that toppled the five-decade Assad rule, despite its repeated assurances towards minorities, said Mr Osman.

They include attempts by HTS leader, Ahmad Al Shara, formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al Jawlani, to centralise power. Rebels groups have appointed an HTS-affiliated politician, Mohammad Al Bashir, as interim prime minister. There are also fears of revenge attacks on people accused of working for the regime's security services.

Meanwhile, Mr Osman's native region in Syria's north-east has seen renewed fighting as Turkish-backed rebels attempt to push out Kurdish groups which took over the region in 2012.

Lack of democracy

In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Mr Al Bashir on Wednesday said that one of his first goals was to “bring back the millions of Syrian refugees who are abroad”. “Their human capital, their experience will allow the country to flourish,” he said.

However, his calls have not convinced Mr Osman, who heads an NGO that supports exiled students in France and describes himself as a secular democrat. He said that western countries should do more to support people like him as Syria enters a new era.

“I'd like to see all Syrians represented in the transitional government, but that's not the case,” he said. “There's opportunities to do a lot for Syria, but it's important to be sure that I won't be shot dead if I return to Damascus. I'm a pacifist who can't help speaking out. I have no one to defend me.”

Europe has expressed wary optimism about the end of the Assad regime and adopted a cautionary approach with HTS, which it has called to respect human rights and minorities, particularly Christians.

HTS was listed by the UN, the EU and the US as a terror organisation in 2014 because of its affiliation with Al Qaeda, from which it broke off two years later. Sanctions against the Syrian state, its banking sector and the economy remain in place despite them being rooted in Mr Al Assad's atrocities against his people, including torture and arbitrary arrests.

The immediate calls from some European capitals such as Vienna to deport Syrians back home after the rebel takeover has appeared to many Syrians as a contradictory and bewildering decision. “It's understandable that the asylum process for Syrians should be reviewed, but Syria remains an unsafe country,” said Mr Osman.

Despite having the right to request French citizenship as a refugee living in France, Mr Osman, who speaks perfect French, has never filed a request on principle. “It was a way of telling myself that the day I return to Syria, I'll be there to stay and fight for my country, with no easy way out thanks to another passport.”

In the past decade, France has granted asylum status to 30,000 Syrians. This cannot be revoked even in the case of a change in regime in their home country. Questions remain regarding the 700 pending requests lodged by Syrians, which include children, at France's refugee protection agency (Ofpra). “They might be put on standby as we wait and see how the situation in Syria evolves,” Christophe Pouly, associate researcher at Sciences Po University and a specialist in asylum policies, told The National.

Across the EU, Syrians had been able to request a less permanent status than refugee status which covers people coming from countries at war but not facing persecution for personal reasons called subsidiary protection. In Germany, about one third of the one million Syrians living there benefit from this status, which politicians have said should now be revoked.

People with subsidiary protection are allowed to return for short trips to Syria, particularly in the case of deaths in the family. Subsidiary protection has been removed in the past, such as in the case of Afghan citizens living in Europe after the Taliban 2021 takeover. But Afghans considered at risk of persecution, such as women, can still obtain asylum.

Official data shows more than 100,000 asylum requests by Syrian citizens were pending across the EU at the end of October. The EU's asylum agency said that across the bloc there were just over 108,200 applications from Syrian nationals awaiting a first-instance decision at the end of October. The agency noted however that some applicants may have filed claims in several countries as they moved within the 27-nation EU.

Such details matter to the state but may not capture how people self-identify. Since last weekend, Mr Osman's view of himself has shifted, though his legal status in France remains unchanged. “I've stopped introducing myself as a refugee. I'm a social entrepreneur,” he said.