12/11/2024December 11, 2024
Syrian refugees speak to DW about their hopes to return home
Refugees from Syria’s 14-year civil war have started making their way home as some European countries have put asylum applications from the country on pause.
Many are returning from , which has taken in the most refugees from Syria globally, with about 3 million currently living in the country, according to UN figures.
People are heading home after a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, with cities bombed to ruins, large parts of the countryside depopulated, the economy devastated by international sanctions and millions still living in camps.
DW correspondent Julia Hahn spoke to Syrians waiting to return home at the Turkish border crossing Cilvegözu — called Bab Al-Hawa on the Syrian side — near the Turkish town of Reyhanli.
Aladdin, a 28-year-old man on his way back to Aleppo, said his family had been in Turkey for 12 years.
“Now Syria is very beautiful, Assad is gone. Everything is good and we will go back, our home is there,” he said. “Everything is there. We will go and stay there,” he said.
Aladdin vowed to go back and help rebuild Syria.
“We will do what we can to rebuild, we will stay there, for our country, and our children,” he added.
Hussein, a 21-year-old man from Damascus, said he was returning to the Syrian capital to see his family, whom he hadn’t seen in 14 years.
“Assad took our lands, he took our houses. Now that Assad is gone, we will take them back. Inshallah [God willing] we will see a new Syria,” Hussein said.
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