All police officers charged in Germany in connection with the death of knife-wielding Senegalese teenager, Mouhamed Dramé, in a police operation in August 2022 have been acquitted by the Dortmund regional court.
On Thursday, the court ruled that the 31-year-old officer who fatally shot the 16-year-old migrant was acting in self-defense and did not commit a crime.
Presiding Judge Thomas Kelm stated that the officer’s actions were justified under the circumstances. “The shooter believed he was in a self-defense situation,” the judge said.
The service group leader, initially accused of negligent homicide, was also acquitted. The court rejected the prosecution’s claim that the leader’s order to use pepper spray had provoked the tragic events. Instead, it concluded that the decision to intervene was justified to prevent the teen from harming himself or others.
The prosecutor, who had earlier sought convictions for grievous bodily harm for some officers, reversed course during the trial and called for acquittals for nearly all defendants, arguing the situation required split-second decisions that were made under duress. The public prosecutor’s office did, however, insist on a ten-month suspended sentence for the 56-year-old service group leader accused of negligent homicide — a demand thrown out by the court.
The incident unfolded on Aug. 8, 2022, when police responded to reports of a young man armed with a knife on church property. Mouhamed D., a refugee from Senegal, allegedly threatened to stab himself when officers arrived. Attempts to de-escalate the situation through dialogue failed, leading the service group leader to order the use of pepper spray. However, instead of disarming, the migrant teen reportedly ran toward officers with the knife. Tasers were deployed but failed to stop him, prompting one officer to fire six shots with a submachine gun. The teenager was pronounced dead shortly after.
The case ignited significant public and political debate. In the courtroom, chants of “Justice for Mohamed” and “That was murder!” erupted after the verdict was announced. Outside the court, the decision was met with condemnation from various left-wing groups and individuals.
Bundestag member Martina Renner of the Left Party described the ruling as a “scandal judgment” on social media. The verdict also drew criticism from local politicians, with members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens questioning the proportionality of the police response.
“In view of the great numerical superiority, was there really no other and milder way to avert the danger?” asked SPD lawmakers from Dortmund in a joint statement. Green Party representatives expressed their shock and offered condolences, highlighting broader concerns about racism and trust between police and migrant communities.
Danish Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal (Venstre) Party, Troels Lund Poulsen, has announced plans to review “non-Western immigrant” access to early retirement pensions.
Poulsen, citing disparities in the number of recipients from immigrant backgrounds compared to native Danes, said he wanted to reform Denmark’s disability pension system, which grants access to early retirement.
His comments made during an interview with Danish newspaper Berlingske on December 11, followed the release of a study by the Danish Employers’ Association. That revealed an over-representation of disability pension recipients among immigrants from non-Western countries.
The study published on November 19 found that while only 6.6 per cent of Danes received a disability pension, the figure increased more than 29 per cent for Iraqi immigrants.
Among those aged 50-67, two-thirds of Iraqis in Denmark get a pension compared to just 11 per cent of Danes. High numbers were also recorded for immigrants from Lebanon, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia.
“These numbers are striking,” Poulsen said, emphasising the need for uniform standards.
“We cannot have one set of rules for immigrants and another for Danes.”
He added that the findings likely indicated what he called a “a tendency to approve disability pensions on softer grounds” for certain immigrant groups.
On December 12, Poulsen, said that “immigrants on disability pension must be checked for work capacity”.
“We will do something about this politically – because it is both a human catastrophe and a declaration of bankruptcy for the entire system. If you can work, then you should work.
“We cannot live with the fact that, for example, two out of three Iraqis over the age of 50 receive a disability pension. It is a failure over many years, where we have been too generous with [to whom] we give disability pension”.
The Early Retirement Pension scheme in Denmark was designed to support those with significant and permanent work incapacity due to physical, mental, or social challenges and aims to provide a safety net for those unable to sustain employment.
Poulsen argued that the system may be disproportionately lenient towards non-Western immigrants, undermining its fairness and integrity.
The Liberal Party has previously voiced concerns about welfare dependency among immigrant communities.
In a July 19 press release, it warned of major challenges caused by too many people on public welfare in vulnerable residential areas.
“These are parallel societies where children grow up without role models who go to work and whom they can look up to,” it said.
The party said it wanted to “reassess the cases in these areas in which early retirement has been granted”.
A Canadian man currently on trial for the brutal murders of his wife and two young sons has blamed the mother of his children for the slayings. Mohamad Al Ballouz, 38, has been charged with the second-degree murder of his wife, Synthia Bussières, and the first-degree murders of their two sons, Eliam and Zac, aged just 5 and 2 years old. Al Ballouz, who recently adopted the feminine name Levana and has been referred to as a “woman” by Canadian press, argued in court that his now-deceased wife Synthia Bussières was responsible for the murders.
On September 24, 2022, firefighters attended Al Ballouz’s 12th floor condo in Brossard, Quebec, in response to an apparent house fire. Inside, they found Al Ballouz lying in bed between the two children, and a small bonfire of household items had been lit next to the mattress. Bussières was discovered riddled with stab wounds in the bathroom.
All four were rushed to the hospital, but Bussières and her children were declared dead shortly after. Al Ballouz, who was also injured, had reportedly consumed windshield wiper liquid in an apparent suicide attempt, but he was placed under arrest after being treated. Al Ballouz has no previous criminal history.
CANADA: A man currently standing trial on charges of murdering his wife and two young children has begun identifying as transgender and wearing a wig to court.
Mohamad Al Ballouz is now being referred to as a "woman" by Canadian media outlets.https://t.co/e47z44Nh87
Representing himself after firing all of his lawyers, Al Ballouz delivered his closing arguments at the Longueuil courthouse in Québec on Wednesday. In his statement to the court, he alleged that Bussières tried to kill him after murdering the children, despite the multiple stab wounds Bussières had suffered. The accused claimed that the boys’ mother had rearranged items in their home to make it look like Al Ballouz had attacked her.
Referring to the panel as “charming members of the jury,” Al Ballouz argued that because expert witnesses were unable to identify with certainty which victim was killed first, it was therefore the case that Bussières had murdered the toddlers before self-inflicting the 23 “superficial” stab wounds which led to her death.
However, according to the prosecution, Al Ballouz stabbed Bussières repeatedly before suffocating the two boys with a pillow. Expert witness Maria Fiorello, a crime scene expert with 20 years of experience, testified that traces of Al Ballouz’s blood were found in many parts of the family’s condominium.
Crime scene photos shown to the jury depicted Al Ballouz’s blood around the apartment, and bags filled with Bussières’ personal items, some of which had been set on fire.
The accused killer’s blood was identified on the walls of the children’s bedroom, inside the shower, on the handle of the front door, on the handle of a mop, and on a box of garbage bags.
“The mop was still wet, so it appears it was used to clean up blood,” Fiorello said. She further explained that in her expert opinion, the location of Al Ballouz’s blood stains indicated he had been attempting to clean up the crime scene. Not only was the mop bloody, but the accused’s blood was on the washing machine, and he had changed his clothes.
The timeline presented during deliberations suggests that Al Ballouz stabbed Bussières before killing the two boys.
At approximately 8:26 p.m. that evening, Al Ballouz had left the family condominium in his car. Ten minutes later, he returned to the building carrying a case of beer. In security footage, Al Ballouz can be seen to have looked directly into the camera while winking – the first time that Al Ballouz had made such a gesture.
A neighbor told the court that screams could be heard a few minutes later, at about 8:30 p.m. “I suggest to you that Synthia Bussières was defenseless, near the bath, while the accused stabbed her in the face, neck and hands. Not a single stab wound. Not two. Twenty-three wounds, including 11 defensive wounds,” stated the presiding Judge Lamoureux.
According to the Crown prosecution, Al Ballouz suffocated his two sons shortly after. Once his children were dead, Al Ballouz detached the apartment’s smoke detectors, then started a fire at the foot of the bed. He drank windshield wiper fluid and lay down between his sons in bed.
Al Ballouz’s trial began on November 11, but during the proceedings it was learned that he now identifies as a “woman” named Levana Ballouz. During his hearings, he appeared in court wearing a blonde, curly wig and nail polish. He is reportedly representing himself after firing his two criminal defense lawyers, both of whom were considered to be among the best in Quebec.
Court illustration of accused killer Mohamad Al Ballouz, who is now claiming to be a transgender woman.
According to CBC, the prosecution had to “warn” the jury that several witnesses would refer to Al Ballouz as a man to preempt any concerns about “disrespect.” Prior to the start of the trial, no previous news coverage had documented that Al Ballouz was expressing a change in his self-perceived “gender identity,” suggesting his claim of being transgender was extremely recent.
Canadian media outlets are respecting Al Ballouz’ new identity, with multiple articles covering the trial referring to Al Ballouz as a “woman” or by using feminine pronouns.
While the trial is expected to last at least 10 more weeks, if Al Ballouz is found guilty and criminally responsible, he would be entitled to request housing in a women’s prison.
Italy’s Jews expressed indignation on Friday after the USB trade union said the nation’s alleged support for the “genocidal Israeli government” was among its reasons for calling a 24-hour local public transport strike. “Dismay and astonishment – there are no other words to describe what we feel when we read the reasons for the strike,” said Victor Fadlun, the president of the Jewish Community of Rome. “Unfortunately, we are faced with a rise of hatred towards Israel that disregards any reasonable context, and which can have no other explanation than the urge to express… an anti-Semitism that has always smouldered and has never been weakened. “Our task is not to remain silent, but to denounce this – always and in any situation”. Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, echoed those sentiments. “While as citizens we understand the reasons for a strike, with all the inconvenience, as citizens of this country we reiterate that a strike is not a platform from which to proclaim slogans of hatred and distortion,” said Di Segni.
On today’s #NCFDeprogrammed, hosts Harrison Pitt & Connor Tomlinson are joined by stand up comedian and GB News presenter Nick Dixon to discuss the future of the right in the current political landscape.
Marine Le Pen’s populists pulled the plug on French President Emmanuel Macron’s precarious attempt at governing last week and appear to have enjoyed a bump in their polling since.
Polling for French broadsheet newspaper Le Figaro and Sud Radio finds Marine Le Pen has lengthened her lead over all other competitors for the French Presidential elections. Recent drama over the collapse of the French government and even Le Pen’s corruption court case has failed to put a dent in her rising popularity, it found.
While the next vote is not required by law until Spring 2027, France is lurching from one crisis to the next and appears to be entering into a defacto state of constitutional crisis, and whether incumbent President Macron will go his full term is a matter of intense discussion domestically.
The new government Macron formed to perform the day-to-day running of the state beneath him earlier this year collapsed last week after just three months in power, a record for modern French history. The centrist-led government had been propped up by Marine Le Pen’s pro-border control faction but apparently got too cocky, reckoning she wouldn’t risk a gamble on her own poll ratings by being seen to be the one to bring it down, but in the end a tax-hiking budget was too much and she pulled the pin.
Yet the idea the French public would blame Le Pen for Emmanuel Macron’s inability to win votes or form a stable government appears to have been in error. Earlier polling has already shown the public overwhelmingly blames President Macron, and even the outgoing Prime Minister he’d picked to try and carry the matter seems to have got off scott-free and blameless in the eyes of the public.
Le Figarofinds compared to the last time the poll was run in September, Le Pen has risen by two or three points in the wake of the drama in Paris, putting her 11 points clear of the next-closest competitor to be the next President of France. The paper noted this was “Despite the vote of the motion of censure” — revealing again this underlying assumption in France that collapsing Emmanuel Macron’s government last week would damage Le Pen and her National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN) party rather than endear them further to voters.
The publication noted Le Pen “is almost at the level of François Mitterrand in 1974”, an election he won by a close margin.
Because it is not clear who the various parties would put forward as their candidate for a theoretical snap election for the office of President, French opinion polls can tend to test several different scenarios, each with a dozen or more candidates. With the anti-mass migration RN, for instance, it is conceivable that either Le Pen — who has contested and lost the past three French Presidential elections — or her rising-star deputy Jordan Bardella could do the job.
Nevertheless, the Le Figaro polling shows there is no combination of leaders from any party that could step RN from coming first place in this election. In her best-case scenario Le Pen takes 38 points against Gabriel Attal’s 20, who would stand in Emmanuel Macron’s place because of the two-term limit. Le Pen would also win against centrist-right former French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe with an 11-point-lead.
Yet none of this would guarantee a Le Pen in the Elysée Palace. France has a two-stage election process, with many candidates entering the first round and most lowest-scoring eliminated before a second round of the strongest performers. It’s a system designed to keep out outsiders — as the second round allows tactical coalitions of all legacy French parties against one undesirable newcomer — and which can create extremely disproportionate results.
The perfect illustration of this system working as intended was this year’s snap national election, called by Macron to buttress his own power but which spectacularly backfired, which saw Le Pen’s RN come first place in the number of votes cast, yet third place in actual number of seats won. This could apply to the Presidential election too, but was last actually achieved in the 1990s.
Yet for now, the questions over whether Marine Le Pen being taken to court over European Union embezzlement allegations and the weakness of French government could seriously impact her polling ratings may have been settled.
The Freie Universität Berlin (FU) has decided a travelling exhibition on anti-Jewish pogroms cannot be exhibited in the university building, fearing an “emotional reaction” from students.
According to an FU spokesperson, the university building’s foyer may not offer the right platform, according to the opinion of its executive board, news outlet Tagesspiegel reported.
The Friedrich Meinecke Institute for History had agreed to host the exhibition but was overruled by the FU’s vice president, Professor Verena Blechinger-Talcott.
The university had concerns about “intense debates” from the exhibition, the spokesperson said, adding that unsupervised exhibitions “of all kinds and on various topics that can evoke emotional reactions” often posed challenges to public order.
In October, masked individuals broke into an FU building, threatening employees with axes, saws, crowbars, and clubs.
In February 2024, a Jewish student was beaten into the hospital with broken bones in his face. The university later claimed it was legally impossible to expel the culprit.
The exhibition, called “The Vicious Circle”, is run by the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, based in the British town of Newark. It deals with the history of violent attacks on five Jewish communities, from the Nazi era to the present.
Recent lectures on anti-Semitism have also been cancelled at the University of Freiburg, with a lecture by an Israeli professor also cancelled at Leipzig University.
The presidium said it is “in no way bothered by the content or forms of presentation of the exhibition”, but argued a museum could offer a more “suitable context”, with input from experts.
The exhibition–in the form of a circle–features images of the pogroms, accompanied by anti-Semitic quotes from Adolf Hitler, Palestinian leader Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, and Hamas ideologues.
The exhibition was to explore the “psychology of pogromists.” It also discussed the “alliance between left-wing extremists and Islamists” that is allegedly spreading anti-Jewish narratives.
Also included in the display was the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023. The museum wanted to show the travelling exhibition at the FU for a week in January or February 2025.
Maiken Umbach, the museum’s chief academic advisor, told the Tagesspiegel she had planned a program of “academic and public events” together with the Meinecke Institute.
Amid the Gaza war, the FU made headlines due to protests and occupations of university edifices by pro-Palestinian students.
German police raided the home of a 14-year-old boy in Bavaria after he allegedly posted the hashtag #AllesFürDeutschland, which translates in English to “Everything for Germany.” The raid happened in the early morning of St. Nicholas Day, on Dec. 6.
The police stated that the term is a symbol used by an unconstitutional organization, which violates Section 86a of the German criminal code. The story, which was first reported by Junge Freiheit, details how the teen posts from the TikTok channel “deutscher.patriot1161.” The alleged crime was committed in November, when the teen posted the hashtag #AllesFürDeutschland twice, which was used by the SA during the Nazi era.
In Germany, St. Nicholas Day typically features a Santa Claus-like figure placing chocolate and fruit inside the shoes of boys and girls, who leave the shoes out the night before. Santa Claus is actually based on the historical figure of St. Nicholas, an early Christian bishop who was known for his secret gift giving.
🇩🇪🚨German police raided the house of this pensioner, pictured with his daughter Alexandra, for calling Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck an "idiot."
Habeck personally filed the criminal complaint against Stefan Niehoff.
The search warrant describes the police raid as “proportionate and “appropriate for the seriousness of the crime” It also indicates the youth was mature enough “at the time of the crime” to understand the wrongfulness of his posts and acted “in accordance with this understanding.”
The teen in question, however, has said that he did not know the term “Everything for Germany” was banned under the German criminal code.
During the search, police searched two teenagers’ rooms, including the older brother, and they photographed various items, including personal documents, email addresses, telephone numbers, and books. A phone was also seized as a “tool used in the crime.” The brother was also questioned by police during the house search.
The two brothers have no criminal record with the police.
Junge Freiheit reported that the family is considering legal action.
The phrase most notably came to public attention during the trial of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) chairman of Thuringia, Björn Höcke, who was sentenced with a fine for using the same phrase during an AfD event. Notably, Höcke is decades older than the teen in this case.
Police are increasingly raiding homes in Germany over insults directed at politicians and speech violations
Currently, Germany’s left is looking to increase penalties and empower prosecutors to go after those who insult politicians.
On April 17, 1975, Sven-Oskar Ruhmen of the leading Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet was in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. He described the arrival of the Khmer Rouge in the city as follows: “For a Swedish spectator, it was an extraordinary spectacle. Personally, I have never seen a more beautiful scene. I felt happy and relieved and could not help but cry at what I saw.”
On April 17, the first Khmer Rouge appeared on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard and responded with smiles to the greetings of the citizens, accepted the hugs of the children, and seemed to want to dispel the ghosts of the fratricidal war forever. But it was an illusion, a cruel deception. And so, almost immediately, trepidation and fear descended on the “liberated” capital of Cambodia. A few days later, Pol Pot announced: “The Year Zero begins. The past no longer exists”.
1.7 million dead, a fifth of the Cambodian population.
In April 1975, the European press celebrated the popular enthusiasm that accompanied the entry of the Khmer Rouge into Phnom Penh and the daily newspaper Libération headlined: “Seven days of celebration for a liberation”.
It was the time when “Paris loved the Khmer Rouge”.
Sent as a priest to Cambodia in 1965, François Ponchaud was one of the first to reveal to the world the extent of the crimes perpetrated by the communist Khmer Rouge regime and recounts: “I remember the Steinbachs, pure and hard communist intellectuals who worked in Phnom Penh for the French Ministry of Cooperation. They were very happy! Dressed as Khmer Rouge, with a Mao cap on their heads and a krama around their necks, they were waiting for the revolutionaries at Phnom Penh University. As soon as they saw them arrive, they told them: ‘We are with you, we are your brothers…’”.
Again on August 12, 1978, with the genocide well underway, a Swedish delegation arrived in Phnom Penh and saw flower gardens where there were fields of skeletons. Peter Frober Idling tells the story in “Pol Pot’s Smile”. The Swedish delegation was led by Jan Myrdal, one of the most influential Swedish intellectuals of the time, son of Nobel Prize winners Alva and Gunnar Myrdal. Useful Idiots in Cambodia also came from the United States.
February 1, 1979. The Air France Boeing 747 leaves Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. On board, 120 international journalists and Ayatollah Khomeini. Journalist Peter Jennings asked the Ayatollah how he felt about returning to Iran after fifteen years. Khomeini replied: “Nothing.” At 9:30 in the morning, Khomeini arrived in Iran and was welcomed by millions of Iranians. Iranologist Richard Cottam of the Washington Post called Khomeini “moderate and centrist,” a hermit who was not interested in power but who would retreat to the holy city of Qom once the Shah was defeated. Libération, the left-wing newspaper, headlined: “Victorious insurrection in Tehran.”
The destructive nature of the Islamic revolution was underestimated from the beginning. US President Jimmy Carter saw Khomeini as a sort of Gandhi, while post-structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault saw the Islamic revolution as a “spiritual alternative” to modernity. Attracted by the allure of evil, Foucault wanted to recognize a superior political morality in Islamism.
The rest is history.
August 15, 2021. The Taliban enter Kabul. Allah’s militiamen promise an “inclusive” government for all. Three years later, women have been completely erased from the face of the earth in the first “gender apartheid”.
We just saw similar scenes from Damascus. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani (real name Ahmed al-Sharaa) arrives in Damascus after the “liberation,” the capture of the Syrian capital. He prostrated himself and kissed the ground in front of the famous Umayyad mosque. The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime is “a victory for the Islamic nation.” His men are already announcing that they will also liberate Jerusalem. For the first time, a Jihadi army defeated an Arab regime by force.
Bashar al-Assad was a ruthless dictator with a ridiculous garage of luxury cars and a worthy heir to his father Hafez, whose original surname was not el-Assad (“the lion”) but “al-Hawch” (the wild beast). Nomen omen, the Romans said, the name is an omen, and the Assad family had earned it.
But as for what will follow, I don’t trust the press releases.
We are moving, explains Myriam Benraad in L’Express, towards an “Islamic dictatorship”. It is no coincidence that in a 2021 interview with Frontline (an authoritative program on the American public network PBS) al Golani cannot help but praise sharia, calling it a guarantee of “immense goodness, justice and social solution”.
There is no doubt that, even if a Sharia emirate were to emerge from Syria, Europe would recognize it.
The UN has already announced today that it will remove jihadists from the terrorist blacklist.
Muhammad Al Bashir, who is in charge of forming the new government in Syria, studied Sharia at the University of Idlib and was a Sharia teacher, as well as director of Islamic education for the opposition government in Idlib. The new Syria will not be better than Afghanistan, it will take some time and then the Muslims will start applying Sharia.
At the time of the overthrow of the monarchy in Iran, the ayatollahs said that there would be no impositions on women’s clothing. We know how that turned out. The Taliban promised when the West withdrew that women’s rights would not be touched. We know how that turned out. Now the Syrian jihadists are circling the foolish Westerners. In a few months, maybe even before, they will show their true colors.
In a grotesque article by David D. Kirkpatrick published on February 18, 2011, the New York Times even depicted the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the antisemite who also wanted to conquer Rome, Yusuf Qaradawi, as someone “committed to pluralism and democracy.” Kirkpatrick also wrote that “scholars who have examined his work say Sheikh al Qaradawi has always argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralist, multiparty civil democracy.”
When will they ever learn? They will never learn.
We are tourists in the heart of darkness: we know nothing and we learn nothing. We have no idea who has just taken power in Damascus. I fear that a ferocious Caliphate is being built and that the short Arab autumn will soon turn into an everlasting Islamic winter.
“Why should you go back when you have everything here”, says Europe’s most famous Syrian migrant as publishers across continent heap on column inches for the case against refugees from the now-deposed Bashar al-Assad going home.
The so-called ‘Prime Minister’ proclaimed to the world by the National Salvation Government-turned-Syrian Transitional Government Mohammed al-Bashir has called on Syrians abroad to come home and help rebuild the country, but if the picture painted by the legacy European press is anything to go by, they’d rather stay where they are.
Installed by Islamist rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani as the acceptable face of the new regime, al-Bashir gave his first interview to a Western media outlet this week and explained his priorities. Amid restoring stability, security, power, water, and food in the country, al-Jolani said he was focussed on persuading the millions of Syrians abroad to come home.
He told Italy’s Corriere della Sera he wants to “bring back the millions of Syrian refugees who are scattered around the world. Their human capital and experience will help restart the country. My appeal goes out to all Syrians abroad: Syria is now a free country that has regained its pride and dignity. Come back. We need to rebuild, to get our country on its feet again, and we need everyone’s help”.
A big claim, certainly. Nevertheless, the attitude in many European capitals is the al-Assad family being deposed in Syria means the situation for the four million Syrian refugees living in the European Union has now changed. Indeed, as reported, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Greece, Austria, Finland and Norway have all now suspended new refugee applications from Syrians as the Assad threat no longer exists.
In Germany, the likely next chancellor has already spoken of the government chartering return jets with free seats for any Syrian to take, and cash incentives to persuade them to go.
But even in the face of an expectation that, as refugees, they might be expected to return to Syria to rebuild their homeland, many appear uninterested in leaving what they profess to consider their comfortable new homes. Indeed, broadcasters and publishers across Europe rushed to publish sympathetic pieces profiling reluctant Syrians in the hours and days since Assad fled for Russia, appearing to lay groundwork for a new narrative around why, actually, Syrians can’t be pressured go home.
Britain’s The Guardian is typical of this emerging genre, citing Syrians who have now been granted German citizenship — there are more Syrians in Germany than any other European state — and have no interest in leaving now they’ve arrived. One named migrant is described thus:
Alali and her husband, Amin, have been “constantly talking to each other about the one big question: do we go back or not?”, she said… After the astonishing events of the past few days, she has come to a conclusion: “I will not take my children to Syria until I really know the situation is a lot better.”
The Daily Telegraphquotes UK-based Syrian refugees — of whom there are around 27,000 — who told the paper things are too good in their new home to give up, and in any case it is possible the new Syrian government will turn out to be as bad as the old one. They said: “after seven years of living in the UK, I don’t think I will go back… Some of those now in charge of Syria were members of al-Qaeda just a few years ago. I don’t think Syria is safe now, in a few months and possibly not even in a year.”
For others, even as European nations have suspended refugee claims from Syrians, it is still worth trying to get into Britain rather than go home. Agence France Presse found Syrians in migrant camps waiting to cross the English Channel by smuggler boat — which is very dangerous — to try and force their way into the United Kingdom. One hopeful told the wires service: “It’s very bad news, but it won’t stop us. We want to continue to go to England because we’re looking for peace”, while another laid out the basically economic reasons for their migration: “in Britain, we can offer ourselves and our children a future. There is work, there is peace, there is everything we need”.
Germany’s Die Weltreported what may be the defining remarks from a Syrian refugee on the matter, given they came from the man who may be the most famous Syrian in Europe of them all, Anas Modamani.
Modamani’s face was broadcast around the world after him taking a selfie with then German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the defining image of the 2015-16 Europe Migrant Crisis, and he has since become something of a go-to man for the German media when looking for comment on migration matters. His words this week buttress the essentially dismissive posture that is portrayed as being the position of many, when he said there was no point in going back to Syria.
Welt outlined the situation:
The 27-year-old himself does not want to go back to Syria, he said. He now works as a freelance cameraman, has studied business communication, married a Ukrainian woman and lives with her. He has had German citizenship for two years and does not have to fear deportation.
For his own part, Modamani said of his attitude to the future: “Why should you go back when you have everything here?… In Syria I no longer have a home, a job or friends. I will only fly to Syria for holidays and to visit family – probably next year when the airport is open again.”
These stories underline the new truth of refugee status awards in European states, the rules for which were forged in European conflicts now long passed and created with those who keenly wanted to go home and rebuild in mind. The classic example to many are the quarter-million refugees welcomed in Britain with open arms during the chaos of the First World War but then, with scant exception, all went home when the war ended.
Evidently in many cases, refugees could hardly be said to be seeking refuge at all — with its implied transience — but rather permanent resettlement somewhere more to their liking. This is not unique to Syrians, of course, and surveys of fellow Europeans to their German hosts in the shape of Ukrainian refugees also show a strong preferences to never return. Speaking to this new normal of what being a refugee means is German academic and migration researcher Jochen Oltmer, quoted byWelt as saying a similar situation emerged after the Yugoslavian war in the 1990s.
“A large wave of Syrians returning from Germany to their homeland is unlikely,” he said, stating: “All experience shows that refugees develop many bonds in the community where they arrive… Return programs often overlook this rootedness in the new society”. Of Yugoslavia, Oltmer explained that by 1999, “only 17,000 of the 350,000 people seeking protection had returned to their original place of residence.”
That laws and norms governing refugee status has failed to keep up with the modern world may well become more apparent as the coming months as the extent to which Syrian refugees find new reasons to remain away their from post-Assad homelands.
