Syrian refugees head to Germany with injuries, tears, hope

Hugs, tears and feelings of hope filled the headquarters of the International Organisation of Migration in Beirut as 107 Syrians headed for Germany as part of a relocation programme for refugees. Salam al-Husseini, 13, waved goodbye and threw kisses at her relatives, as she headed for Germany. She sustained serious head injuries when a shell hit her home in the central province of Homs a year and a half ago.

Her father, Fawaz al-Husseini, and two sisters are among the first group of Syrian refugees scheduled to arrive Wednesday in Hanover. Germany has offered to take in 5,000 refugees from Syria, who will enter under the country’s temporary Humanitarian Assistance Programme. It is the biggest relocation scheme currently underway for the Syrian crisis, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.

“This move will ease some of the pressure that Lebanon currently faces as a result of the massive influx of Syrian refugees,” Dana Suleiman, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Lebanon, told dpa. The programme announced by Germany in March gives the refugees the right to work, study and stay under two-year residence permits that could be extended if Syria’s crisis continues. The refugees will have full access to medical and other social service.

It will encompass 4,000 refugees in Lebanon and 1,000 others inside Syria who currently have family in Germany. Fawaz is hopeful that his new, temporary home in Germany will be a good place to treat Salam and give his other two daughters the right education. “My main concern is my daughter. She is only 13, I want her to receive the right medical treatment. I know she will not walk again or be a normal child, but at least she will have the right care,” al-Husseini said.

Salam’s two sisters, Rayan, 16, and Omimmah, 14, hoped that their trip to Germany will enable them to go back to school and live a normal life. “We have been away from school almost three years. Now we have a chance to live in peace again,” said Rayan. The group which left Beirut for Hanover consists of Muslim and Christian Syrian families, including 35 children between the ages of 2 and 12 and three infants. Razan Khoury, 25, a Syrian Christian from Jaramana in the outskirts of Damascus, which was targeted by several car bombs, expressed happiness that she was escaping the blasts in one piece.

“I am happy my mother and my sister are going to be safe with me in Germany,” Razan, who suffers from Down Syndrome, told dpa before she boarded the plane. The new refugees upon arrival in Germany will be offered cultural orientation courses with basic language training and information on Germany, including its school and health systems, as well as help in interacting with the local authorities, said IOM spokeswoman Samantha Donkin.

Omar Hawish and his seven-member family, said they were lucky to be chosen for the programme, because his house is located in the northern province of Aleppo and his neighbourhood is now on the border between Syrian regime forces and opposition rebels. “We support no one in this conflict. We are peaceful Syrians who were working to send our children to school and secure a descent life for them,” he said.

Ahmad Khawam, a father of two, stressed that he is hopeful that Germany will be a good place for his deaf traumatised 7-year-old child. “I used to remove my son’s hearing aide so he would not hear the shelling and get more scared,” Khawam said with tears in his eyes. “Today I look forward for a better future from my son and my daughter in a country that respect human rights, but I feel pain just thinking of the people we left behind,” he added. Some 6.25 million people have been displaced by the conflict, with 2 million having fled the country and 4.25 million internally displaced, the UN has said.