The civil in Syria
Civilians in Syria
Civilians in Syria
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The more than one million Syrians who fled to Germany have celebrated the end of war in their homeland, but some fear it could mean losing their refugee status.
By Mélissa Eddy
Melissa Eddy reported from Gross Schönebeck, Germany, a small village outside Berlin, where she visited a family of Syrian refugees.
Upon hearing of the fall of the Syrian dynastic dictatorship, Iman Mohammed, a Syrian refugee living in Germany, felt a surge of joy at the thought of returning to her home country.
But that joy temporarily faded when another thought occurred to her: Returning to Syria might simply mean abandoning everything she and her family had built in Germany since the perilous adventure of arriving there just a decade ago.
“In the cold light of day, when we really looked at everything that had happened, we realized, not just yet,” Ms. Mohammed, 41, said of the idea that her family might permanently return to Syria.
The resolution may not be yours.
After rebel groups toppled President Bashar al-Assad’s government on Dec. 8, the prospect of returning home opened for the first time in more than a decade for the many Syrians who fled during the civil war that ravaged the country, including 1.3 million in Germany.
Many of them worked hard and overcame immense challenges to improve their circumstances. Some, like Ms. Mohammed, are not keen to give up their new lives.
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