NEWS
The world: Jackie Chan is producing a movie in Syria. Some Syrians are outraged.
Growing up in Syria, Mohammad al-Abdallah loved watching Jackie Chan movies. They were dubbed in Arabic, and Chan’s acrobatic style of martial arts just blew him away.
“Like, even in school, sometimes people tried to copy him. So, he was a legend to our generation,” Abdallah said.
Abdallah comes from a family of activists in Syria. He was jailed and tortured by the government, he said, and had to flee to the US. He now directs the Syria Justice and Accountability Center, a human rights organization in Washington.
Syria is home for Abdallah, but one that he can’t return to. At least not now. So, this past week, when he found out that Chan was producing a film in his home country, his ears perked up; but after he learned the details, he was disappointed.
Chan’s production team began filming “Home Operation,” in Syria this past week. The location is a city called Al-Hajar al-Aswad, outside of the capital, Damascus. The area was a stronghold for the opposition during the war. The news has outraged some Syrians like Abdallah, who say their destroyed homes are not props for foreign film productions.
Last week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, himself, strolled through the ruins of Aleppo, another city destroyed in the war. Photos posted online showed him and his family in casual summer linen, looking as if they are on a Mediterranean vacation.
“They walk around like, ‘Oh, where did this destruction come from?’ As if they didn’t have a hand in it,” Malek said.
For Syrian filmmaker Waad al-Kateab, influencers and artists flocking to Syria for content is just painful.
“It’s really difficult just to think about it,” she said.
Kateab made a documentary about the uprisings in Syria called “For Sama,” that was nominated for an Oscar in 2020. She fled her home in Aleppo and now lives in the UK.
She said that she’s also troubled about “Home Operation” being shot in Syria.
“We’re worried to see our own neighborhoods, where we grew up, our own houses, which were destroyed by the regime, [become] like a part of a film set,” she said.
Chan’s publicist didn’t respond to an interview request for this story.
Waad Al-Kateab at the UN: "This Council remains a spectator to the suffering of the Syrian people."
On November 29 2021, Waad al-Kateab spoke at the UN Security Council’s Arria Formula meeting on Accountability in Syria.
Joining fellow Syrian activist, Omar Alshogre, in New York City, along with representatives from IIIM and University of Cologne, Waad spoke of her frustration at the inaction of the UN and demanded that perpetrators of the war crimes committed in Syria, are held to account.
Watch Waad’s full speech and read the transcript below:
Waad’s Speech (English)
“Good afternoon,
I am expected to start this session today by telling you how it is an honour to be here. But I can’t. Not if I want to be genuine to the suffering of my people.
My biggest honour was, and still is, that I am part of the Syrian revolution. Which made me hold onto hope with my fellow Syrians - chanting in the streets, daring to dream of dignity, freedom, and a state of law.
I am known by Waad al-Kateab, which is not my name. A name I choose to hide my identity from the security forces’’ the same Mokhabrat that Omar just talked about, who arrested him and tortured him. Omar who survived today and who gives us so much courage and hope.
I talk to you today as an activist, who protested, who was beaten, who was shot at, demanding democracy for my country.
I talk to you as a mother, who gave birth to my first child in a makeshift hospital in East Aleppo where I was living with my husband Hamza. Hamza, who is here today, he was an emergency doctor managing the last remaining hospital, which was deliberately targeted many times by the Syrian regime, supported by Russia.
I am talking to you as a refugee who was forcibly displaced after the besiegement of Aleppo in 2016. And now, I’m hearing so many of your countries’ officials and media talking about how safe it is for us to be returned to Syria. Syria is not safe as long as Assad is still ruling.
And I talk to you as a filmmaker, who thought my mission was to deliver the injustice I documented to the world.
I and many Syrians, we used to have faith that the world won’t let us down - that you, the security council would do everything to stop the war crimes and the genocide in Syria.
One of the women I filmed while we were in besieged Aleppo, shouted to deliver this to you [referring to For Sama clip shown at the end of the speech]. She said, with a baby of 6 months old, “Film. Film - let the whole world see this.”
At that moment, I was worried that I would let her down. That I won’t be able to survive, and her message might die with me.
However, the major disappointment came after I shared her shouting out, to the world, and to you. You refused to acknowledge. And this council refused to act.
I talk to you today as one of millions of Syrian witnesses and survivors of what is defined as war crimes and crimes against humanity by laws that you states have created.
But where is the outrage when your laws are broken?
Where is the action?
This Council remains a spectator to the suffering of the Syrian people. And if you think I am angry - yes for sure, you are right. You have let us down.
Your council held countless meetings through all these events of my life. There are 42 reports only by the UN commission of inquiry - this does not include Amnesty, Physicians for Human Rights, OPCW and tens of Syrian organizations’ reports.
And yet, some of you now discuss renewing diplomatic relations with the Syrian regime and granting lucrative contracts to warlords to reconstruct the country that Asaad’s regime and what he has destroyed in our country.
Because this council has failed to hold those responsible to account, we Syrians, along with states and international lawyers, have been exploring alternative ways to do so ourselves.
For example, closely with the legal team at Guernica 37, we are working to hold Russia accountable for its targeting of hospitals and medical workers before the European Court of Human Rights, a court stemming out of a treaty that Russia agreed to.
The Russian State, the Russian judicial authorities have done nothing to investigate and prosecute such conduct into the intentional loss of life.
So we must now seek to hold the State accountable for its failures.
And we will do so.
We are also working, with some states present here, to establish collective international action against individuals responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The evidence is there, the perpetrators are known, all that remains is the will.
It is essential that there is a credible international process to investigate and prosecute the use of chemical, biological and other forms of prohibited weapons in Syria, and we have identified ways to do so.
I am here to ask you, how are you going to be part of the accountability efforts?
We are here today to seek accountability, not only to heal the past but also to protect the political hope for the future.
One day Syrians will go out into the street. They will shout again “الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام
It’s our responsibility to make sure they won’t face war crimes. It is your responsibly, in your power, to prevent genocide not only in Syria but in the whole world.
What messages are you sending to us, to your people, and to your children? What will the next conflict look like if impunity persists?
It’s OK to torture people? It’s OK to kill children? It’s OK to bomb hospitals?
What sort of legacy are you leaving behind for the next generation?
Today, as we speak, there’s over 3 million civilians still living in IDLIB, facing the daily threat of their schools and hospitals being targeted, their villages of being bombed.
We don’t want them, we don’t want one of them to be sitting in my place next year briefing you again about what happened in the next year. We want you all to do your part to save them all.
I’m copying what Omar asked for, what Catherine and Professor Klaus said. You have to save them all.
Sama, my 6 year old daughter, asked me before I come here, why I have to go to New York City. I said, do you remember the kids in Idlib? Who the monster just killed? I have to go to speak about them.
She sadly said, “But they are already dead? Why do you need to go?”
For a second I didn’t know what to say, then I told her, I’m trying to do my part so other children won’t be killed.
So I leave you today with this question and adding another one to what Omar asked:
If your children asked you the same thing. Will you be able to look them into the eyes and say that you as state members of the security council are able to do your part?
Thank you Mr President.
Waad
Waad’s further comments to the Council:
From here, the term Veto which I heard several time now might seem like a mere technicality. However, it wasn’t. On the 5th of December 2016 Russia and China Vetoed this council’s resolution for a 7 days truce in Aleppo.
7 Days only for safety and allowing aid for me, my family and the people back in Aleppo. I join the member states who asked for limiting the veto power regarding mass human rights atrocities. So 7 days of peace won’t be such a difficult task to achieve. A second point, according to the Physicians for human rights report, more than 90% of the attacks on hospitals in Syria are the responsibility of the Syrian regime and its allies Russia and Iran.
Those who are demanding accountability, we’re demanding it for all attacks. We are not the ones who are blocking international justice to the 90% of these attacks. Finally, Syria was not a civil war, it’s not a civil war. So please stop referring to this in your statements. It was peaceful demonstration, the whole world witnessed this and it’ll always be.
We’re not the ones protecting criminals. And one day, as I see you all here, I’m sure that we, the survivors of Syria will be joining these meetings as a free country. As people who respect human rights, who respect a future for all of us.
شكراً لك السيد رئيس الجلسة
عمتم مساءً
من المتوقع أن أبدأ حديثي اليوم بالقول بأني أتشرّف بوجودي هنا
ولكني لا أستطيع قول هذا
ليس إن أردت أن أكون صادقة حيال المعاناة التي عاشها شعبي
شرفي الأكبر كان ولازال هو مشاركتي في الثورة السورية
التي منحتني القدرة على التمسك بالأمل مع الشعب السوري
حيث صرخنا في الشوارع, متجرّئين أن نحلم بالكرامة ، الحرية ، وبدولة يسودها القانون
أنا أُعرف باسم وعد الخطيب ، وهو ليس اسمي الحقيقي
وإنما اسم اخترته لنفسي لأخفي هويتي من قوات الأمن
المخابرات ذاتها التي تحدث عنها عمر منذ قليل
المخابرات ذاتها التي اعتقلته وعذبته
عمر الناجي الموجود معنا اليوم ، والذي أمدّنا بالشجاعة ، والأمل
أجلس أمامكم اليوم كناشطة تظاهرت ، تعرضت للضرب ، وتم استهدافها بالرصاص
بينما كنت أطالب بالديمقراطية من أجل بلدي
أتحدث إليكم كأم
ولدتُ طفلتي الأولى في مشفى ميداني في حلب الشرقية
حيث كنت أعيش مع زوجي حمزة
حمزة الذي يجلس معنا اليوم ، كان آنذاك طبيب طوارئ يدير المشفى الأخير هناك
المشفى ذاته الذي تم إستهدافه من قبل النظام السوري المدعوم من قبل روسيا
أتحدث إليكم كلاجئة ، تمّ تهجيرها قسرياً بعد حصار مدينة حلب في عام ٢٠١٦
واليوم, أستمع إلى تصريحات العديد من مسؤولي دولكم وصحافتكم
وهي تتحدث أنّ سوريا آمنة لنا كي نعود إليها
سوريا ليست آمنة ما دام الأسد في السلطة
أتحدث إليكم كصانعة أفلام
أعتقدت أن دوري يقتصر فقط على توثيق الظلم وإيصاله للعالم
كنت أؤمن أنا والكثير من السوريين بأنّ العالم لن يخذلنا
بأنكم بصفتكم مجلس الأمن سوف تفعلون كل ما هو ممكن لمنع جرائم الحرب والمجازر في سوريا
أحد النساء الذين قمت بتصويرهم أثناء الحصار في حلب صرخت لتوصل لكم هذه الرسالة
قالت ويظهر بجانبها طفلها ذو ال6 أشهر: صوّري ، صوّري كي يرى العالم ما يحدث
في تلك اللحظة ، كنت قلقة بأنني سوف أخذلها
بأني لن أنجو ، وأن رسالتها ستموت معي
ولكن ، هذه لم تكن الخيبة الأكبر ، كانت الخيبة الأكبر بعد مشاركتي لصرختها معكم ومع العالم
ترفضون الإقرار بما حصل ، ويرفض هذا المجلس أن يتحرّك ويفعل شيئاً
أتحدث إليكم اليوم وأنا واحدة من ملايين الشهود والناجين السوريين
من ما يعرف بقوانينكم كدول أعضاء بجرائم حرب وجرائم ضد الإنسانية
ولكن أين غضبكم عندما يتم خرق هذه القوانين؟
أين تحرككم وأفعالكم؟
يقف هذا المجلس كمتفرجٍ سلبيّ على الشعب السوري
وإن كنتم تعتقدون بأني غاضبة ، فأنتم محقون تماماً
لقد خذلتمونا
قام مجلسكم بعقد جلسات لا تحصى أثناء الأهوال التي عشتها في حياتي
صدر عن لجنة التحقيق وبعثة تقصي الحقائق التابعة للأمم المتحدة وحدها ٤٢ تقريراً
هذا العدد لا يتضمن تقارير منظمة العفو الدولية ، منظمة أطباء من أجل حقوق الإنسان ، منظمة حظر الأسلحة الكيميائية ، وعشرات المنظمات السورية
مع كل هذا ، يتحدث بعضكم عن إعادة العلاقات الدبلوماسية مع النظام السوري
و عن تقديم عقود تعود بأرباح طائلة على أمراء الحرب لإعادة إعمار النظام السوري وما دمّره في بلادنا
بسبب فشل هذا المجلس بمحاسبة المسؤولين عن الجرائم
نقوم نحن كسوريين بالبحث بأنفسنا عن بديل لمحاسبة المجرمين بالتعاون مع بعض الدول وبعض المحاميين الدوليين
على سبيل المثال ، نعمل بالتعاون مع الفريق القانوني في منظمة (جيرنيكا ٣٧)
لمحاسبة روسيا على استهدافها المباشر للمشافي وللعاملين في القطاع الصحي
وذلك في المحكمة الأوروبية لحقوق الإنسان ، محكمة تم إيجادها بناءً على إتفاقية كانت روسيا جزءًا منها
لم تقم روسيا ، ولا النظام القضائي الروسي بعمل أي تحقيقات أو محاكمات تجاه الخسائر الدولية للأرواح
لذلك علينا العمل الآن لنحاسب الدولة الروسية على فشلها ، وسوف نقوم بذلك
نعمل أيضاً مع بعض الدول الأخرى الموجودة هنا ، للتحرك بشكل جماعي ودولي
ضد أشخاص مسؤولين عن إستخدام السلاح الكيميائي في سوريا
الدليل موجود ، والمجرمون أيضاً موجودون ، الشيء الوحيد المفقود هو الرغبة في التحرك
من المهم جداً إيجاد آلية تحقيق ومحاكمة دوليين في شأن إستخدام الأسلحة الكيميائية ، البيولوجية ، وغيرها من الأسلحة المحرّمة دولياً في سوريا
وقد قمنا بتحديد خطوات للقيام بذلك
أنا هنا اليوم لأسألكم ، كيف ستأخذون دوركم في الجهود المبذولة من أجل المحاسبة والمسؤولية؟
نحنا هنا اليوم للوصول إلى المحاسبة ، ليس فقط كي نتعافى من الماضي
وإنما لحماية الأمل السياسي من أجل المستقبل
في يوم من الأيام ، سيخرج السوريون إلى الشوارع مجدداََ
كي يصرخوا مرة أخرى: الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام
إنها مسؤوليتنا اليوم ، أن نضمن بألا يواجهوا جرائم حرب حينها
إنها مسؤوليتكم من حيث موقعكم في السلطة ، أن تمنعوا المجازر لا في سوريا فقط وإنما في العالم كاملاً
ما هي الرسائل التي تريدون إيصالها لنا ، لشعوب العالم ، ولأطفالكم؟
كيف سيكون شكل الصراع القادم إن لم نضع حداً للإفلات من العقاب
هل سيكون مسموحاً تعذيب الناس؟ قتل الأطفال؟ قصف المشافي؟
أي إرث هذا الذي سوف تتركونه للجيل الذي سيأتي بعدكم
اليوم ، وأثناء حديثنا هناك ٣ ملايين مدني يعيشون في إدلب
يواجهون بشكل يومي خطر استهداف مشافيهم ومدارسهم
خطر أن تقصف قراهم
لا نريد أن يأتي أحدهم في العام المقبل ويجلس في مقعدي هذا ليحدثكم عن الجرائم التي ارتكبت خلال هذه الفترة!
نريد منكم أن تقوموا جميعاً بدوركم لإنقاذهم
أوافق وأكرر ما قاله عمر ، ما قالته كاثرين ، وما قاله بروفيسور كلاوس
يجب عليكم إنقاذهم جميعاً
سما ، طفلتي ذات ال٦ أعوام سألتني قبل قدومي إلى هنا: لماذا عليكِ الذهاب إلى نيويورك؟
أجبتها ، هل تذكرين الأطفال في إدلب الذين قتلهم الوحش منذ فترة قريبة؟
عليّ أن أذهب لأتحدث عنهم
أجابتني بحزن: لكنهم لقد ماتوا بالفعل ، لماذا يجب عليكِ الذهاب؟
لوهلة ، لم تسعفني كلماتي بإجابة
ثمّ قلت لها: أنا أحاول جاهدةََ أن أعمل كل ما بوسعي كي لا يتم قتل أطفال آخرين
لذا أترككم اليوم عند هذا السؤال ، كسؤالٍ إضافي لما قاله عمر
إن قام أطفالكم بسؤالكم السؤال نفسه
هل ستستطيعون النظر في أعينهم
والقول بأنكم كدول أعضاء في مجلس الأمن قد كنتم قادرين على عمل دوركم على أكمل وجه؟
شكراً لك السيد رئيس الجلسة
…
هنا في هذا المكان, مصطلح "فيتو" الذي سمعته إلى الآن في مناسبات كثيرة
يبدو وكأنه شيء تقني للغاية
ولكنه لم يكن كذلك
في الخامس كانون الأول (ديسيمبر) عام ٢٠١٦ قامت روسيا والصين باستخدام الفيتو ضد قرار هذا المجلس من أجل هدنة لمدة ٧ أيام
٧ أيام فقط من الأمان ولضمان دخول مساعدات لي ولعائلتي وللمدنيين المتواجدين في حلب حينها
أشارك الدول الأعضاء التي اقترحت تحديد السلطة التي يملكها حق الفيتو فيما يخص الفظائع الجماعية المتعلقة بحقوق الإنسان
وذلك كي لا تكون ٧ أيام من السلام مهمة صعبة الإنجاز لهذه الدرجة
النقطة الثانية ، بحسب تقارير منظمة أطباء من أجل حقوق الإنسان
أكثر من ٩٠% من الهجمات على المشافي في سوريا
كان المسؤول عنها النظام السوري وحلفائه روسيا وإيران
نحن كأشخاص نطالب بالمحاسبة ، نطالب بالمحاسبة على كل الهجمات
لسنا نحن من يمنع نظام العدالة الدولية من محاسبة مرتكبي ٩٠% من هذه الهجمات
في النهاية أريد أن أقول أن ما حدث في سوريا ليس حرباً أهلية
أرجوا منكم التوقف عن استخدام هذا المصطلح في بياناتكم
لقد كانت مظاهرات سلمية شهدها العالم بأكمله
وسوف تبقى كذلك
لسنا نحن الجهة التي تحاول حماية المجرمين
وأنا متأكدة تماماََ ، كما أستطيع الآن رؤيتكم أمامي
أننا كناجين سوريين ، سوف نشارك يوماً ما في هذه الجلسات كبلد حر
كشعب يحترم حقوق الإنسان ، ويحترم مستقبلاً مشتركاً لنا جميعاً
ولن نقوم حينها بحماية المجرمين
The new Arab: Besieged and starved: How 'the wheel of life' has stopped in Syria's Daraa
As the people of Daraa al-Balad area remain at loggerheads with the Syrian regime and Russian forces, the residents are being starved of food and medicine while also deprived of education and other basic amenities over their refusal to participate in Assad’s “farce” elections.
Since May, Daraa has been under siege by the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Daraa al-Balad consists of several neighbourhoods, Palestinian refugee camps as well as camps for those displaced in the occupied Syrian Golan. There are also agricultural farms within the two to the three-kilometre area, but many have moved their operations, fearing bombardment by regime forces.
No access to medicine or care
Blocked off from medical attention, the elderly and children faint from the heat, as access to treatment for serious illnesses is barred.
“A woman passed away while she was giving birth because she was prevented from entering the hospital,” local businessman and family man Mohamed Zatima tells The New Arab.
He says that the Russians even go as far as to block off veterinary supplies to the area. “A siege by the Russians and the regime on Daraa al-Balad is not limited to humans, but even to animals,” he comments.
Coronavirus is also a cause for alarm, as cases are rising and victims of the deadly disease cannot enter the hospital in the city centre.
Local father-of-six Abu Abdullah, 55, who is now out of work due to poor health, describes life in besieged Daraa as tragic and difficult under a “suffocating blockade”.
Having undergone an open-heart surgery eight months ago, he needs access to hard-to-get medicine, which is now impossible. “There is medicine I will have to cut out due to the lack of it, no presence of doctors, and my inability to buy it on the black market,” he says.
He continues: “There is no water, no electricity, no way to go to hospitals and doctors in the regime’s area from medical laboratories, radiology or service centres.”
"A woman passed away while she was giving birth because she was prevented from entering the hospital"
The Syrian regime and Russian planes fly low over the neighbourhoods, frightening children, causing great anxiety, and making it impossible for them to continue their education.
“I have four children who were prevented from entering schools and practising their hobbies," says Mohamed Zatima. "Due to the Russian jets which fly over the neighbourhoods at a low level, the children suffer from anxiety which has affected their behaviour.”
Abu Abdullah says his daughters are unable to complete their education, due to the fact they are blocked off from schools in regime territory, and his other children are unable to work. “My children are deprived of their human rights, they have neither work nor study,” he says.
"My children are deprived of their human rights, they have neither work nor study"
Protests continue
Despite the besiegement, local activists continue to protest against the regime’s blockade, and the presidential elections, known as “the farce”. Untrusting the Russians, the local governing bodies have rejected the most recent deal put forward.
Local activist Loranc Alakrad explains, “Russia asked us to hand over light weapons, 200 Kalashnikov rifles and 20 machine guns, but the response of the civil committee was that we do not have these weapons, and it cannot be delivered – this request was completely rejected.”
Local protests demand the release of detainees, and the implementation of certain clauses in the July 2018 agreement that have not yet materialised, including the removal of militias and the return of the army – which has taken up residents in civilian homes and shops – to its barracks, the return of students to their schools and universities, and employees to their jobs.
رغم الحصار الخانق
— لورنس أبو آدم (@lornce_adm) July 3, 2021
رغم التهديدات الروسية
رغم تآمر الجميع
على مهد الثورة #درعا_البلد
يخرح الأهالي ويصدحون بأعلى صوتهم سوف نبقى
تحدي وصمود
صبر وتحمل
لتبقى مهد الثورة القلعة الصامدة
بثلة من شبابها الصابرين الثابتين#فكوا_الحصار_عن_درعا_البلد#تضامن_مع_مهد_الثورة#الحرية_لدرعا pic.twitter.com/AtjvDrV1Rt
What next?
As the siege continues on the city, the residents can only speculate what will happen next. Will the regime launch a brutal offensive? Or will it simply continue its siege until the locals are starved out?
“The regime and the Russians are still besieging the neighbourhoods of Daraa al-Balad, and in light of the arrival of new reinforcements, this suggests the possibility of a storming and massacre against us,” Mohamed Zatima explains.
He fears an offensive against the people of Daraa, however, others don’t.
“We are almost dead and there is no deterrent to him after the world abandoned us and his possession to all kinds of power and with the support of regional and global powers,” Abu Abdullah says. “This is a method of starvation and siege… and punishing a people for just an opinion.”
Mohamed Zatima says if Assad stood in front of him, he would call him a child killer and a war criminal.
He dreams of a better Syria, and rather than migrate to Europe, he has hope that Syria can achieve democracy: “I do not want to emigrate, but I want my country to become like the countries of Europe in terms of respect for human beings and appreciation of humanity. Syria is our country and the country of our ancestors.”
Abu Abdullah on the other hand would want to migrate, striving for a decent future for his children. He would tell Assad to leave them in peace: “Leave and let us heal our wounds, for we have been exhausted by the war.”
The Authors:
Amy Addison-Dunne is a freelance digital journalist with an interest in the Middle East and British politics. She has written for the Daily Mirror, Morning Star.
Marwa Koçak is a journalist and translator with an interest in politics and human rights in the Middle East. She speaks Arabic, English and Turkish. She has written for Middle East Eye, Al-Jazeera.
The Washington Post: Denmark faces criticism after pushing to send refugees back to Syria
Syrians seeking asylum are led away by police in Padborg, Denmark, conducting passport checks on Denmark's border with Germany in 2016. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The Danish government “is destroying the country by trying to follow these voters that they expect would agree with this policy,” said Michala Bendixen, head of Refugees Welcome Denmark. “It’s ruining our reputation around the world. And it’s ruining integration for those [refugees] who are already here.”
About 500 Syrians have been stuck in limbo since Denmark said it is reassessing temporary residency permits for refugees from Damascus, the capital, and Rif Damascus province, both controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A 2019 report by the Danish Immigration Service classified these areas as safe, citing a decline in fighting there since 2015. But on Monday, some of the experts and organizations interviewed for the report denounced the government’s conclusion.
“Damascus may not have seen active conflict hostilities since May 2018 — but that does not mean that it has become safe for refugees to return to the Syrian capital,” they wrote in a letter published by New York-based Human Rights Watch. “Many of the key drivers of displacement from Syria remain, as the majority of refugees fled, and continue to fear, the government’s security apparatus, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, military conscription, and harassment and discrimination.”
The European Parliament, the United Nations’ refugee agency and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, among others, have rejected forcible returns to Syria.
“It’s not in the interest of the Syrian people to pressure Syrian refugees to return to Syria, including to regime-held areas, where many fear they will be arbitrarily detained, tortured or even killed by Assad’s security forces in retaliation for fleeing,” Blinken told the U.N. Security Council in March.
Charlotte Slente, secretary general of the Danish Refugee Council, said in an email to The Post, “As long as the situation in Syria is not conducive for returns, we think that it is pointless to remove people from the life they are trying to build in Denmark and put them in a waiting position without an end date, after they have fled the horrible conflict in their homeland.”
Since 2019, the Danish Immigration Service has revoked or refused to renew the residency permits of about 200 Syrians from Damascus and Rif Damascus, according to figures it provided to The Washington Post.
More than 20 killed in air raids on Idlib by the regime
At least 21 people have been killed in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province as Syrian government forces and their Russian allies intensified an air offensive on the country's northwest, according to rescue workers who operate in opposition-held areas.
The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said air raids and barrel bombs on Wednesday struck a vegetable market in the town of Ariha, as well as repair workshops in an industrial area, a few hundred metres away from the market.
At least 19 people were killed in the attacks on the market and the nearby shops, including a Civil Defence volunteer, Ahmed Sheikho, a spokesman for the group, told Al Jazeera.
A man was also killed in the village of Has as a result of a Syrian government air raid, Sheikho said, while a young girl succumbed to wounds sustained in a previous attack, which took place before the latest ceasefire was implemented.
The least 82 people were wounded in the attacks on Wednesday and the death toll is likely to increase, according to the White Helmets.
21 innocent people have lost their lives today, and 82 others have been injured, as a result of the regime/Russian terrorist attacks on #Idlib and #Ariha market and many other places in northern #syria. The number of dead will climb as many are critically injured. pic.twitter.com/OSbgkynMz2
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) January 15, 2020
The bombardment engulfed several vehicles in the industrial zone, leaving the charred corpses of motorists trapped inside, an AFP news agency correspondent said.
Mustafa, who runs a repair shop in the area, told AFP he returned to find the shop destroyed and his four employees trapped under the rubble. It was not immediately clear if they had survived.
"This is not the neighborhood I left two minutes ago," Mustafa said.
![People inspect destruction caused by government air raids in the town of Ariha, Idlib province [Ghaith Alsayed/AP Photo]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd2b54227235964a45338d6/1579185824342-YEJSDTGGFZW3WC2S75QE/8daba5d7b8ee49579d97645dcb1c1188_18.jpg)
People inspect destruction caused by government air raids in the town of Ariha, Idlib province [Ghaith Alsayed/AP Photo]
The attacks come days after a brief lull. The ceasefire brokered by Moscow, which supports the Syrian government, and Turkey, which backs the rebels, faltered on Tuesday night when air raids hit a string of towns in the southern part of Idlib province.
Since December 1, around 350,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced by the renewed offensive, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Sara Kayyali, a Syria researcher for Human Rights Watch, said nearly four million civilians are "essentially trapped" in Idlib due to the relentless bombardment.
"It's likely that many of these attacks on protected civilian infrastructure, where there is large civilian presence and no real military target, are likely to be war crimes," Kayyali told Al Jazeera.
The northwestern region is home to nearly three million people, about half of whom were transferred there in large groups from other parts of the country which had been held by rebels and were retaken by pro-government forces.