Testimonials
Eleven years of war in Syria: words of exiled refugees in Cyprus
Audio 01:27
Mahmoud comes from Aleppo.
He dreams of obtaining asylum in Europe and bringing his wife and children.
© Noé Pignede/RFI
Text by: Noé Pignède Follow
2 mins
In Syria, the revolutionaries celebrate, this Tuesday, March 15, the eleven years of the beginning of the protest movement against Bashar el Assad.
On March 15, 2011, in the context of the Arab Spring, a first demonstration against the dictatorship took place in the city of Deraa.
Civilians from all over the country then took to the streets.
Eleven years later, the peaceful movement has become a civil war.
Toll: 500,000 dead.
The rebellion has been put down in most parts of Syria.
Only the Idlib enclave is still resisting.
The country is breathless.
The war and the economic crisis continue to push the Syrians on the roads of exile.
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From our special correspondent in Cyprus
,
Noé Pignède
On the island of Cyprus, about fifty kilometers from the Syrian coast, dozens of exiles arrive every day on makeshift boats.
Mahmoud, 30, left Aleppo two months ago.
“
I left because of poverty.
And I want to continue my studies.
But the regime wanted to force me to stay in the army for eight years.
I refuse to fight against my compatriots
”.
► To read also: In Syria, the rise in prices of basic necessities worries
Mahmoud describes a Syria that has become unlivable, where shortages of water, electricity and food are daily occurrences.
So after eleven years of war, he preferred to take to the sea at the risk of his life.
A crossing that Habib, in his twenties, tells us: “
It was the journey of death.
We stayed four days at sea. The engine finally failed.
We watched the sun go down, the moon rise.
And nothing.
We were surrounded by water.
We had lost hope of reaching the mainland
”.
An alley in the Pournara camp.
This detention center is designed to accommodate 1,200 exiles, today there are 2,500. © Noé Pignède/RFI
Once in Cyprus, these Syrians set foot in Europe, the "continent of human rights", as they call it.
But they are all locked up in an unsanitary detention centre.
Fahed, in his fifties, let his anger explode: “
This camp is the worst camp in the world.
I'm afraid of dying.
If I had known, I would never have come.
I left everything to come: My family, my children.
But in fact, here, it is worse than at home
”.
► To read also: Syrian refugee camps swept away by the rains
Today, all these Syrian exiles have their eyes riveted on the images of waves of refugees from Ukraine, welcomed by the European Union.
And they all ask the same question: "
Why are we treated differently
?"
We too are fleeing the war
!
»
► To read also: The treatment of Ukrainian news shocks Afghans and Iraqis
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Cyprus
Syria
Bashar al-Assad