The Guardian newspaper said that Denmark is forcing asylum seekers - especially young women - to return to Denmark as part of a "zero asylum claims" policy.

A report written by Veronika Strzyszka, the newspaper's editor, noted that unlike the United Nations and the European Union, Denmark considers Syria to be safe for refugee return, but since men can be drafted into the army and older women often have children enrolled in Danish schools, the new policy mostly affects the population. Young people and older refugees.

The newspaper reviews the experience of refugee Mariam Awad - 22 years old - who "does not remember the last night" she slept well, and perhaps that was before her request to renew her residence permit as a refugee in Denmark was rejected two years ago, and the Awad family - who fled after the arrest of her older brother by Regime forces in Syria - for 8 years in the coastal city of Aarhus in northern Denmark, but she and her younger sister are currently facing the threat of deportation.

Mariam and her younger sister are the only ones in the family facing deportation, but their case is not unique. In 2019, the Danish government notified about 1,200 refugees from the Damascus region not to renew their residency permits, deeming the area safe.

“In 2015 we saw a legislative change meaning that the residence permit of refugees can be withdrawn due to changes in their home country, but the change does not have to be substantial,” said Lisa Blinkenberg, Amnesty International in Denmark. Then in 2019 the Danish immigration services decided that violence in Damascus has stopped and the Syrians can be sent back there."

Blinkenberg says Denmark's policy toward asylum seekers and refugees has become significantly more hostile in recent years. "In 2019, the Danish prime minister announced that Denmark didn't want 'any asylum seekers', and that was a really strong signal."

"As in other European countries, there was a lot of support for right-wing parties in Denmark. This sent a strong signal to the government to say: 'Well, Denmark will not be a welcoming country for refugees or asylum seekers'," she added.

Mariam was told by her lawyer that there was now a fixed date for her appeal to the Refugee Board.

It will be her last chance to extend her residence permit, and she has been waiting for this phone call since February. "I'm really nervous, but I'm glad it happened," she tells the British newspaper, "I'm glad I had the support of friends who put me in contact with volunteers. I wouldn't know what to do."

Rahima Abdullah, 21, is one of these volunteers. She is also a Syrian refugee and the head of the Danish Youth Refugee Council, which is active in opposing the policy of deportation against Syrian refugees. 200".

Rahima told the British newspaper about another experience of a refugee girl (Aya Daher) who was threatened with deportation in 2019, but she published her story on the social networking site Facebook and sent it to journalists to find a great local and international resonance, which made her appeal to the Danish Asylum Council accepted and her stay extended for another two years because Her life would be in danger if she returned to Syria, and Aya said, "They granted me residency because I appeared in the media, and they did not believe what I said about my situation and the dangers I would face in Syria. This hurt my feelings."

“Aya can go on with her life for now, but I am still doing the same work with others facing the same situation,” said Rahima Abdallah, adding that the stories of refugees in the media and their access to community support enables them to stay in Denmark.

Rahima says that she receives 5 messages daily from refugees who want to publish their stories in the media, "and I have to choose who I want to help, and sometimes I pass the other cases to activists, and there are two or three people who help me." this work!

But not every threatened refugee has the opportunity to speak to the media like Aya Daher;

There are those whose stories went unnoticed. "I worked with one family, with a couple and with young children. I managed to get one interview for them in Sweden, but that was not enough," Rahima said. "The husband is now in Germany with two children trying to get I have asylum there. The wife stayed here with one child. She texted me on Facebook and said: 'You didn't help us, you ruined our lives.' "I can't be angry with her - I can't imagine how she feels."

“The Danish media like to see a straightforward young woman from the Middle East, well integrated into society, learning and speaking Danish,” says Rahima Abdullah, while the other family was just an ordinary Syrian family.

The women did not speak Danish well and the children were very young.

Rahima adds that "Aya also does not wear the hijab, which I think has made some people more sympathetic to her," and continues that "there are people in Denmark who think that if you wear the hijab, you are not integrated into society. It will be this way."

Aya Daher, who has become a well-known face for young Syrian refugees in Denmark, says: "It was very difficult to suddenly be in the media, to be someone that a lot of people knew. I felt like I was responsible for a lot of people."

"I got a lot of positive feedback from people and from my classmates, but there were also negative comments."

And she continues, "A man came to me in the street and said to me: Go back to your country, you Muslim. You are stealing our money."

Aya Daher continues, "I respect that some people do not want me to be here, but there is nothing I can do about it," adding, "They were not in Syria and did not live the experience of war, but I cannot explain it to them!"