Enab Baladi – Ali Darwish

Ahmed looks at the pomegranate trees on his 20-dunam land, which he has tended for many years and from which he earns his livelihood. He daydreams about the treacherous and dangerous journey to a better life in Europe.

The idea of travel recently started to occur to Ahmed, 42, due to the increasing drought in the western countryside of Daraa over the past three years.

Ahmed told Enab Baladi that he found it difficult to irrigate his crops after the well on his land dried up. He fears that the drought will continue next year and possibly worsen. As a result, he sees travel as the only way to find work that will allow him to support his family, which may join him later through reunification procedures.

For the past three years, Daraa has been suffering from a shortage of water for agricultural irrigation after the drying up of Lake Muzayrib and several springs and wells due to reduced rainfall and failure to replenish groundwater, without effective measures from the regime to address the issue.

This means that more farmers will look for other sources of income, and despite the inherent risks, migration becomes their first choice.

Daraa has lost many of its people on migration routes, especially the maritime route from North African countries (Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria) across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy’s shores.

Despite news of sinking migration boats before reaching Italian shores, kidnapping gangs in Libya demanding ransom from the kidnapped’s families, intensified Libyan coast guard monitoring, and imprisonment and torture of some migrants in poor conditions, Daraa’s residents continue to leave under the eyes of the Syrian regime.

Death risks

On August 31, local networks documented the loss of contact with 19 migrants from the city of Tafas in western Daraa in Libya, including children and women named specifically, after they were on a boat that sailed from Libyan coasts.

The Italian coast guard announced on September 4 that they had rescued seven Syrians from among 28 migrants on a boat that sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa after sailing from Libya.

Four days later, the Italian coast guard recovered the bodies of six people believed to be from the boat that sank on September 4.

The biggest incident was in June 2023, when an old fishing boat sank off the Greek coast after departing from the Libyan port of Tobruk, carrying around 750 people, dozens of them from Daraa.

Since the beginning of this year, 1,047 people have either died or gone missing, according to the United Nations Migration Agency.

Dr. Hossam al-Saad, a sociologist, believes that the main reasons for migration, despite the dangers it poses, are the deadlock in reaching a political solution in Syria, the surpassed desire for change within the country due to the impossibility of making such changes, combined with a deteriorating economy, lack of job opportunities, and security.

Al-Saad explained to Enab Baladi that the migration adventure, in this case, is equivalent to staying, “meaning that the risks in both cases are equal,” because staying means ongoing despair and frustration, while migration may open up a new life if young people manage to overcome security obstacles.

Migrating despite risks is “an advanced degree of despair at the possibility of change within Syria” and a search for a better life even if the price is death. This can also be attributed to the absence of any international plan guaranteeing a safe and neutral environment for staying in Syria, according to al-Saad.

The issue, in general, is not so much about the dangers of the journey as it is about the decision itself. Dr. Al-Saad pointed out that the idea of migration is part of the youth’s vision for their future in Syria. Consequently, the absence of any international initiative affecting different groups or certain segments within Syria pushes young people towards individual solutions and seeking individual salvation.

Facing death for salvation

Nabil, 40, from Tafas, wants to travel for stability and marriage. He currently lacks the means for marriage, such as a home and wedding expenses, so he decided to migrate, planning to marry through family reunification after securing a job and housing abroad.

Nabil explained to Enab Baladi that the cost of building a house is about $20,000, while his travel costs are around $12,000. He noted that migration is “an opportunity for a better life,” as he put it.

Nabil is waiting to sell his pomegranate harvest in October, which is estimated to bring in around $6,000, in addition to selling three cows and borrowing some money from a friend.

Meanwhile, another young man named Ahmed, aged 20, sold an eight-dunam piece of land to finance his travel expenses.

Ahmed told Enab Baladi that his reason for migration is to escape military service and ensure a life free from the constant threat of security crackdowns and conscription, which he refuses, along with the frequent assassinations.

The Martyrs Documentation Office in Daraa documented 39 assassination attempts in August, leading to the deaths of 18 people, including a child. Additionally, 31 people were arrested, with 11 of them later released.

From Daraa to Europe… Different routes

The migration routes to Europe taken by Daraa’s residents vary and involve many obstacles, differing from person to person. The first obstacle is reaching Lebanon, either through official crossings or through smuggling routes, or reaching northern Syria via smuggling routes.

Someone who has evaded mandatory military service or defected from the regime’s army is not granted an external travel permit, and is therefore forced to smuggle their way to Lebanon. As for northern Syria, they must, in any case, go through smugglers.

According to Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Daraa, a large proportion of migrants are between the ages of 13 and 19.

A Syrian wanted by the security forces enters Lebanon through smuggling routes after paying about $300. Issuing a passport in Lebanon costs around $2,000.

After obtaining a passport, the migrant has several options: traveling to Libya, Cyprus, or Serbia. These countries are expensive due to the requirements for a tourist residence before moving to the final asylum destination.

On the other hand, the travel visa to Libya is part of the overall migration cost paid to the smuggler to reach Italy.

Nabil from Daraa plans to migrate through Lebanon and will need to obtain a passport in Beirut. However, he is apprehensive about staying in Lebanon due to the Lebanese authorities’ stringent measures on Syrian movement and the handover of violators to the Syrian regime, which Nabil considers a “death sentence.”

The smuggler offered Nabil a route costing $11,000 on condition that he doesn’t stay in Libya. Another smuggler’s route costs $8,000, but includes staying in Libya until a passage is secured, risking kidnapping, and enduring the tough living conditions in warehouses near the Libyan coast.

An investigation by Enab Baladi and Syria Indicator documented the inhumane conditions of arbitrary detention at migrant detention centers in Libya, with physical and psychological torture of detainees by various means, without referring them to court, in addition to blackmailing them before and during detention, even bargaining with their families for their release in exchange for money.

The investigation, titled “Extortion, Rape, and Torture… Syrians Trapped in Libyan Detention Centers,” revealed some cases of coordination between human trafficking networks and devices and militias in eastern and western Libya.