Denmark has ordered the deportation of a Kurdish man from Syria as growing official hostility towards refugees living in the Scandinavian country means a new round of expulsions.
Isa Kali, who lives in Frederiksvaerk, is among several hundred refugees who have recently been informed by the authorities that their residencies will not be renewed and that they have 30 days to return to Damascus.
The prospect of returning to the capital of the war-torn country fills most Syrian refugees with dread, but for Mr Kali, who isn’t even from the city, it is also illogical.
Although Mr Kali, 28, worked in Damascus for four years as a labourer before the war, he is from a relatively poor Kurdish town close to the Turkish border and grew up stateless.
Before the Syrian conflict erupted the Kurds in Hassakeh, the north-eastern region where Mr Kali lived, were considered "foreigners" and ineligible for Syrian citizenship.
In March 2011, the Syrian regime decided to finally grant citizenship to tens of thousands of stateless Kurds living in the region, a move that was seen as a gesture to placate the ethnic minority and appease protesters at the start of the uprising. It also meant those Kurds could now join or be conscripted to the army.
I don't understand their logic. They just seem to make a decision and want to enforce it no matter what. Isa Kali
After the war broke out and the citizenship rules were changed, he was frequently stopped at checkpoints in the city and told to get his citizenship papers in order so he could serve in the army.
"I didn't want to go. I was either going to kill or be killed and I thought it was better to escape," Mr Kali tells The National.
After one particularly threatening checkpoint encounter, Mr Kali decided it was time to leave.
“They told me that the next time I passed there without my Syrian ID card they were going to take me straight to the front line,” he said.
In a now familiar tale of many Syrian refugees in Europe, Mr Kali left Damascus in 2014, travelled through Turkey and boarded a lorry that took him all the way to Denmark.
Two of Mr Kali’s brothers also live in the country with their wives and children but neither has received a deportation order, though they both left Syria after the war.
Danish authorities say Mr Kali should return to Damascus, which they deem “safe”. They say he will not be conscripted into the military because he is Kurdish, not Syrian, seemingly failing to take into account the 2011 change in legislation.
Before leaving Syria he registered himself as a citizen but never received his new identification papers or passport.
“I don’t have family or friends in Damascus. I don’t understand their logic. They just seem to make a decision and want to enforce it no matter what,” he said.
Mr Kali’s parents and two other siblings still live in his home town 700 kilometres from Damascus, but reaching it safely would be practically impossible to do without paperwork.
Since the war broke out in 2011, north-eastern Syria has become a semi-autonomous enclave run by the Kurds, the country’s largest ethnic minority. The area shares control with government forces, which have a presence in security zones.
Since he arrived in Denmark in 2014, Mr Kali has learned Danish, secured a licence to drive lorries and completed a hygiene certificate to improve his job prospects. He was working in a plastics factory when he was first notified in December 2020 that his temporary residency would not be extended.
Despite the efforts of his lawyer, Mr Kali failed to convince the judge at his last hearing earlier this month of the serious risk to his life if he returned to Damascus. “We were in there for hours but it felt like the decision had already been made,” Mr Kali says. He has appealed the decision but, barring serious changes in Denmark’s anti-refugee policies, his chance of success is slim.
In a cruel twist of irony, Denmark cannot physically deport refugees back to Syria because the two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations. Instead, deported refugees can either return “voluntarily” or be placed in deportation centres, where they are not allowed to work, study or participate in society.
Earlier this month, the Danish parliament backed a controversial law that will allow asylum seekers to be sent outside of Europe as their applications are processed.
At least 200 Syrians have had their residency permits revoked since mid-2020 after Denmark decided that Damascus was safe enough for their return. The decision has been criticised by human rights organisations internationally and prompted several protests against the decision in the country.
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
RESULT
Al Hilal 4 Persepolis 0
Khribin (31', 54', 89'), Al Shahrani 40'
Red card: Otayf (Al Hilal, 49')
Most%20polluted%20cities%20in%20the%20Middle%20East
%3Cp%3E1.%20Baghdad%2C%20Iraq%3Cbr%3E2.%20Manama%2C%20Bahrain%3Cbr%3E3.%20Dhahran%2C%20Saudi%20Arabia%3Cbr%3E4.%20Kuwait%20City%2C%20Kuwait%3Cbr%3E5.%20Ras%20Al%20Khaimah%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E6.%20Ash%20Shihaniyah%2C%20Qatar%3Cbr%3E7.%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E8.%20Cairo%2C%20Egypt%3Cbr%3E9.%20Riyadh%2C%20Saudi%20Arabia%3Cbr%3E10.%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cem%3ESource%3A%202022%20World%20Air%20Quality%20Report%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MOST%20POLLUTED%20COUNTRIES%20IN%20THE%20WORLD
%3Cp%3E1.%20Chad%3Cbr%3E2.%20Iraq%3Cbr%3E3.%20Pakistan%3Cbr%3E4.%20Bahrain%3Cbr%3E5.%20Bangladesh%3Cbr%3E6.%20Burkina%20Faso%3Cbr%3E7.%20Kuwait%3Cbr%3E8.%20India%3Cbr%3E9.%20Egypt%3Cbr%3E10.%20Tajikistan%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cem%3ESource%3A%202022%20World%20Air%20Quality%20Report%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')
Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
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SRI LANKA SQUAD
Upul Tharanga (captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella
Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana
Chamara Kapugedara, Thisara Perera, Seekuge Prasanna
Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera
Vishwa Fernando, Akila Dananjaya, Jeffrey Vandersay
What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith
