Refugees from Syria: The White Helmets and a German Debate

There are columns of white cars that are filmed via drone as they drive along roads in Syria – into Aleppo, into Homs. In cities where their drivers from the White Helmets civil defense organization have not been able to help for many years.

But now they are there, with brooms and heavy clearance equipment, with experts for searching for mines and for detecting and securing bomb remnants and chemical weapons, the terrible remnants of the terrible civil war in which the fallen dictator Bashir al-Assad bombed his own people and murdered.

The White Helmets have already presented a plan to guarantee the return of the many hundreds of thousands of Syrian citizens who have fled – and this plan is realistic because it is humane: The White Helmets are now starting to map and inspect all the bombed and destroyed regions in this region plagued country, from Aleppo to Homs, from Idlib to Damascus.

They have already started clearing streets so that people can move around safely again. They examine civilian and government buildings for mines and booby traps so that the number of victims does not rise any further. They make sure to bury the dead they still find in the prisons and also just somewhere in the fields or in the cities. They document the dead and where they are buried so that their relatives can eventually find them.

With five special teams, you are going into the deep cells of the Sednaya prison, where the Assad regime tortured its opponents – to save human lives and to document the barbarism there.

And then they want to build an infrastructure that is at least partially functioning for medical care so that refugees can come back with their families, with small children, with old people, in order to really be able to live in their Syrian homeland again.

And what are we discussing here in Germany?

Whether it is too early a day after the fall of the regime to discuss the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees. Whether we might know in a week how many could return. Or maybe even earlier? An immediate stop to admissions has already been called for. And AfD and BSW are simultaneously demanding that everyone who is celebrating liberation from the dictator on the streets today should be brought back to Syria tomorrow.

Nothing would be more senseless than sending hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people back to a country that cannot yet accept these people back.

If we in Germany really care about Syrian citizens rebuilding their own country, then our first concern must be to support organizations like the White Helmets. Then it’s not about sending as many refugees home as quickly as possible with 1000 euros or a plane ticket in hand. But rather to send Syrian civil organizations as much support as possible, from equipment to money to organizational help.

Let’s stop theoretical discussions about human numbers, as if there is no real, human reality behind these numbers. Where are these people supposed to go if their houses are still mined? What if there is no doctor left in the area and no care? Germany has always been good at pragmatically assessing crises – and the necessary help. Syria is a state in which there are many people – like the White Helmets – who want and can build their country.

You need our support. This should be a priority in our discussion on the first day after the fall of a dictator. No campaign slogans.