Trees for the Absentees

While stories of Syrian refugees confront the depths of human cruelty, they also show the resilience of humanity

- Iftikhar Gilani

The horrors of detention under Assad’s rule are epitomised by Saydnaya prison, described as a ‘factory of death and despair’. Amnesty International documented mass executions and inhumane conditions, with up to 50 people hanged at a time after sham trials. “We heard their screams,” recalls a survivor. “Every night, we feared we might be next.”

One of the darkest chapters of the war was the chemical attack on Ghouta in 2013. Over 1,400 people suffocated to death, including women and children, as Sarin gas filled their homes. This atrocity was one of 222 documented chemical attacks in Syria, 98 per cent of which were carried out by regime forces. Despite international outrage, the attacks persisted, underscoring the impotence of global powers to intervene meaningfully.

“We couldn’t breathe,” says a survivor of the Ghouta attack. “Children died in their mothers’ arms. It was hell on earth.”

Dalia, a refugee who lost her brother in Ghouta, says, “The chemical attack didn’t just kill people; it killed our faith in humanity.” For millions of Syrians, survival meant fleeing their homeland. Dalia, a farmer from southern Syria, sought refuge in Türkiye with her husband and children. A year after settling in Hatay province, her husband was killed during a visit to Syria. Left to fend for her family, she worked tirelessly to provide for her children. During a return visit in 2017 to her husband’s grave, airstrikes forced the family to spend seven days under a tree. Now, she works in a greenhouse, drawing on her agricultural skills to rebuild a semblance of stability.

“All I wanted was to keep my children safe,” she says. “We left everything behind, but we are alive. That is what matters.”