The deportation just before Christmas capped months of talks with Syria's government, which mirrored similar efforts by Berlin to strike a deportation deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Human rights groups have criticised efforts to send immigrants back to either country, citing continued instability and evidence of rights abuses. But Germany's conservative-led government has made the resumption of deportations to Syria a diplomatic priority since former president Bashar al-Assad fled the country just over a year ago.
When the al-Assad regime falls, Ammar, a Syrian lawyer and former Sednaya prison detainee, is determined to uncover the truth about Syria's missing. Haunted by the disappeared and his own imprisonment, he searches for answers in the ruins of Sednaya prison. Among classified documents, he discovers records of enforced disappearances and deaths, exposing the regime's brutality. With each case, Ammar pursues justice and closure, offering families a chance to grieve and heal.
For more than 11 years, I told myself it was too early to grieve. My father, Ali Mustafa, was arrested by Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria on 2 July 2013 and disappeared. Since that day, we have had no word, no trace, nothing. Every morning since he was taken I made my first thought after waking up: He is alive. Every night I went to sleep repeating it.