Yara's story

“When you experience war, you kind of feel you will die soon. You never know whether you will survive or not. When there are no bombs for a couple of hours, you always have the feeling that it will come back soon” Yara explains about having lived in a war zone.

Meet Yara (b. 2000). A stateless Palestinian from Syria.

“When you experience war, you kind of feel you will die soon. You never know whether you will survive or not. When there are no bombs for a couple of hours, you always have the feeling that it will come back soon” Yara explains about having lived in a war zone. 

Like her parents and three other siblings, Yara was born as stateless in the Palestinian refugee camp, Khan Al-Sheh, located close to Damascus. The conditions of the Khan Al-Sheh camp deteriorated when the war in Syria broke out and in 2014, the family was forced to flee after two weeks of bombardment. It culminated one evening when the neighbour’s house was completely bombed. Yara explains: 

“I was about 14. One night, we were at home and our neighbour’s house was bombed. We were scared and left immediately. The next morning we went back, picked up the most necessary of our stuff and then we left”. 

At first, Yara and her family were internally displaced in Syria and then they fled to Egypt.

In Egypt, Yara’s father left her, her mother and siblings, and sailed on a crowded ship with 280 other refugees towards Italy. He managed to come to Denmark and from there he applied for family reunification. After six months, the family was united and Yara now lives in Nexø with her mother Adala, father Ayman and four siblings, Mostafa, Dima, Hamza and Bisan.Yara has a job in Kvickly and speaks fluent Danish. “I do not know where my best friends from Syria are now. I only have contact with one friend” the 17-year old girl explains. 

“In Denmark we learn how it was during World War II. How to protect yourself. It is strange, because in Syria we have actually tried it. When you hear the bombs in reality, it’s a completely different loud sound, and the buildings are shaking”.

Yara’s younger sister, Bisan, was born in Denmark and as a child of two stateless Palestinians, she has automatically acquired Danish citizenship. Yara hopes that she can achieve the same one day: 

“Now we are part of society here. As stateless I do not have any rights, so I dream of getting a Danish citizenship. I would like to be a doctor and to travel”.

Photo by Martin Thaulow, Copyright © Refugee.Today/Good people.