Syria to Germany — The Journey of a Refugee

Refugee Spotlight: Ahmad Salah, Computer Scientist.

Ahmad is the Senior Back End Developer at Univie, bringing an invaluable perspective and contribution to the team and the future of refugee care.

My name is Ahmad Salah, I am 27 years old, and I come from Damascus, the capital of Syria.

I come from a middle-class family, so I was lucky enough to be able to go to school and not have to work. Unfortunately, this is not a given in Syria.

I had common interests, like any ordinary boy has, such as playing with friends and talking to girls.

What I saw one day changed my life. I saw the arrest of three of my uncles at once. I saw them being beaten and thrown into the Syrian intelligence car, and no one could say a word on the street.

So, I started asking my father innocent questions. For example, who were these armed men, and why did no one do anything. My father’s answer was always the same. He always told me to forget it; the walls have ears; let it go, and don’t talk about it anymore.

After that, I understood that everyone is afraid and doesn’t want to talk. Otherwise, the armed men will come and arrest them. People in Syria get scared when they see the standard Peugeot 505 intelligence vehicle on the street.

The armed men have all the rights, they can arrest people or even kill them, and nobody dares to say anything; otherwise, they will be contained too.

Nobody was allowed to visit my uncles or even ask about them. After that, I started to take an interest in politics. After a few years, the Arab Spring began in 2010.

I first heard the word freedom when people began to talk quietly and secretly about the revolution. The Arab Spring started in Tunisia; people there couldn’t stand the regime's corruption anymore and took to the streets to demand their freedom. In Syria at that time, almost the entire population sat in front of the TV and watched passionately as people called for freedom.

In March 2011, a group of students spontaneously wrote on the school wall, “Our president, it’s your turn. You must go”. The regime arrested the children and tortured them to death. That was the spark for the fire under the ashes. The Syrian people from all religions and sects took to the streets demanding freedom. The regime shot at the demos and killed people. This was not a shock. We knew the regime was brutal; the shock was that the international community just stood by and watched the regime shoot at us.

At the same time as the revolution began, I started studying economics at Damascus University. However, I had to stop my studies in the first semester. It was very dangerous for me to go to university because I feared being arrested for standing up for human rights against Assad and organizing and participating in demos.

Honestly, I thought it didn’t matter, assuming that I’d continue my studies after the fall of the regime. I thought it would take a few months, as it did in other countries.

The situation got worse and worse, and the regime lost control of my city and started bombing the city.

I helped people after the bombing, and I was seriously injured; I lost a leg. I could no longer provide the help.

I researched on the internet how to build a prosthesis myself. Unfortunately, it is not natural to get a prosthesis because I am afraid of the regime, and I cannot go to the hospital. And so, I created a prosthesis together with a Schumacher.

The prosthesis was not good, and I needed a better prosthesis. So, I decided to leave Syria, and I did not give up hope of continuing my studies and building a life for myself.

After a very long journey on foot, by bus, or by rubber dinghy through 7 different countries, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, I landed in Germany, and now I live here as a recognized refugee.

In the beginning, I was afraid that I would not be able to learn the language and integrate into German society, but little by little, and with the help of many friendly and helpful people, everything changed. Learning German was the most important thing for me because I knew that language is the key to the world.

Despite the poor living conditions in a refugee shelter with 130 refugees of different nationalities, I worked with determination.

I taught myself the first two levels (A1 and A2) of German with a strong will. In courses, I passed the integration test and the required language courses to be able to enroll in a German university. At this moment, I am in the last semester of my computer science studies.

Simultaneously, I am working as a computer scientist at a company in Stuttgart. Being a computer scientist is my dream job because I won’t be limited to IT companies — I can work everywhere. And as a computer scientist, I can solve many people’s problems, like what we’re doing now at Univie. We want to develop an app that refugees on the run can use to store their health documents in the cloud and access them from anywhere, so they have fewer problems when they want to see a doctor.

Besides studying and volunteering at Univie, I volunteer as a presenter and director at Free Radio Desert Wave. Together with other volunteers, I do a show called NewcomerNews. Our weekly show is about the problems of refugees.

I regularly interview successful people who can provide valuable insights. The show is an opportunity for refugees to talk about themselves and not have people talk about them instead — as they always do.

The question of a fellow student at an information event at the university: “Why did you come to Germany?” motivated me to create a photo exhibition.

It is important to me that people in Germany are informed about our situation and understand why many of us had to flee. Refugees are people in need who deserve a fair chance to live in safe countries on an equal footing and free with everyone else in peace.

I have no hope of returning to Syria. The regime has killed over a million people, and over 7 million are on the run. I will never see my homeland again and will not be allowed to lay flowers at the grave of my friends. I wish that all poor and freedom-seeking people can leave this hell on earth.

Meet the Author

Written By: Ahmad Salah

Ahmad moved from Syria to Germany in 2016. After learning the German language, he received a scholarship to study at Reutlingen University in Germany, which he will graduate with a B.S. in Computer Science in 2022.