Compulsory Military Service Prompts Migration of Youths in Southern Syria

Crowds of youths are seen outside the Department of Immigration and Passports in Daraa. (Daraa 24 Network)
Crowds of youths are seen outside the Department of Immigration and Passports in Daraa. (Daraa 24 Network)
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Compulsory Military Service Prompts Migration of Youths in Southern Syria

Crowds of youths are seen outside the Department of Immigration and Passports in Daraa. (Daraa 24 Network)
Crowds of youths are seen outside the Department of Immigration and Passports in Daraa. (Daraa 24 Network)

Syrian youths seeking to avoid mandatory military service by the regime usually flee to the southern provinces of Daraa and Sweida where some regions are still outside the control of the regime.

The regime tried to take advantage of the situation by issuing in April 2021 a law in Daraa that grants men between the ages of 19 and 42 a one-year grace period, during which they may obtain an “administrative postponement” of their conscription.

It followed that with contradictory decisions against those exempted, such as a travel ban in May and later, an order to obtain a “travel permit” from military recruitment centers.

A member of the negotiation committees in Daraa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the youths soon rushed to obtain passports, allowing the regime to reap direct and indirect revenues from its decisions.

This, according to the source, led to an unprecedented crisis that, as always in Syria, created a black market and rampant corruption in the country’s Department of Immigration and Passports.

Youths wishing to obtain a new passport as soon as possible paid millions of Syrian pounds to flee the country.

People seeking to avoid conscription usually have two choices: flee the country through legal or illegal means, or escape to regions outside regime control.

One man in Daraa, who has rejected compulsory military service, said such practices emerged with the eruption of the anti-regime protests in the province back in 2011.

The phenomena even extended to officers who refused orders to quell the protests, he revealed.

Now, the circumstances have changed, he went on to say. He compared joining the military to one throwing himself into the unknown.

They may spend years in the military, he added, citing examples of service that stretched to ten years given the ongoing conflict in the country.

Given the situation, he said, it is understandable for youths to be at a loss. No future awaits them after spending years in mandatory service, “that is if they stayed alive.”

People seeking to flee Syria would need anywhere between USD 10,000 to 16,000 to reach countries of asylum. Some have taken the risk of selling their properties, cars and homes to raise these funds.

Activists in Sweida said mandatory conscription has created tensions between the regime and the people.

The tensions have reached such an extent that locals Daraa and Sweida are confronting regime forces that are calling up youths to enlist.

Armed groups that remain active in southern Syria are still to this day preventing the regime forces from forcibly taking youths to join the military.



TIMELINE-The Buildup to Attacks on Israeli Football Supporters in Amsterdam

Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters demonstrate and light flares in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 7, 2024, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Michel Van Bergen/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters demonstrate and light flares in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 7, 2024, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Michel Van Bergen/via REUTERS/File Photo
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TIMELINE-The Buildup to Attacks on Israeli Football Supporters in Amsterdam

Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters demonstrate and light flares in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 7, 2024, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Michel Van Bergen/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters demonstrate and light flares in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 7, 2024, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Michel Van Bergen/via REUTERS/File Photo

Supporters of Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv were targeted for beatings by groups of thugs in the early hours of Friday following a match with Amsterdam's Ajax, the city's mayor Femke Halsema has said. Among dozens of Israeli supporters who were chased and assaulted, five suffered injuries needing hospital treatment, police said. In all 63 suspects have been arrested and authorities promised an investigation, as politicians within the country and beyond expressed their condemnation.

Here is a closer look at how the situation escalated.

Tension began to build on Wednesday as some of the 3,000 visiting Maccabi supporters had minor altercations back and forth with locals including taxi drivers and Ajax supporters in the city centre, police said.

A police report said groups of Maccabi supporters burned a Palestinian flag on Dam square, pulled another down from a nearby building and vandalized a taxi.

After a call went out on social media, angry Muslim taxi drivers gathered outside a casino where a group of 400 Maccabi supporters were gathered, and police intervened amid skirmishes.

Dutch media have reported on videos showing the beating of a Muslim taxi driver and a group of youths yelling anti-Semitic slurs at a person in a canal said to be a Maccabi supporter who was pushed in.

Reuters was unable to confirm those incidents took place as portrayed.

On the day of the match, Maccabi supporters were filmed chanting anti-Arab slogans in front of the National Monument on Amsterdam's central Dam square, including swear words against Palestine, in videos verified by Reuters.

Police guarded the perimeter but fights around the fringes were reported.

Dutch pro-Palestinian groups planned a demonstration outside the stadium during the game, arguing that the match should have been cancelled because of alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Israel denies war crimes, saying it is defending itself and blaming Hamas for civilian deaths, which the militants reject.

Dutch authorities were aware of anger over the war in Gaza, but saw no reason to cancel the match. The relationship between supporters -- the usual source of football violence -- is generally good between the two teams, Halsema said on Friday.

Ajax has strong Jewish associations, and fans sometimes carry Star of David flags to matches; it also has many Muslim supporters.

Less than 1% of Amsterdam's population is Jewish following the Holocaust, while around 15% is Muslim, mostly second and first generation immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East. The conservative Dutch government has vowed to implement Europe's strictest measures to limit immigration and reject asylum-seekers.

Ajax's most hardcore group of supporters, known as the F-Side, had said politics and football should be kept separate and that they would "intervene if necessary" if it went ahead at the ground.

Riot police at the stadium kept opposing groups apart and few incidents were reported when the match ended around 11 p.m.

However in the city center, around midnight, security fell apart.

Calls to target returning Maccabi supporters began circulating on Dutch messaging groups, leading to what mayor Halsema described as "anti-Semitic hit and run assaults".

Police used to dispersing football mobs could not easily stop smaller, highly mobile groups of attackers with no obvious club allegiance.

Police said they collected around 200 Maccabi fans on Dam square to protect them and escort them back to their hotels, but many were assaulted elsewhere in town, with perpetrators quickly fleeing on motor scooters.

Films on social media and verified by Reuters showed groups attacking Israelis.

Of the 63 people detained, most were later released pending charges.

Amsterdam banned demonstrations through the weekend and gave police emergency stop-and-search powers.