What do Syrians think about the welcome for Ukrainian refugees?

Although they have the same enemy, Syrians in Germany say they did not enjoy the same open-armed embrace when their country’s war erupted. “It’s great that Ukrainians are being looked after at the political level in this way, but the message that I see is that there is a difference between those who are Europeans with blond hair and blue eyes and non-European Arabs and Muslims.” ‘When the media says “they look like us”, it makes you feel bad’ Ahmad Kalaji, 35, a journalist and master’s student from Damascus, now lives in Berlin. “When the media decides to bring people from Syria or Iraq into it, and say things about how similar the Ukrainians are to them as reporters – ‘they drive like us, look like us, even read the same newspapers as us’ – it just makes you feel very bad. “These tragedies are very big, we don’t need to be brought into this in this way.” ‘Solidarity should be granted to everyone’ Damascus native Ameenah A Sawaan, 31, is a justice and accountability campaigner at the Berlin-based Syria Campaign group. “It’s very important to support refugees with things like accommodation and food but these efforts don’t solve the fundamental issue, which is that people have been forcibly displaced.