Karam
A young father, with a one-month-old son, explains what drove him to leave his home in Syria:
"I left Syria illegally in 2015 to Lebanon, because there was no other way that I could escape serving in the Syrian Army. Afterwards, there was some new legislation in Syria that permitted people to delay serving in the Syrian Army, so I went back to Syria illegally so that I could get my documents sorted out and delay my service. The second time I entered Lebanon, I left with my then fiancé legally, which was after a year of my illegal entrance. By the way, escaping illegally is very doable because there are a lot of roads between Lebanon and Syria that have no borders.
There is no future in Syria for me and my family. There is too much war and too much destruction. I was called for serving in the Syrian army. What am I supposed to do if I don't want to participate? So that's why we moved away from Syria. All my friends died in the war, but I do not need to die. It would make my wife and family sad if I were to die."
Many young men like Karam have fled Syria to avoid being conscripted and forced to fight - these links provide more information about compulsory Syrian military service and the consequences of draft evasion for young Syrian men.
