Syrian Refugee Withdraws from German Parliament Campaign

Refugee Demonstration in 2018 (The Globe Post)

Syrian immigrant Tareq Alaows made headlines in Germany when he announced his bid for the German Parliament in February. Now, he has withdrawn his candidacy to run for a seat for the Green Party in Oberhausen due to racist and discriminatory threats on March 30.

The 31-year-old Syrian-born refugee, who hails from Damascus, released a statement detailing the extent of the threats he received that caused him to withdraw his candidacy. Had Alaows secured this position, he would have been the first Syrian immigrant to sit on the Bundestag, the German Parliament. On Twitter, many Germans expressed their support and sympathy for him using the hashtag #SolidaritatmitTareq.

Alaows came to Germany through German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “Wir Schaffen Das!” campaign, which opened up Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern refugees in 2015. Alaows, who studied law in Damascus, was part of anti-government demonstrations in Syria before fleeing to Germany. In an effort to combat the slow process of asylum application, Alaows co-founded Seebrücke, an activist group campaigning for the decriminalization of sea rescue efforts in the Mediterranean Sea.

When Alaows announced his candidacy back in February, there was a wide range of reactions from the German public. While many praised him when he announced his candidacy on Twitter, many Germans attacked his refugee status and propagated discriminatory views toward him. 

"The great public interest generated by my candidacy shows what we refugees can do. But unfortunately, our society lacks discrimination-free spaces in many areas of life,” Alaows said. “The serious threats against me, and more importantly against those around me, are the primary reason for withdrawing my candidacy." In addition to withdrawing his bid, Alaows has also withdrawn from the Green Party entirely, in order to protect the privacy of him and his family.

Due to his withdrawal, many senior members of Parliament expressed their concern and frustration with the country because of the vast amount of racism he experienced in such a short time. Foreign Minister Heiko Mass called the extreme amount of discrimination ‘“pathetic for our democracy.”

Niema Movassat, an Iranian Left party MP who represents the district that Alaows is from, spoke up against the racism he experienced. “The withdrawal of Tareq Alaows needs to be a wake-up call. I was not surprised, because I experience it again and again. This happens very often if you have a migration background yourself, that you experience racism and threats.”