LONDON, 4 February, 2021 (TON): A Syrian refugee, who fled his country’s conflict in 205, is to stand in Germany’s general elections this September.

Tareq Alaows, 31, is set to run for the Green Party in Oberhausen and Dinslaken, an industrial constituency in the country’s west.

“I want to become the first person who escaped from Syria to enter the Bundestag (Parliament) and lend a political voice to the hundreds of thousands of fugitives who are living with us today,” he said.

Alaows, has not yet earned his German citizenship, studied law in Damascus and Aleppo, and protested against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime during the conflict. He worked for the Red Crescent and documented the regime’s litany of rights abuses.

Alaows fled to Dortmund, fearing repercussions from the regime, and arrived on 4 September, 2015 soon after Germany announced offering temporary residency to migrants.

He is now a permanent resident and works for a charity in Berlin. Alaows is aiming to receive a German passport in the coming months, which will be required if he is to successfully stand as a candidate in September.

“In the war and during my flight, I had to see for myself what it means to be stripped of your rights,” Alaows said.

“This is why I will stand up especially for upholding human rights. Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia are my homelands. My political work on a national level began right here in my constituency, Oberhausen and Dinslaken, and so it is here that I want to take a step towards the Bundestag.”

Considering Germany’s electoral system of proportional representation it can be said that Alaows run for the seat may be achieved because he could be elected to the Bundestag as one of the Greens’ regional slate candidates.