Most White Helmets have been left behind in Syria
Many supposed to join evacuation were not able to reach frontier because of fighting
Fearing for his life, Daman Ayed registered to be evacuated from Syria along with hundreds of other members of the White Helmets rescue service, hoping for a new life in Canada.
But the 20-year-old was not among the several hundred people who were spirited out of the country last weekend over the Israelioccupied Golan Heights and into Jordan. When the list of names approved for evacuation arrived, his was not on it.
“They told us at midnight that the names had come. We were surprised how many names had not been approved,” said Ayed. Only two of the people working at his rescue centre were on the list.
Instead, he joined thousands of other people boarding buses for opposition territory in northwest Syria under the terms of the rebels’ surrender to the government.
Many of the rescue workers and their families originally supposed to join the evacuation were not able to reach the frontier because of fighting, the White Helmets said.
Of about 800 people, including about 250 White Helmets, along with 550 family members, in the plans, only about 100 rescue workers and about 300 relatives were able to cross through the Israelioccupied Golan Heights and Jordan. However, other White Helmets, including Ayed, were never cleared for evacuation. “We sent these lists ... and some names were refused and some names were accepted,” said Ammar Al Selmo, a White Helmet working with the group in Turkey.