Rashad was born in a hospital in Damascus 17 years ago, the offspring of a common-law marriage from a Tunisian mother and a Syrian father who disappeared when Rashad was still small. His mother was deported after serving a prison sentence.

Rashad was born in a hospital in Damascus 17 years ago, the offspring of a common-law marriage from a Tunisian mother and a Syrian father who disappeared when Rashad was still small. His mother was deported after serving a prison sentence.

Rashad was then transferred to a village for orphans, and he was occasionally visited by his aunt.  But Muhannad, an official in the village who supervised Rashad, says Rashad’s aunt stopped visiting him nearly seven years ago for no reason. In the beginning, this did not worry the boy because he was too young and because he thought that she was just a volunteer sponsor, not his aunt.

However, Rashad began to ask many questions about his past, present and future, especially when the Syrian authority refused many requests by the village’s administration to grant him an ID.

“The administration referred Rashad’s file to the Tunisian Embassy in Damascus three months ago to examine the possibility of granting him an ID,” says Muhannad. “But it is apparently a hopeless case.”

Whenever he goes to Damascus, Rashad’s life is threatened and he is vulnerable to harassment because he has no ID. The situation in Damascus is less extreme than in other cities ravaged by the war, however, there are many checkpoints in Damascus where security officials demand to see an ID.

Fear of checkpoints

People have grown accustomed to checkpoints in Damascus. Inspection and verification of their identities only take a few minutes. However, this is a nightmare for Rashad.

“Security men always detain me because I have no ID,” says Rashad. “But they release me when my supervisor intervenes to explain my situation.”

Rashad has obtained a paper from the director of the village to present it at checkpoints, but he always has to be cautious when events in Damascus escalate. “The security situation in Syria has exacerbated Rashad’s problem and created many obstacles to his movement,” says Muhannad.

The draft

Yet Rashad’s problems at checkpoints pale in comparison to the newest obstacle he’ll soon face. Rashad is almost 18 and he may be drafted and forced to serve in the army. Having failed school, he now dreams like many others, of migrating illegally to the shores of Europe.