Syrian passports: How German money funds war crimes in Syria

Syrians in Germany are forced to go back to the government that imprisoned or tortured them to get a new passport. The money they pay for passports funds a regime that the German government sanctions, activists say.

Even at high school, Adam Yasmin was political. When pro-democracy protests began in Syria back in 2011, Yasmin organized after-school demonstrations in his hometown of Jableh — despite the obvious danger posed by security forces loyal to the country's dictator, Bashar Assad.

As Syria's peaceful revolution devolved into a brutal civil war, Yasmin

was arrested and tortured. He was 16. "I was in prison for seven months and it was the worst experience of my life," he told DW. "And all because we called for freedom, democracy and the abolition of this dictatorial regime."

When he was released Yasmin fled, eventually ending up in Germany.

Now 27, he lives in Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg, is completing his degree and speaks fluent German. Just over a year ago, he applied for German citizenship and was told he needed one more thing before that could happen: A Syrian passport.

He had already presented his old Syrian ID card and a birth certificate. "But it wasn't enough and they told me that I need to get one [a passport]. I refused.

There's no way I want to give the Syrian government any money after what they did to me. This is a red line for me," Yasmin argued. "It makes everything that I lived through seem like nothing."

In Germany, and under international law, people officially acknowledged as refugees should never be forced to go back to the embassy of the country they fled. Yasmin is pursuing his legal options.