'My parents in Syria have never met their grandchildren - now they can'

Mohammed Zain Alfaisal came to the UK in 2014 and married in Manchester in 2017, now he has visited his home in Syria for the first time since the fall of Bashar Al-Assad

Mohammed visited Syria for the first time since moving to Manchester(Image: Mohammed Zain Alfaisal)

As the dust settles from the collapse of Bashar-Al-Assad’s regime Syria’s wide diaspora, including in Manchester, is once again looking homeward. The unravelling of the seemingly unassailable Assad dictatorship in December 2024 after nearly 14 years of war was met with a mixture of joy and disbelief from Syrians around the world.

Among those who has suddenly found the possibility of seeing Syria once again is Mohammed Zain Alfaisal, who left Syria in 2011 and came to the UK in 2014. Before December last year, Syria was a place Mohammed could only point out to his children on a map.

Syria was a memory, an idea. Now, seemingly from nowhere, it can become a reality again.

For the first time since he left and since the fall of Assad, Mohammed has gone back to visit Syria. He described his journey, entering the country from Jordan and travelling north through Damascus to his family home close to the Turkish border over the course of a 10 day trip.

“I didn’t lose hope while I was in the UK that the regime will go at some point,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “A lot of people lost hope, for me I never lost hope. I was always thinking one day the regime will go.”

After his tour taking in Damascus, and the cities of Homs and Hama, Mohammad now wants to return to visit again. This time he wants to take his daughter, 6, and his son, 3, to meet their grandparents for the first time.

Crossing over the Syrian border(Image: Mohammed Zain Alfaisal)

“I am planning to see my family if I have holiday,” he said. “We’re planning to visit them because my dad and mum are so old, and they’ve never seen my kids even though my daughter is six years old.”

Assad’s regime collapsed rapidly in December 2024 after a lightning offensive led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the Committee for the Liberation of the Levant, which is still a proscribed terrorist group in the UK, US, and UN.

The group’s leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani, has now been confirmed as head of Syria’s provisional government. Rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghani also confirmed that Syria’s 2012 constitution has been voided and the regime’s parliament, army, and security agencies dissolved.

Ahmed Al-Sharaa was confirmed as the president of Syria’s interim government(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

As head of the interim government, Al-Sharaa faces a delicate balancing act maintaining law and order, preventing reprisals while showing that senior regime figures face justice, and asserting Syria’s new government with its neighbours.

Al-Sharaa has also sought reassure those concerned by the fact that he previously fought with Al Qaeda in Iraq. Recent weeks have seen the fighter and politician conducting a charm offensive in western media outlets.

There is a lot of anxiety for the future, including fears of a swing towards a conservative religious state. Despite this, such was the barbarity of the Assad regime that many people are willing to give Al-Sharaa a chance despite his past.

Mohammed arrived in Syria in the south and travelled north(Image: Mohammed Zain Alfaisal)

Mohammed said: “We are optimistic about the new government. Syria’s people are happy to give them a chance, we need years to rebuild our country.

“The people are so happy,” he said. “Everywhere the Syrian people are celebrating.”

Amidst the celebrations the full horror of the regime’s crimes has begun to be exposed. This included in the infamous Sednaya Prison, nicknamed ‘The Human Slaughterhouse’. When the prison was freed liberators discovered a large hydraulic press, used on the bodies of those murdered by the regime.

Mohammed with the new three-starred flag of Syria(Image: Mohammed Zain Alfaisal)

“Most of the people know everybody who goes to prison like 99 percent will be killed inside the prison,” said Mohammed. “A lot of people have been visiting the prison, they’ve been looking inside to see if they can find their cousin or wife or husband.”

This is not to see if they can find their loved one alive, Muhammed explained, adding: “They’ve been searching the paperwork to see if they can find any name.”

Among Mohammed’s stops was his old house, a large family home. “I’m happy that the regime has left, but I’m sad about the memories,” he said.

“We had a house with seven or eight bedrooms and three or four hundred trees around the house. When I went there all the trees were destroyed.”

With Assad gone, Syria now faces a mammoth task to rebuild itself, which it simply cannot do without help. Hundreds of thousands are dead, millions have fled and face lifelong injuries. Those who could afford to flee included people with skilled jobs like teachers, engineers, or doctors – people a country needs to thrive and who are not easy to replace.

Mohammed hopes that, in time, some people might return. He said: “They should go to Syria, and try to help rebuild our country. I hope those people will learn a lot of skills to help their country, myself included.”