Omar came to Denmark from Syria in 2013 and was granted asylum because a rebel group had tried to recruit him during the civil war.

He learned fluent Danish, got a steady job and obtained permanent residence in November 2023.

A few months before Assad's fall, he decided to travel to Syria to visit his wife, whom he had married in a third country. He was allowed to do so because he had permanent residence and more than 10 years of legal residence, and he had a so-called alien passport issued by the Danish authorities.

Before leaving Denmark, he applied for a Syrian passport, because it is easier to travel on one of these in the Middle East and he picked it up when he was in Syria visiting his wife. When he returned to Kastrup Airport, he showed both passports to passport control and asked them to keep the alien passport, as he knew that it was not permitted to possess both.

Shortly afterwards, he received a letter from the Danish Immigration Service containing a lot of questions about the Syrian passport. Even though he explained everything, he received another letter summoning him to an interview in Sandholm with the headline “we are considering revoking your residence permit”.

He was in shock and could neither sleep nor eat. He contacted Refugees Welcome and asked for help. We investigated the matter as best we could, and advised him to explain everything as carefully as possible and obtain as much documentation as possible.

It turned out that the city named as the place of issue in his Syrian passport was different from the one he had told the Danish authorities that he had travelled to. The explanation was that the Syrian authorities had in fact forwarded his documents from one city to another in order to finish issuing it.

The Danish Immigration Service was satisfied with the explanation, and Omar retained his residence permit. However, the case caused him 7 months of constant anxiety and fear that he may lose the life he had built up so successfully in Denmark.