Always Fleeing: The Gewargis Family’s Search for a Home
Their ancestors fled Hakkari and survived the Simele massacre. They fled the war in Syria. Today, one son is a Swedish citizen, another has been deported to Hungary, and their father is locked inside a detention center in Gothenburg. The Gewargis family’s story spans generations of displacement, tracing the fate of Christian families now scattered across the world.
The family’s names have been changed. ADFA remains in constant contact with them and has access to records from immigration authorities and other agencies.
Enki Gewargis, 28, was arrested during a workplace inspection on August 11. He had no legal right to live or work in Sweden and was taken into immigration detention.
He feared being sent to Syria.
ADFA contacted Swedish and Hungarian authorities, examined the applicable laws and regulations, and pressed for them to be followed. He was deported to Hungary, where he already held protected status.
On September 30, his father, Wilson, 61, was arrested during a workplace inspection in Jönköping. Police cited his previous absconding and the risk that he would go into hiding again.
Wilson is now held at an immigration detention center in Gothenburg. He has also been barred from returning to Sweden for four years. ADFA is representing him and will examine the decision in an effort to have the ban lifted.
The family left Tel Tamer, on the Khabour River in northeastern Syria, in late 2012. War was consuming the country. Their eldest son, Sargon, faced being called up for military service.
Sargon reached Sweden through Italy and eventually became a Swedish citizen. His parents and siblings applied for asylum in Sweden in 2013. After rejections in Sweden and Norway, they were transferred to Hungary, where they received protected status and residence permits.
They later returned to Sweden. Further applications were rejected.
But the family’s search for safety began long before any of them were born.
Their ancestors were driven from Hakkari, in what is now Turkey. After the Simele massacre in Iraq in 1933, they sought refuge along the Khabour. Survivors built Assyrian villages there, often naming them after the homes they had lost.
For generations, the river offered a place to begin again.
Then, on February 23, 2015, ISIS attacked.
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Hundreds of Assyrians were abducted. Churches were destroyed. Residents fled. The Gewargis family had already left Syria.
The surviving hostages were eventually released in groups. For many, freedom meant fleeing once more.
Most escaped to Lebanon. Others went to Jordan and Turkey. From there, they sought refugee status in Western countries. ADFA stayed in contact with many who reached Lebanon and helped them for years before they were granted refugee status in Canada and Australia.
Today, they are scattered across the world. Few have returned to the Khabour.
Across parts of Iraq and Syria, towns and villages have lost much of their indigenous Christian population. Families who once lived on the same street now live on different continents.
The Gewargis family is one of them.
For earlier generations, the Khabour was a refuge. For their children, it became another home to leave behind.
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