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How I became a refugee within a day

As a refugee, there is no place I can call home. I've had to accept a life in exile.

Published:
ABED AL-DIMASHQI.jpg
ABED AL-DIMASHQI.jpg

Syrian refugee actors perform as part of The Caravan, a street performance project touring Lebanon. Credit: Press Association/Hussein Malla.

It was late in August 2012 when I fled my country for the first time. I was reporting on the increasingly violent uprising in my hometown of Damascus when I was called up for military service, forcing me to leave.

I became a refugee within a day. Almost four years on, it remains unlikely that I will be able to return to Syria in the near future.