Story By: Lisa-Maria Goertz, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash

The first ever Syrian refugee to run for parliament in Germany has launched his electoral campaign this week.

Law student Tareq Alaows, 31, fled from Syria almost six years ago when he was targeted by the regime after participating in peaceful demonstrations and helping the Red Cross. He then travelled for two months to reach Germany.

According to the newspaper Deutsche Welle, Tareq learned German in just six months and trained to become a social worker and offer legal aid to refugees.

He then announced plans to run for parliament to represent the Green Party for the city of Oberhausen in the north-western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on 2nd February.

Tareq told Deutsche Welle: “As the first Syrian refugee in the Bundestag, I want to give a political voice to the hundreds of thousands of people who were forced to flee and who live with us.”

According to The Syrian Observer, Tareq hopes to “be the voice of all refugees” and fight for better housing conditions and support for more than a million refugees in the country.

The hopeful candidate said one of his main areas of focus if he was elected would be climate change.

He said: “The climate crisis will further aggravate the situation of people in the global south. This is why a fair climate policy must focus on refugees and migration.”

According to a report by the United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration (IOM), many millions of people are predicted to be driven from their homes due to natural disasters caused by climate change by the year 2050.

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification estimated that 135 million people could be displaced due to desertification over the next 25 years.

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