Armed men burst into the apartment where student Mohamad lived with his Alawite family in the Syrian city of Jableh on March 7 last year and forced the 20-year-old and his father to ?lie face down as they pleaded for their lives.
The gunmen eventually left with cash and some belongings, but the family moved out, Mohamad said, terrified by the ordeal and the wave of killings targeting fellow Alawites after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad, who hails from the same minority sect.
After nine months house hopping to avoid being targeted again, Mohamad flew to Amsterdam on a tourist visa with his uncle Salman. They asked for asylum on arrival, but their claim was rejected within weeks as they were not deemed personally at risk, documents showed.
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