'It's not safe yet': Syrian diaspora in Europe caught between joy and anxiety

Since 2015, nearly 4.5 million Syrians made their way to Europe, fleeing an unending civil war and a deep humanitarian crisis.

Many of them watched in disbelief over the weekend as rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group moved through the country, eventually taking the capital Damascus.

Bashar al-Assad's sudden departure to Moscow ended a decades-long dynasty characterised by brutal crackdowns and human rights abuses.

"My whole family was crying," Zahra Alhelamy said. "My dad came running into the room shouting 'Syria is free' — I thought he was joking."

Alhelamy, who is 23 years old, left Syria when she was 11. After travelling by foot to Turkey, she and her sisters, brother and parents boarded a boat to the Greek island of Lesbos, a dangerous route that has claimed the lives of thousands each year since 2015.

They stayed in Athens for two and a half years before deciding to seek asylum in Germany, first living in a refugee camp before moving to Berlin and then settling in a small town near the west German city of Hannover.

Alhelamy said when her family first arrived in Germany, she felt "hopeless".

"I couldn't understand a word, and we were far away from any towns or cities," Alhelamy explained. After learning German, she trained as an assistant in a doctor's office.

Barely a day after al-Assad fled, Germany — which has the largest number of Syrian refugees in Europe with nearly one million in the country — announced it would be temporarily suspending asylum applications along with a slew of other countries, including Sweden and Greece.

Alhelamy and her family have asylum in Germany. Returning to Syria, however, would still not necessarily be an option.

"We don't know who's going to be the next president, we