From Syria to COVID-19 Frontline, Stateless Scientist Sets Sights on Vaccine

Ask scientist Nowras Rahhal about his cutting-edge work on a COVID-19 vaccine and he is eager to explain the complexities, but ask him where he comes from and he struggles for words.

Rahhal, who moved to Germany two years ago from Syria’s war-shattered capital Damascus, is stateless – meaning no country recognises him as a citizen.

Although Rahhal’s mother is Syrian, laws in many Arab countries ban women passing their nationality to their children, so Rahhal, his two brothers and sister were born stateless like their father.