For weeks the trail of the 19th Syrian had gone cold.

He and 18 other Syrians were being held in Australian-run detention centres, but he was the only one the Federal Government managed to persuade to return home.

He was known as EDE 043 — an identifier assigned to him based on the boat he arrived on — but his real name is Eyad.

The chicken farmer fled his village in Syria's Daraa province more than two years ago, leaving his pregnant wife behind with family, with a plan of reaching the safe haven of Australia and then sending for her.

He made it to Christmas Island by boat on August 4, 2013 and was later transferred to Manus Island.

Eyad was repatriated from Manus back to Syria in August this year. Contact with him was lost.

Lateline can reveal however that 29-year-old Eyad is alive and after a long journey back to Syria, where he says he was jailed and tortured, he has made it home to his wife and the daughter who was born in his absence...

...emails between Department of Immigration employees that were obtained under Freedom of Information by The Guardian show Australia has been encouraging Syrians in detention to go home.
"I was very open and frank with the transferees, I described the options that they have and I was clear that they would not be settled in Australia or a third country," one email states.
"The transferees were visibly upset and quite anxious.
"They were quite adamant that I would be sending them home to their death."...

...Eyad became sick with kidney stones while he was on Manus Island and was convinced he was going to die.

"He want to leave for Syria... he say I don't want to be dead in this compound jail here in Manus Island," he said.

And so, just over a month ago, Eyad was given $US2,310 by the Australian Government and flown off Manus Island...

...Remarkably, more than a month after he was flown off Manus Island, Eyad was at the other end of the phone line.

"My number is EDE 043," he said.

Eyad said he had tried to escape from the Australian immigration officials who had escorted him back to Syria.

"When I went to Qatar, in Doha airport, I tried to escape because I wanted to go to Turkey," he said.

"There is a refugee camp in Turkey and once I am in that refugee camp in Turkey, it is easy to get my wife and my daughter to come live with me in that refugee camp."

Eyad also explained why contact was lost with him for so long.

"I was worried when I get to Syria to be killed or put in jail, and this is what happened. As soon as I get to Damascus I was 20 days in jail," he said.

He was singled out by government officials when he landed in Damascus - his home village marking him as a dissenter.

Eyad said for 20 days he was tortured by Syrian government intelligence officers, who had found the cash given to him by the Australian Government and accused him of being a financier of the Syrian revolution.

"They hit me on my face and on my back, on my chest," he said.

Eyad was released and made the dangerous journey back to his village and his family.

He said each day the village is pounded by barrel bombs, his house has been destroyed and his wife injured.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-01/the-asylum-seeker-the-government-convinced-to-return-to-syria/6816336