Karim Habib never imagined he would join the millions of refugees fleeing his country, but on Monday he got a call he had long been dreading.

A friend in the Syrian army informed him that he would soon be called up for military service, which the 48-year-old oil worker believed was long behind him. He decided to pack his bags and head for the border.

“I did not think they would come for me,” he says from a relative’s house in Beirut, the capital of neighbouring Lebanon. “But they are recruiting more men now than at any other time during the war.

“The regime is so desperate they are coming for anyone that can carry a weapon. The age limit is supposed to be 42, but now even those in their 50s and those with health problems are having to fight.

"They are being stationed around the country - manning checkpoints in Aleppo and even on the frontlines around Damascus,” he said.