It was the Syrians who were responsible for the earthquakes. That’s what a Turkish man told Seyfeddin Selim, a refugee from Homs, Syria, who used to sell groceries in Antakya, the capital of Hatay province in southern Turkey. When the earthquakes hit in February, Mr. Selim’s shop was cleared out by looters before he could get there.
The blame that followed added insult to injury, but it wasn’t anything new. Mr. Selim didn’t say anything to the man in his defense, he told me, because he was worried an altercation could get him deported. But when I spoke to him months later, the encounter still made him burn up inside.… Seguir leyendo »
Three years ago, a global coalition of countries led by the United States retook most of the territory in Iraq and Syria controlled by the Islamic State. Once ISIS was defeated on the battlefield, the world moved on. Left unanswered was the question of what to do about the people, including thousands of children, who had come from abroad, either voluntarily or through coercion, to live under ISIS rule and were now abandoned by their governments.
Many of the women and children, and a small number of men, ended up in two detention camps in the middle of the desert in northeast Syria, where they remain today, with no way out.… Seguir leyendo »
Le Liban est en passe de s’effondrer : frappé de plein fouet par la pandémie de Covid-19, une explosion d’une puissance « quasi nucléaire » ayant détruit un tiers de la capitale, et une crise économique, financière et sociale sans précédent font que plus de la moitié de la population est désormais piégée dans la pauvreté. Le nombre de familles ayant basculé dans l’extrême pauvreté représente ainsi 23 % de la population résidente en 2020 selon l’ONU, soit trois fois plus qu’en 2018.
Alors que, bien avant les crises de ces dernières années, les autorités libanaises ont activement privé les populations vulnérables résidant dans le pays de toute véritable assistance, ces dernières sont désormais confrontées à des défis d’une ampleur jamais imaginée auparavant : des multiples privations qu’elles doivent endurer à la détérioration profonde de leur environnement social, en passant par le manque d’opportunités d’améliorer leurs conditions de vie.… Seguir leyendo »
Le 6 mars, le ministre sortant des Affaires sociales et du Tourisme, Ramzi Moucharrafiyé, s’est rendu à Damas afin de s’entretenir avec le ministre syrien des Affaires étrangères Fayçal Mekdad sur le retour des réfugiés installés au Liban. Alors que le pays du Cèdre est confronté à une crise économique, financière et sociale majeure, ce sujet est considéré par Beyrouth comme une priorité politique : le 14 juillet 2020, le gouvernement a publié un plan pour le retour des réfugiés syriens, tandis qu’en novembre dernier, la Russie a accueilli une conférence sur les réfugiés à Damas. C’est à la lumière de ces deux éléments que la visite de Moucharrafiyé doit être considérée.… Seguir leyendo »
As winter approaches and the covid-19 pandemic intensifies throughout the Middle East, Syrian refugees face parallel threats of bitter cold, coronavirus outbreaks in refugee communities, and economic hardship because of widespread lockdowns. Today, after nearly a decade of war, more than 5.5 million Syrians live as refugees in neighboring countries, primarily in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
These refugees have faced enormous challenges, including stringent limitations on the ability to work legally, financial and political barriers to legal residency, and few opportunities for resettlement to a third country. In 2020, the pandemic and intermittent lockdowns exacerbated economic crises in Jordan and Lebanon, making it even more difficult for refugees to work formally or informally to pay for rent and basic needs.… Seguir leyendo »
In recent months, the Syrian government has stepped up its assault on Idlib province, the last rebel-held area in the country. Turkey and Russia have implemented a fragile cease-fire, but the onslaught has already displaced nearly 1 million Syrians toward the Turkish border. As many as 3 million people are at risk of further displacement should the violence resume. While the latest battle makes it clear that the war is far from over, the Syrian government’s gains raise a pressing question: What is next for the 5.6 million Syrian refugees already in neighboring countries?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has periodically issued plans for “durable solutions” to the Syrian refugee crisis since at least 2017.… Seguir leyendo »
L’inaction aussi a son prix et il est plus que temps d’en sortir car… Rappelons l’enchaînement qui a conduit au chaos qui s’installe aux frontières de l’Europe. En Syrie, malgré la France, Barack Obama n’avait pas voulu faire respecter les lignes rouges qu’il avait lui-même tracées à Bachar Al-Assad. Son successeur s’est ensuite largement retiré du Proche-Orient pendant que l’Europe décidait de ne pas agir seule. La Russie s’est engouffrée dans ce vide pour reprendre pied dans la région aux côtés des régimes de Damas et de Téhéran.
La Russie est redevenue acteur mondial pendant que les démocraties occidentales se repliaient et Vladimir Poutine a alors décidé d’en finir avec le conflit syrien.… Seguir leyendo »
You may not realize it from the news coverage, but we are witnessing one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history. Resurgent fighting and violence around Idlib, Syria, have produced the largest wave of human displacement in Syria’s nine-year civil war. But with the rapidly emerging global crisis related to the uncontrolled spread of the lethal new coronavirus, as well as the 2020 presidential election, these refugees and displaced civilians are simply not getting the attention this humanitarian catastrophe deserves.
All of this means more misery and danger for children who have been living under chronic instability and persistent disruption for close to a decade.… Seguir leyendo »
The Haddad family have moved since I first visited them in Jordan last year in 2018: they’re still living in the same building in East Amman, but this time ten-year-old Saber led me past the door of the apartment I knew and up to the next floor. It was cosier, because it was smaller, and therefore cheaper—150 Jordanian dinars a month (about $210) rather than 250 dinars ($350) for the more spacious floor below. Spacious, yes, but the old one felt more desolate as a result. The furniture seemed sparse, if, on occasion, innovative. The baby’s cradle was a plastic vegetable crate, lined with blankets, hung from a water pipe in the ceiling, free to swing.… Seguir leyendo »
Ils sont six, installés dans le nord-est de la Syrie, sur le territoire des Forces démocratiques syriennes (FDS), une alliance arabo-kurde soutenue par la coalition internationale. Six camps, qui hébergent près de 100 000 personnes. Surtout des déplacés, c’est-à-dire des Syriens qui ont fui les régions les plus marquées par le conflit dans leur pays pour trouver refuge dans des zones plus calmes. On en compte au total 6,5 millions. Les réfugiés - ceux qui ont quitté la Syrie - sont quant à eux 5 millions, principalement installés dans les pays voisins : la Turquie, le Liban, la Jordanie et l’Irak surtout.… Seguir leyendo »
The 18-month-old boy, Belgian by birth, was malnourished, dehydrated, and vomiting every half an hour from a stomach bug. In Al Hol, the refugee camp in northeast Syria where he was staying, the heat regularly reached a relentless 100 degrees by midmorning, there was scant medical care, and fresh water, when it arrived, usually teemed with bacteria. Video of Ibrahim, listless and throwing up, had made its way from this desolate desert patch of Syria to his aunts in Belgium, who had shared it with doctors there. “I’m going to be honest, this baby is going to die,” one said.… Seguir leyendo »
As the number of refugees globally reaches records, states are developing diverse yet similar strategies of linking their management of forced displacement to foreign policy goals. In May, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that if crude exports continue to decrease in light of American sanctions, “it is possible that we ask our Afghan brothers and sisters to leave Iran.” In September, Turkey threatened to open the border with Syria and allow internally displaced Syrians into its territory if President Bashar al-Assad’s regime launched its “massive offensive against Idlib.”
The manipulation of forced migration as a political strategy is evident across a growing number of countries.… Seguir leyendo »
In July, a Russian strategy was introduced to facilitate the return of more than 1.7 million refugees to Syria, where 6.2 million people remain internally displaced. The United Nations projects the return of 250,000 refugees this year. Increasingly anti-refugee policies in western states and the reduction of Syrian refugees resettled annually from 2016 to 2018 have placed significant financial and domestic political pressures on host countries in the region. As a result, heightened domestic fears in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey of permanent integration are coinciding with a reported increase in deportations since 2017.
With resettlement increasingly less possible and the domestic instability surrounding fears of naturalization, the regional and global push for the return of Syrian refugees is underway.… Seguir leyendo »
Over the past month, fighting in southern Syria has displaced more than 300,000 people — the most at any one time in Syria’s nearly seven-year civil war. More than 60,000 of these Syrians fled south, hoping to find safety in Jordan. But Jordan’s government closed the border and refused to let them in, claiming the country has already done enough to help Syrian refugees.
Many Jordanians reacted angrily to the government’s position — #OpenTheBorders became a top trending Twitter hashtag in the country as people called the decision shameful and vowed to share their bread with the refugees. Some Jordanians matched words with actions, organizing private relief efforts to help those trapped on the border.… Seguir leyendo »
Les histoires atroces qui nous arrivent quotidiennement de Syrie obscurcissent une stratégie de longue date dont le dénouement finira par déterminer le sort du pays, la stabilité de la région et bien plus encore. Au centre : les droits de 13 millions de Syriens déracinés. Le gouvernement d’Al-Assad s’est engagé dans une politique d’expropriation systématique visant à récompenser ses propres alliés et à empêcher le retour de millions de réfugiés. L’Union européenne et les Nations unies doivent désormais agir, non pas tant par devoir que dans leur intérêt vital.
Treize millions de personnes, voilà qui représente la moitié de la population syrienne d’avant la guerre.… Seguir leyendo »
In the run-up to the recent Lebanese parliamentary elections, some prominent politicians highlighted refugee return as part of their electoral campaign platforms. This coincided with the orchestration of the forced return of 500 Syrian refugees on 18 April from Shebaa in southern Lebanon. Minister of Foreign Affairs Gebran Bassil rejected the idea that returns must be linked with a political solution in Syria, and dismissed a statement from the UN and EU which warned that Syria is not safe for returning refugees.
At the same time, the EU is pushing forward a discussion for funding reconstruction works in Syria and promoting it as a solution for the refugee crisis in Europe.… Seguir leyendo »
As the war in Syria rages on, Syrian refugees in neighboring countries face increasingly restrictive conditions. Alarming debates surrounding the return of Syrian refugees to their home country have reemerged in Lebanon, which hosts approximately 1.5 million Syrians. But who is designated as a refugee? This critical yet understudied issue of labels can impact lives. When Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri states that no Syrian refugees will be forcibly returned, who exactly is including and excluding?
In new research, we examine the many categorizations that shape the lives of Syrians in Lebanon today and how these labels have been constructed. We draw on our extensive fieldwork in Lebanon between 2013 and 2017, including interviews with United Nations, government and local officials as well as Syrian refugees and migrants.… Seguir leyendo »
Sultangazi is an inner-city district of Istanbul located on the European side of the Bosphorus, home to more than a half-million Turkish citizens and 50,000 Syrians. What’s happening there reflects nationwide patterns of refugee integration and assimilation – but also growing impatience among the native population.
The district is a microcosm of Turkish society in terms of faith, ethnicity and political persuasion. Pious Sunni conservatives live next door to left-leaning Alevis; Turkish ultra-nationalists rub shoulders with Kurdish movement sympathisers. There are no formal records of religious affiliation, but locals estimate that 30-40 per cent of Sultangazi’s residents are Alevi and the rest Sunni.… Seguir leyendo »
Since 2011, the civil war in Syria has killed more than 470,000 people, mostly civilians. Millions of people have been displaced, and nearly five million Syrians have fled, creating the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. By far the greatest burden of receiving Syria’s refugees has fallen not on the United States or on Europe, but on Syria’s neighbors: Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Together, these countries are hosting most of the five million Syrians.
Each is coping with huge challenges, with different degrees of success. In my visits to those three countries, I‘ve been struck by how much more dignity has been accorded to Syrian refugees in Turkey than in Jordan, and especially in Lebanon.… Seguir leyendo »
Since 2011, some five million Syrians have fled from the armed conflict in their homeland and sought refuge abroad, the largest numbers of them going to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. But that massive exodus has now slowed to a trickle, and there are growing signs that some of the refugees may be ready to return to Syria.
In July, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that up to 450,000 uprooted Syrians had returned to their places of origin in the first six months of the year. While the vast majority of this number had been displaced within Syria, the organization said that it had also monitored the return of more than 30,000 refugees from neighbouring countries during the same period.… Seguir leyendo »
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