{"id":401653,"date":"2024-10-31T13:19:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T12:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/10\/31\/ue-siria-rifugiati-rimpatri-unhcr-hrw\/"},"modified":"2024-11-06T19:00:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T18:00:25","slug":"eu-working-to-repatriate-syrian-refugees-but-ngos-warn-they-risk-persecution-syria-is-not-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/10\/31\/eu-working-to-repatriate-syrian-refugees-but-ngos-warn-they-risk-persecution-syria-is-not-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"EU working to repatriate Syrian refugees, but NGOs warn: ‘They risk persecution, Syria is not safe’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Creating the conditions for the “safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation” of Syrian refugees:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0this is the\u00a0path that European governments are increasingly determined to pursue, now more than ever, in light\u00a0of a possible wave of arrivals of Syrian refugees fleeing southern Lebanon torn apart by Israeli bombs. The problem, however – as human rights organizations\u00a0denounce<\/a>\u00a0– is that the situation in Damascus has not changed, and returning Syrians risk violence and persecution<\/strong> from Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Or the armed groups that control part of the territory.<\/p>\n

The idea of revising the EU\u00a0Strategy<\/a> on Syria, adopted in\u00a02017, has been circulating in Brussels for some time. According to estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), European countries host more than one million Syrian asylum seekers<\/strong>, 59 percent of them in Germany alone. The issue of Syrian refugee repatriation “is made even more urgent by the evolving hostilities in the Middle East and Lebanon,” diplomatic sources admit, as Lebanon,\u00a0according to the UNHCR,\u00a0is reportedly hosting more than 1.5 million refugees from Syria.<\/p>\n

At\u00a0the April<\/a> European Council, leaders had put down on paper the “need” to set repatriations in motion “in line with the conditions defined by UNHCR<\/strong>,” calling on the European Commission to “examine and strengthen the effectiveness of EU assistance to Syrian refugees and displaced persons in Syria and the region.”<\/p>\n

\"Assad\"<\/a>
Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria since\u00a02000<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The European Commission seems determined to follow up on its call to set up a “more realistic approach” to relations with Damascus, a “more active, results-oriented and operational” strategy aimed at ensuring the safe return of refugees from the war that began in 2011. According to reports yesterday (Oct. 30), during a meeting with the ambassadors of member countries, the EU executive presented a new informal paper<\/strong> to test the positions of the 27 member states on the issue. The non-paper<\/em> from Brussels would reflect “to a large extent”\u00a0proposals made\u00a0in July by the Italian and Austrian governments, in particular the hypothesis of an EU Special Envoy to the country, support for the private sector, cooperation with UNHCR on the ground to facilitate voluntary returns<\/strong> and to support the emergency through ‘early recovery<\/em> projects.<\/p>\n

From the exchange of views between the EU diplomatic corps,\u00a0“broad support for the outlined plan of action” allegedly emerged,\u00a0EU sources confirmed, emphasizing coordination with UNHCR while also expressing caution to\u00a0avoid any perception of normalization of relations with the Assad regime.<\/p>\n

On the other hand,\u00a0the UN High Commissioner for Refugees notes that “despite several\u00a0policy initiatives over 2023, conditions inside Syria are still not favorable to facilitate large-scale voluntary returns<\/strong> in safety and dignity.” According to UNCHR\u00a0data<\/a>, some 38,300 refugees returned to Syria in 2023, down from nearly 51,000 who chose to return in 2022. For now, UNHCR has not changed its March 2021 updated position that Syria is not a safe country for returns.<\/p>\n

\n

\"siria\"<\/a>
A woman\u00a0in camp for internally displaced Syrians in Raqqa\u00a0 (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Several international organizations share this position, including Human Rights Watch<\/strong>, which, in a report released yesterday, pointed out that “Syrians fleeing the violence in Lebanon risk repression and persecution by the Syrian government<\/strong> upon their return.” According to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), between Sept. 24 and Oct. 22, about 440,000 people -more than two-thirds are Syrians, and the remaining Lebanese – flew from Lebanon to Syria. Although Damascus has so far kept “borders open and eased immigration procedures,” Human Rights Watch argues that “the Syrian government and armed groups controlling parts of Syria continue to impede humanitarian and human rights organizations from full and unimpeded access<\/strong> to all areas, including detention sites, hampering documentation efforts and obscuring the true extent of abuses.”<\/p>\n

According to the human rights organization, those returning to Syria, “particularly men, risk arbitrary detention and abuse by authorities.” Human Rights Watch has documented<\/a> numerous cases of arbitrary detention, torture, and killing of refugees<\/strong> returning since 2017. The report points the finger at “some European leaders” who\u00a0“increasingly claim that Syria is safe for returns, promoting policies that could lift protections for refugees, despite ongoing security and human rights concerns.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EU Commission has received “broad support” from the ambassadors of the 27 member states to study a plan to create conditions for the “safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation” of Syrian refugees. According to UNHCR, these conditions currently do not exist. For Human Rights Watch, those returning to Syria risk “violence and persecution”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":401598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25871,29552,27337,29147,27992],"class_list":["post-401653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-human-rights-watch-en","tag-middle-east-en","tag-rimpatri-en","tag-siria-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401653"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401738,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401653\/revisions\/401738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}