Thousands of people are returning to their devastated homeland every day after the fall of the regime, thousands more are leaving for fear of reprisals from the jihadist forces and other organizations that took the upper hand. The return and flight are mostly from Lebanon (through unguarded border crossings), under Israeli airstrikes against Syrian military infrastructure. In the north, the ongoing offensive by Turkey and its allies against the Kurdish areas for the Turkish and many Western media.
When war broke out in Syria in 2011, the country’s population was 23 million (along with one million Iraqi refugees and half a million Palestinian refugees). After 13 years of war, the country counts almost 600,000 dead, more than 1 million wounded, more than 13 million displaced, of which approximately 7 million inside Syria and 6.4 million abroad.
According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, by the end of last month, approximately 5 million refugees had been registered in neighboring countries (3 million in Turkey, 800,000 in Lebanon, 700,000 in Jordan, 280,000 in Iraq, 150,000 in Egypt) and over 1.3 million in the rest of the world, mainly in Europe. Of the Syrian refugees in Europe, most (720,000) have been registered in Germany. Almost, 100,000 in Austria, 90,000 in Sweden, 65,000 in the Netherlands, 50,000 in Greece, 45,000 in France, 17,000 in Britain and as many in Spain, etc. Thousands may not remain in the countries where registration took place, thousands have not even been registered.
After the fall of the Assad regime, many European governments announced that they are freezing or intend to freeze the processing of asylum applications from tens of thousands of people (including Britain, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Greece) but this does not mean that tomorrow they will be deported . Far-right parties are cultivating a climate for immediate deportations, which is contrary to international humanitarian law as the situation in Syria is fluid and the country is far from being described as “safe” today.
UNHCR has pointed out that all refugees have the fundamental right to return to their country of origin at a time of their own choosing, and that all returns must be voluntary and safe. The UNHCR even suggested that there be flexibility and that the refugees be given the possibility of test visits to Syria (Go and See visits), so that they can assess the situation and decide for themselves about their definitive return to their homeland.
Once the situation in Syria gradually normalizes and the detainees cooperate with the UN to distribute humanitarian aid without discrimination, the balance will tip in favor of return. But this will not happen overnight, nor from one month to the next. The sooner one leaves one’s country to save one’s life and the lives of one’s own, the slower one returns to endanger them again. Especially when he has managed to set up his life again in a western country, he misses his homeland but he will have to return to the ruins, without a job and with a sword over his head.
