Published : 01-02-2022
Foreign Policy magazine said Syria is neither safe nor stable for migrant returns.
The magazine said the civil war continues. Returnees—such as Mazen al-Hamada, who was viciously tortured by the regime and formerly sought asylum abroad—often disappear without a trace into the hands of the security state. Assad’s regime is not in danger of overthrow, but it totters, dependent on its foreign backers and hungry for foreign capital. It continues to engage in violence in rebel-held Idlib and in the so-called reconciled south while becoming quietly known in its near abroad as a lawless narco-state engaged mainly in exporting refugees and drugs.
Syrian diaspora media show the fear of refugees that more of Europe will follow Denmark and Sweden in declaring Syria safe enough for return. For now, European legislators broadly condemned Denmark’s actions—33 members of the European Parliament wrote to the country’s leadership demanding a change in course—and the leader of Denmark’s Social Liberals expressed her puzzlement that her country, alone with Hungary, at that time considered Syria to be safe for refugee returns.
Foreign Policy added that Syria is an unstable place. Political change is not inevitable, but it is possible. Congratulating a tyrant before he has truly succeeded in winning his war has some downsides. Many of Syria’s neighbors have sizable populations of Syrian refugees. These people are frequently mistreated in the labor markets and are subject to nationalist and sectarian violence.
Lebanon and Turkey are suffering their own economic crises; they would rather be deporting refugees to Syria, in whatever shape it is, than taking more in—yet keeping an unvictorious Assad in power risks more violence, more displacement, and possibly greater tides of people, it said.
Foreign Policy magazine said Syria is neither safe nor stable for migrant returns.
The magazine said the civil war continues. Returnees—such as Mazen al-Hamada, who was viciously tortured by the regime and formerly sought asylum abroad—often disappear without a trace into the hands of the security state. Assad’s regime is not in danger of overthrow, but it totters, dependent on its foreign backers and hungry for foreign capital. It continues to engage in violence in rebel-held Idlib and in the so-called reconciled south while becoming quietly known in its near abroad as a lawless narco-state engaged mainly in exporting refugees and drugs.
Syrian diaspora media show the fear of refugees that more of Europe will follow Denmark and Sweden in declaring Syria safe enough for return. For now, European legislators broadly condemned Denmark’s actions—33 members of the European Parliament wrote to the country’s leadership demanding a change in course—and the leader of Denmark’s Social Liberals expressed her puzzlement that her country, alone with Hungary, at that time considered Syria to be safe for refugee returns.
Foreign Policy added that Syria is an unstable place. Political change is not inevitable, but it is possible. Congratulating a tyrant before he has truly succeeded in winning his war has some downsides. Many of Syria’s neighbors have sizable populations of Syrian refugees. These people are frequently mistreated in the labor markets and are subject to nationalist and sectarian violence.
Lebanon and Turkey are suffering their own economic crises; they would rather be deporting refugees to Syria, in whatever shape it is, than taking more in—yet keeping an unvictorious Assad in power risks more violence, more displacement, and possibly greater tides of people, it said.
