Grim return: Human rights abuses, insecurity await Syrians going home

Syrian returnees who returned home either voluntarily or by force, especially those who returned from neighboring countries like Lebanon or Turkey, have experienced human rights violations and abuses across the country, both in government-controlled areas and areas controlled by non-state armed groups.

In a report conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and published this month, several cases of human rights abuses and violations have been documented against Syrian returnees, who went back home due to “deteriorating” economic situations and anti-refugee pressures practiced by the governments of neighboring countries, especially Turkey and Lebanon.

“The protracted armed conflict and violence in the Syrian Arab Republic, combined with the plummeting economy, the collapse of public services and the progressive disintegration of the rule of law and public life are amongst some of the compounding factors that undermine the fulfillment of basic human rights for many Syrians, including a number of core civil, political, economic and social rights,” the report stated.

Due to the armed conflict in Syria since 2011, around 6.7 million Syrians have left the country, including 5.2 million refugees who fled to neighboring countries, the majority to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Meanwhile, the documented number of returnees from 2016 to November 30, 2023, recorded more than 388,679 Syrians, said the UNHC.

“Syria is now so isolated from the world that it has become so difficult to navigate life there. It is like living in a dystopian novel. For someone who knows what life is like outside Syria, it is unbearable to return and live there,” one of the returnees said.

Besides the security concerns and soaring prices, the returnees find difficulties in accessing basic needs and services like the rights to work, health, education, food and adequate housing, the OHCHR said, documenting incidents of killings, torture, kidnapping, violence and extortion of money against civilians on their way to their workplaces or during their movements from one place to another.

“After [pro-government security forces] saw my ID, which indicates I am from Dara’, I was taken to a small room near the checkpoint where they interrogated me for four hours. They wanted to know why I left Dara’ and came to Damascus. I had to pay all the money I had with me for them to let me go. Because of what happened that day, I decided to return to Lebanon. If I did not have that money with me, I would have been detained and only God knows for how long,” another returnee said in the OHCHR report.

Additionally, some households are unable to buy highly expensive gas cylinders for cooking, so they resort to car gasoline as an alternative. However, explosions related to using gasoline have become common, leading to deaths, especially among women.

The report also documented cases of women who were forced to return alone to Syria by their husbands as a way to “test the water” in government-controlled areas, as the men fear being arrested for compulsory military service. This constitutes another form of gender-based violence by husbands against women.

“While the risk of being arrested to perform compulsory military service only affects men in areas under the control of pro-government forces, women and girls may be equally exposed to forced recruitment in areas under the control of other parties to the conflict,” the report added.

Other women returnees have been exposed to forms of sexual violence, harassment and rape by security forces and then suffered more due to “social stigma,” with some women being divorced by their husbands or disowned by their families. “Syrian women suffer from the double stigmatization of being a former detainee and being perceived as having compromised the so-called ‘honor’ of their family,” the report said.

“Women are nowadays forced to do all sorts of things in order to go on with their lives. Especially if they have no money, they are often sexually exploited. Women have to sell themselves just to obtain food for their children or to get basic documentation issued,” another returnee said.