Young Syrian refugees say they are unlikely to return permanently to their homeland unless war ends and Daesh leaves

JEDDAH: More than half of young Syrian refugees say they are unlikely to return home permanently, and an end to the war and the elimination of Daesh are viewed as the decisive steps needed for them to consider going back.

Those are the key findings from a supplementary survey carried out alongside the 9th annual ASDA’A BursonMarsteller Arab Youth Survey 2017.

The supplementary survey — “A Voice for Young Syrian Refugees” — focused on the hopes, concerns and aspirations of young displaced Syrians living as refugees in Jordan and Lebanon.

For the survey, the international polling company PSB Research conducted 400 face-to-face interviews of young Syrian refugees aged 18-24, split equally between men and women, who are living in refugee settlements in Jordan and Lebanon.

Asked how likely they are to permanently return to Syria in the future, 54 percent said unlikely, 42 percent said likely and four percent said they did not know.

Given a list of steps that need to be taken before they could return home, 47 percent chose “the war ends” option as the most important, while 25 percent said “Daesh leaving Syria.”

Trailing far behind were “the economic situation improves,” chosen by eight percent of the respondents, and “Bashar Assad leaves,” chosen by seven percent.

The World Bank says the six-year old civil war has so far cost the nation’s economy $226 billion. More than 320,000 Syrians have lost their lives in the conflict and, according to the UN, more than 6 million Syrians are internally displaced and just over 5 million are registered as refugees outside of Syria, mostly in camps and settlements in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Most young refugees do not consider Assad leaving office as a prerequisite for reaching a peace agreement.

Just over a quarter (27 percent) agreed with the statement, “There can be no peace agreement as long as Bashar Assad stays in office,” versus 71 percent who said “ending the fighting is more important than Bashar Assad leaving office”, with two percent saying they did not know.

Roy Haddad, director, WPP MENA, said: “For nine years, the Arab Youth Survey has been an important barometer of youth attitude throughout the Middle East and North Africa region. By reaching out to young refugees living in camps through this special survey, we are presenting an even more inclusive and comprehensive representation of Arab youth today.”

Sunil John, founder and CEO of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, said: “The findings are of significant value to policy makers and civil society in identifying new channels of engagement with the young refugees.”

He added: “While their loss of livelihoods is disturbing enough, their deeper sense of disappointment, as reflected in the findings of the survey, underlines the need for finding alternate and lasting solutions to restore their optimism.”

John said: “We are hopeful that the findings from ‘A Voice for Young Syrian Refugees’ will inspire all stakeholders to identity more tangible solutions in addressing the challenges these young people face.”

Among young Syrians who believe they will be migrating to another country, the survey found 27 percent said Canada was their top pick; 23 percent said the US; the UAE and Germany each were chosen by 22 percent; France was the choice for 14 percent and the UK was chosen by 13 percent.

In another finding relating to migration, asked about what can be done to improve their plight, the majority of refugees (56 percent) — and particularly men (67 percent) — said that EU governments could help most by permitting more refugees to enter the EU, while 42 percent said providing financial help to their host countries of Jordan and Lebanon would help more, a response made by 52 percent of women compared with 32 percent of men.