Eight years on, Syria’s neighbors weary of war refugees
After being suddenly deported from Turkey, Nidal Hussein stood dazed just inside war-torn Syria, the latest victim of neighboring countries growing tired of hosting millions of Syrian refugees.
“I left my wife and three children in Istanbul,” the 48-year-old said last month, after he was deported for not having permission to reside in the Turkish city. “I will try to get back” into Turkey at any cost, he said. Syria’s conflict has displaced millions of people since 2011, and its neighbors have absorbed the majority of those fleeing abroad.
But today, with no political solution to the conflict in sight, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan — who together host at least 5.2 million Syrian refugees — are increasingly seeing that population as a “burden.” Rights groups have warned of mounting hate speech and increased government pressure on Syrians to return home, especially in Turkey and Lebanon.
While Jordan has not yet upped the pressure, it too has said the Syrian presence is weighing down its infrastructure and compounding its economic woes.
“With no clear-cut solutions for Syrian refugees to return, campaigns against them are increasing,” said analyst Nasser Yassin. “Neighbouring countries have become exhausted,” said the head of the Beirut-based Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs.
Turkey hosts the most Syrian refugees in the world at 3.6 million. In recent weeks, rights groups have denounced reports of hundreds of refugees being deported back into Syria as part of a crackdown on those without the right residency papers. “The hostile atmosphere toward Syrians ... has worsened recently with a consensus among political parties and the media that Syrians are a source of problems,” said Yildiz Onen, spokesman for the Turkish campaign “We are all migrants.” It “is opening the way to measures designed to make life difficult for migrants,” she said.
But “sending Syrians to a country that is still at war, particularly with the deadly bombardments in Idlib, is putting people in mortal danger,” she warned.