Mystery surrounds fate of refugees who return to Syria
Pro-opposition media outlets said detentions and arbitrary killings discouraged many from going home
Lebanon has been strongly encouraging Syrians who fled there to return home as President Bashar Al Assad tightens his grip on the country after eight years of war.
The number of Syrians going back increased in the past few months but restricted access makes it unclear whether it is safe to go home.
Beirut and Damascus benefit from returns – Lebanon because it struggles to cope with about 1.5 million Syrian refugees and Syria because it wants to show the world that the country is safe under the rule of Mr Al Assad.
Those returning express joy upon their arrival and look forward to going back to hometowns now cleared of “terrorists”, a term the government uses to describe all opposition groups, Syrian state media reports.
But pro-opposition media outlets said detentions and arbitrary killings discouraged many refugees from going home.
And most people are wary about speaking out once they return to Syria.
Two Syrian women in Lebanon told The National over recent months that their relatives were killed in Syria by pro-government militias known as shabiha.
Both feared that if they spoke out, the Damascus regime would retaliate against family members still in Syria.
A lack of evidence means that the Lebanese authorities, and particularly those pushing for the refugees to return, dismiss the stories as pro-opposition propaganda.
Figures are also disputed. Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, which organises returns, announced early last month that it had helped 80,000 Syrians to go back home since July, in addition to 7,670 “spontaneous returns”.
Lebanon’s Minister of State for Refugee Affairs, Mouin Merehbi, a long-time critic of the Syrian regime, has dismissed these figures, claiming they had been exaggerated to encourage Syrian refugees to go back.
The UN High Commission for Refugees, which is not yet organising returns to Syria, said it was still checking the data.
The UN agency has observed more than 70 group returns arranged by General Security this year, involving 9,895 people. It said it knew of 4,996 so-called spontaneous returns, although there may be more.
“General Security, being the agency handling entry and exit procedures, have more information than we can capture,” said Mireille Girard, the UN agency’s representative in Lebanon. “We are in the process of comparing lists.”
Mysa Khalaf, a public information officer at the UN agency in Syria, said it had seen people returning to parts of the country such as Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, but could not confirm whether they were safe.
“UNHCR always tries to reach out to people in need of assistance but security and logistical challenges remain, and continuous unhindered access for the UN is still not in place to all areas in Syria,” Ms Khalaf said.
“So it is difficult for the UNHCR to ensure a comprehensive assessment of the situation in all locations.”
One woman, aged 20, who returned to Damascus in the past few weeks complained about the high cost of living and lack of job opportunities.
“Even if you find work, salaries are not high enough to live on,” she said. “I’m not happy at all. I can’t get used to the atmosphere here.”
Like many Syrians who fled to Lebanon as children, she had fallen behind in her studies and was preparing for an exam, the “brevet”, which is normally taken at 15 years.
After three months of unemployment in Lebanon, her father decided it was time for the family to move back to Syria. Her mother, who said their family home was in Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, was reluctant.
“My house was destroyed by fighting and we are not allowed back in the area,” she said. “We’ll have to rent a flat in Damascus, like we did in Beirut. Why not just stay here?”
But many of those returning rarely complain openly.
“The situation is great,” wrote a young man who contacted
The National online, claiming to be a Syrian soldier. “Long live Bashar Al Assad and Russia,” he repeated several times.
A few days before he left a refugee camp near the Lebanese border town of Arsal, he and his brothers said they hoped to be allowed a grace period of six months to a year before being drafted into the military.
Asked when he had been called up, the young man said he did not remember and would not talk further.
A similarly awkward conversation was held with another returnee who also expressed his support for the Al Assad regime several times.
“The situation in Aleppo is very good,” he said. “I’ll go back to my old work selling clothes soon.”
He did not answer further questions about his living conditions.
Before signing off, he said his brother had been jailed in Tartous for the past four years but he did not know why. He insisted his family was not part of the opposition to Mr Al Assad’s regime.
The number of people who returned so far is a fraction of the 5.6 million Syrian refugees scattered across Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.
But Russia has been increasing pressure on Europe to help finance a massive return of refugees that would go hand in hand with rebuilding Syria.
If this were to occur, the conditions of their return would come under increasing scrutiny.