Syria launches charm offensive in bid to entice refugees home
We will sacrifice our blood and soul for Bashar! chanted teenagers from the youth wing of President Assad’s Ba’ath party as a string of buses festooned with portraits of the leader crossed from Lebanon into Syria.
Khola Betjen, 26, who emerged holding her 16-month-old daughter and a picture of Assad, said she had decided to return to her homeland after living with relatives across the border for several years.
“There’s no war and the situation is better than before,” she said.
As part of a press trip organised by the Russian military, Alaa Ibrahim, the Damascus regional governor, greeted Ms Betjen and 200 other refugees, with humanitarian aid packages, medicine, SIM cards and ice cream as they came through the Jdeidet Yabus border crossing last week.
The event was part of a drive by President Assad and his Russian allies to persuade Syrian refugees to return to the devastated country as they inch towards declaring victory in the seven-year war.
But 200 people is a drop in the ocean compared with the 5.6million who have fled since the conflict began in 2011, and it’s debatable whether such a welcome awaits all of them.
Fadi Hallisso, a Syrian activist in Lebanon who organises vocational training for refugees, said many want to return but do not trust the regime.
“Their safety is their first concern, and they haven’t fled violence in Syria to go back and get killed in one of the prisons or detention centres,” he said.
At a conference in April, the UK and other European countries said conditions in Syria were “not conducive for voluntary repatriation in safety and dignity”. Returnees, especially young men, have faced interrogation, arrest or conscription, say activists. Earlier this year, The Irish Times found that three young refugees had died in military prison – allegedly of “heart problems” – and another was discovered dead in the street.
Human Rights Watch told The Daily Telegraph it had confirmed five cases of refugees being arrested and tortured after returning, and gathered a dozen unconfirmed reports.
Moreover, the war isn’t actually over yet. While the Assad regime has, with the help of Russia and Iran, pacified the majority of the country, continuing fighting forced nearly a million people from their homes this spring. The United Nations has warned that an anticipated government offensive to take back the last rebel bastion in Idlib could displace a further 700,000.
In war-ravaged Aleppo, governor Hussein Diab told journalists that the city was welcoming residents back even though he admitted that rebel forces “shell the city and hinder the return of refugees”.
Government forces have reportedly been massing near Aleppo for the anticipated Idlib offensive.
The district of New Aleppo was shelled earlier in August, and an army officer, who would give his name only as Ward, told The Telegraph at least five people had been killed by rocket attacks in the city in the past month.
Russian and Syrian officials have none the less called on Syrians to return from abroad. “It’s very safe to come here, it’s only some rockets, and God willing, the army will soon take Idlib and stop them,” the officer said.
Hussein Makhlouf, Syria’s local administration minister, said returning was the “moral duty” of every citizen.
“The victory of Syria will be complete with the return of Syrian refugees from abroad,” he said. “We really stress that the return of all faithful Syrians who love their homeland is necessary for the reconstruction of Syria.”
Russian envoys have been discussing plans to bring back refugees from Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Vladimir Putin even raised the topic during his Helsinki meeting with Donald Trump, who agreed to consider working with Russia on returns.
The call for refugees to return has found sympathetic ears among anti-immigration groups in Europe, where the influx of Syrian asylum seekers has become a fraught political issue. In March, Mr Assad’s government hosted the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, which has supported calls for refugees to return, saying the war is close to an end.
The refugee crisis has overwhelmed neighbouring countries, and left millions of Syrians living in miserable conditions. Yet Moscow and Damascus appear to be driven more by political than humanitarian concerns, as they seek to legitimise Mr Assad’s regime.
“What is camouflaged inside all of this is the reinstitution of the Syrian regime in international society through the repatriation of refugees,” said Nasser Yassin, an expert on health and refugee policies at the American
‘You have to address the core issues of why these refugees fled to be able to return in a free, voluntary and sustainable manner’
University in Beirut. Last month, Syria’s ambassador to the UN pointed to returnees to argue against continued international sanctions, saying they were limiting job opportunities. During our press tour through Syria, officials, factory directors and even a peach farmer complained that the sanctions were hindering reconstruction.
The World Bank has estimated that it will cost at least $100billion to rebuild Syria, but the Russian government is strapped for cash, and EU donor countries said in April that Syria lacked the “minimal conditions for stability” for reconstruction.
“This talk of refugees is used to fool the media and pressure governments to pay for transition,” Mr Hallisso said.
He said that friends and relatives working with internally displaced people in Syria had been arrested.
Ahmed al Hamden, 23, a refugee who had returned on one of the buses, said more would come back “as long as there is reconciliation so no one is afraid”. He was ready to be called up for the army, he added.
But for many others, conscription was the reason they fled. Syrian officials have said men aged 20-45 must serve two years in the army, and suggested people with ties to the opposition could be prosecuted. Faisal Mekdad, deputy foreign minister, said those with connections to the White Helmets volunteer rescue group “are criminals and will be treated accordingly”.
Last month the government began quietly confirming the deaths of hundreds of regime opponents in prisons during the conflict.
According to the Russian defence ministry, 235,265 refugees have returned since September 2015.
At the Nasib border crossing with Jordan, a group of 50 refugees that journalists were told were about to enter Syria never appeared.
Even if refugees want to return, it is not certain they will have a home to come back to. In Aleppo, two thirds of all housing has been destroyed, entire neighbourhoods are ghost towns.
A controversial measure known as law number 10 allows the government to confiscate properties if no one claims them within 30 days of an area being zoned for reconstruction.
So far, Damascus and Moscow have offered many reassurances but little transparency about refugees’ safety.
“There’s no way to make sure what they’re saying is happening is actually happening,” said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “You have to address the core issues of why these refugees fled to be able to return in a free, voluntary and sustainable manner.”