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LATEST FROM Damascus

As anti-refugee rhetoric escalates further, Lebanon ‘slowly moving’ towards talk of forcibly returning Syrian refugees

April 25

In Lebanon, talk of pushing Syrian refugees to go home isn’t new. However, there are now growing concerns that that tone has now shifted even harder

Syrians in former opposition pockets still using smugglers, corrupt security officials to transport themselves north amid ‘false promises’ of reconciliation

April 11

Residents of formerly opposition-held areas are paying smugglers thousands of dollars to transport them to the country’s last rebel stronghold.

The politics of return: Refugees, NGOs navigate increasingly fraught climate in host countries

April 10

When Abd al-Majid al-Qalamouni* first arrived in Lebanon six years ago, he felt like he was met with “empathy." “In the beginning everyone wanted to stand by your side,” al-Qalamo...

Between bread queues and shifting red lines, war-weary Damascus residents navigate a city in flux

April 01

A crowded bus station in downtown Damascus in January. Photo courtesy of Lens Young Dimashqi.

New legal initiative launches for ‘invisible’ families of Syria’s countless detained and disappeared

March 28

The stories are often similar, repeated tens of thousands of times over: uniforms bursting through the door, loved ones taken away. Then, the silence.

‘Where are you from?’ Facing fines and bureaucracy, refugee children in Jordan go undocumented

March 21

Children playing in the Zaatari refugee camp in November 2017. Photo by Khalil Mazraawi/AFP. AMMAN: Located off the highway in the southern Amman suburbs, the Syrian embassy in J...

‘Is it safe to go home?’ Amid promises of amnesty in Syria, defectors abroad weigh their options

March 18

One chilly night in recent months, a group of former Syrian army defectors gathered in an apartment in one of Syria’s neighboring countries.

‘To venture into the unknown’: After several years in the diaspora, a defector returns to Syria and then disappears

March 18

For months, Abu Mamdouh felt like he was being torn in half.

Billions pledged in Syria aid at ‘Brussels III’ conference, but few signs of political solution in sight

March 14

International donors pledged $6.75 billion in humanitarian assistance for Syria and neighboring countries at the “Brussels III” conference on Thursday, following days of talks tha...

Rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni warns against ‘making deals with war criminals’ as international community convenes at Brussels conference

March 14

BRUSSELS: “How can we build solutions with the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and war crimes?”

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