The killing of a member of a right-wing Christian political party in Lebanon last week, attributed by the army to Syrian carjackers, unleashed a torrent of violence and threats against refugees, leaving many afraid to leave their homes.
Syrians, like other refugees in Egypt, face a host of barriers to residency and work permits. Pushed into the informal sector, they face exploitation and abuse. Their plight points to the darker side of Egypt for millions of foreigners.
Syrians in Zaatari, the world’s largest Syrian refugee camp, are struggling to make ends meet this Ramadan after the World Food Program cut their food assistance by about a third last year due to funding shortfalls.
Starting in August, 120,000 Syrians living in Jordan’s refugee camps will lose one third of their World Food Program assistance, the latest in a series of aid cuts amid an “unprecedented funding crisis.”
After opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu vowed to deport all Syrian refugees from Turkey, Erdoğan’s win in Sunday elections brought Syrian refugees a partial sense of safety—tarnished by spiking anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey and the continued threat of deportation.
Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu will vie for the Turkish presidency in a runoff election on May 28th. Were Kılıçdaroğlu to win, Ankara’s policy on Syrian refugee return, normalization with Bashar al-Assad and Turkey’s policy in northern Syria could undergo major shifts.
Four of the five Lebanese State Security officers indicted last November for the torture death of Syrian refugee Bashar Abdul Saud were released on bail this month, one of whom is back at work, while the victim’s family and lawyer have been pressured to drop their complaint.
After deeming Damascus and Reef Dimashq safe for return in 2019, Denmark is now reassessing the right of Syrians from Latakia and Tartus to stay in Denmark on the grounds it is safe for them to go back to Syria.
On the twelfth anniversary of the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, “everything is different on the ground from what it was the first year,” its course far from the aspirations of those who took part.
In 2015, Haitham al-Kurdi made the dangerous journey from Syria to Denmark alone, planning to bring his wife and children later. Over the following eight years, his hopes were repeatedly dashed as Danish asylum policies tightened.
