Amid a spike in anti-refugee rhetoric, some Turkish organizations and authorities denied shelter, food or evacuation rides to Syrian refugees in the aftermath of the February 6 earthquake.
Khaled and his three-year-old daughter Jawahir have only ever met on the phone. She was not yet born when he fled Syria in 2018, aiming to apply for family reunification with his wife and their daughter. But they missed a bureaucratic deadline, and for three years the family has been in limbo.
Through their own safe spaces and mutual aid, Syrian LGBTQ+ refugees navigate a triple nightmare: Lebanon’s economic collapse, aid budget cuts and a worsening climate for queer people in the country.
When Nisrine and her family made the decision to flee Lebanon for Denmark in 2015, there was a snag: Her 12-year-old daughter Nadine had to return to Syria to get a passport. The border closed, and Nisrine made the painful decision to leave her behind—temporarily, she thought. Seven years later, she is still fighting to reunite with her.
Alaa fled to Germany at 16, after her brother was disappeared by Syrian government forces. She hoped to bring her parents later, but her reunification request was denied. She has not seen her parents for seven years, and has never met her six-year-old brother.
“Distance,” an upcoming podcast by Syria Direct, offers an intimate portrayal of the pain and rage of mothers, fathers, sons and daughters caught in a bureaucratic nightmare after their family reunification requests were rejected by European migration authorities.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, an international film festival is providing opportunities for Syrian refugees to enjoy cinema again and take part in the region’s budding film industry.
With precarious access to safe water and rampant poverty, Syrian refugees in Lebanon face a cholera outbreak that has infected more than 3,000 people so far.
Refugees in Lebanon who signed up to return to Syria as part of a first batch of 1,600 families say economic hardship and a lack of a future in Lebanon informed their decision.
In cash-strapped Lebanon, discrimination against Syrians in bakery queues during recent weeks of bread shortages was the latest symptom of growing anti-refugee rhetoric and scapegoating.
