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.
A recent decision by Jordan’s Ministry of Interior allows Syrians resettled in Europe to visit Jordan. The move cancels the five-year entry bans Jordan generally issues to Syrian refugees resettled by the UNHCR.
A pilot program in the Spanish region of Valencia has resettled five Syrian refugee families from Lebanon. They are among a comparatively small number of Syrians to settle in Spain.
Half of the 130 asylum seekers—among them more than a dozen Syrian nationals—due to be deported from the UK to Rwanda have been released on bail, while the other half are still detained.
More than two decades after Lebanon ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, and despite anti-torture legislation, torture and mistreatment by the country’s security branches persists.
Syrian refugees in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan face an uncertain future amid economic hardship, hate speech and pressure to return.
Despite anti-Syrian sentiment and attacks in Turkey, Syrian lawyer Ghazwan Koronfol writes “it is not too late to confront racism and defeat it. It is not too late to dismantle its rhetoric.”
