A Dreadful Homecoming: Widespread Human Rights Violations Against Syrian Refugees Returning from Lebanon

At least 26 returning refugees arrested by regime forces between September 23 and October 25, 2024, including one woman and one man who died due to torture in regime detention centers

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today, Tuesday, October 29, 2024, released its latest report on Syrian refugees returning from Lebanon to Syria. The report, entitled ‘A Dreadful Homecoming: Widespread Human Rights Violations Against Syrian Refugees Returning from Lebanon’, stresses that at least 26 returning refugees were arrested by the Syrian regime between September 23 and October 25, 2024, including one woman, and one detainee who subsequently died due to torture in a regime detention center.

The 20-page report notes that the already-vulnerable Syrian refugees in Lebanon have been struggling even more desperately to secure their basic needs, such as food, housing, and access to healthcare, in the midst of the recent escalation of hostilities in Lebanon. For the long-suffering refugees, finding a safe place or alternative refuge in Lebanon has been increasingly difficult, with many feeling they have no choice but to accept the grim inevitability of return to Syria despite the uncertain, volatile and dangerous security and living conditions in Syria. Faced with this agonizing dilemma, Syrian refugees are forced to decide which of two terrible and life-threatening fates is less intolerable for themselves and their families – remaining in Lebanon despite the lack of security and the struggle to secure basic needs or returning to Syria with no guarantees of safety or protection. Understandably, many have been forced to make complicated decisions that have only exacerbated their suffering and intensified the awfulness of the long-term humanitarian catastrophe which they and their families are enduring.

The report further stresses that despite the return of some Syrians, whether voluntarily or forcibly, to Syria, the country remains a wholly unsafe environment, as the Syrian regime continues to enforce its oppressive policies, including arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, and torture. In fact, since the start of this year alone, SNHR has documented Syrian regime forces’ arrest of 208 deported Syrian refugees, including two children and six women. Among these 208 were six who are known to have subsequently died due to torture in regime detention centers. Moreover, the regime continues to introduce legislative articles and laws that aim to legalize the seizure of properties owned by refugees and forcibly displaced persons, as part of the regime’s systematic and calculated policy of consolidating its control over the lands and properties left by their owners.

In the context, Fadel Abdulghany, SNHR’s Executive Director, noted in a statement condemning the widespread violations against Syrian refugees returning from Lebanon, “In light of the lack of any procedures put in place to guarantee the protection of returnees’ rights and safety, Syrian refugees returning from Lebanon have been facing security and legal challenges. These challenges underline the need to establish real and effective mechanisms to ensure the protection of returnees’ rights and the prevention of violations, especially by the regime’s security agencies. Deportations with no adequate guarantees will only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Syria, which behooves the international community to take immediate action to improve the situation of returnees and ensure their basic rights.”

The report documents several violations that have taken place against returnees. These include arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, torture, and conscription by regime forces, in addition to financial extortion and discrimination regarding aid distribution. The report also details some abusive measures adopted by the various other parties to the conflict in relation to their treatment of refugees arriving in areas under their control, including opening and closing crossings, conducting security background checks, and demanding that those returning first obtain a sponsor in the area, as well as the difficult humanitarian conditions endured by refugees at the crossings separating the different areas of control.

As attested by SNHR’s database, between September 23 and October 25, 2024, Syrian regime forces arrested at least 26 refugees, including one woman, who were returning from Lebanon due to the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Lebanon. Four of those detained have been called up for conscription or service in reserve forces, while one is known to have died due to torture in a regime detention center, with the victim’s body later returned to his family. These figures reflect the unchanged nature of the regime’s oppressive methods against returnees and underline the utter meaninglessness of the nominal protective procedures adopted by the regime that offer no protection whatsoever for Syrian refugees. In other words, the violations that originally drove those refugees now compelled to return, to flee and seek asylum abroad in the first place, are all but identical to the violations now being perpetrated against returnees, with arrests, persecution, conscription, and enforced disappearance continuing to plague and devastate the lives of the long-suffering Syrian people.

Moreover, the report reveals that while the regime has established 30 reception centers across Syria for Lebanese refugees, in the governorates of Rural Damascus, Tartus, Latakia, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, most returning Syrian refugees, particularly those whose houses have been destroyed, remain homeless, without any official shelter. Many of them have been forced to rely on relatives or to establish informal encampments, while large numbers of others have simply been left with no home at all. While the returning Syrian refugees have also supposedly received aid from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) through the agency’s regime partners, this has been grossly inadequate and insufficient to meet their basic needs.

According to the latest estimates, around 23,409 of the Syrian refugees who returned from Lebanon, or one-quarter of the total number of Syrian returnees, have headed for areas outside regime control. This is either because they are originally from these areas, or because they were attempting to avoid the security risks they may have faced in regime-held areas. Some of these refugees entered non-regime areas via al-Tabaqa crossing in the vicinity of Raqqa or al-Tayha crossing near Manbij in rural Aleppo, to access the northeastern parts of Syria that are under the control of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the governorates of Hasaka, Raqqa, and Deir Ez-Zour. Others, meanwhile, crossed into northeastern Syria via Awn al-Dadat crossing near Manbij to access the areas under the control of the Syrian National Army (SNA) and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

The report notes that these crossings have seen frequent shutdowns by the controlling parties, forcing the returning refugees to live in the open air for days in harsh weather conditions and with a total lack of basic facilities, further exacerbating their already intense psychological and physical suffering. Refugees arriving in these areas, who are often trying to escape the risk of being arrested and hunted down in regime areas, still face worsening humanitarian conditions in the non-regime areas they escape to, including a lack of infrastructure and minimal access to basic assistance. Furthermore, returnees heading for these areas have to go through strict security procedures, including repeated screening of their political activities, while some are financially extorted by the local groups that control these crossings, where returnees have to pay large amounts of money to ensure safe passage.

The report concludes by stating that all the data, verified by SNHR, confirms that the Syrian regime continues to practice arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and torture. This behavior constitutes another blatant violation by the regime of Syria’s obligations under international human rights laws, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Such practices underscore the lack of adequate safeguards to protect returning refugees and create an unsafe environment for their return. Moreover, a number of accounts suggest that returning Syrian refugees face systematic discrimination including in aid distribution, shelter provision, and financial extortion. This contravenes the principles of equality and non-discrimination stipulated in Article 3 of the Refugee Convention. This discrimination reflects an intentional political approach that marginalizes returnees and exacerbates their suffering.

The report calls on the UNHCR to regularly provide clear information to refugees about the risks associated with returning to Syria, including consistent alerts on security and humanitarian conditions, and to emphasize their right to make independent and voluntary decisions about return without pressure. The report also calls on the UNHCR to refrain from endorsing any procedures the Syrian regime claims will ensure the safety of returnees and to closely monitor the implementation of any such measures on the ground. Additionally, the report calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to classify the issue of Syrian refugees and displaced people as an urgent international priority. In this context, the report calls on donor states to meet their financial commitments to nations hosting Syrian refugees, to improve resettlement programs for refugees in neighboring countries, and to increase financial aid to help these countries meet refugee needs and prevent refoulment.