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Syria

Field Reports  In-Depth Reports  Letters & Testimonies

Overview
Syria has received the largest number of Iraqi refugees- at least 1.2 million according to the UN refugee agency, and has made services available to them. Needs are growing however, and return is still not an option for most. Failure to address refugees’ needs and the effect this crisis has on Syria will impact both the humanitarian and the security situation in the region.

Current humanitarian situation
Iraqi refugees in Syria are increasingly desperate. In addition to having depleted their savings, they complain of increasing prices and exploitative, unstable work. Fuel is more expensive, rent has skyrocketed, and the cost of food is higher. Since Syria is not a signatory to the refugee convention, Iraqis can not work legally and have few options for how to provide for their families.

Syria’s subsidized economy and its infrastructure have been affected. Moreover, due to the worst drought in 40 years, Syria lost more than half of its food production. The content of the food basket subsidized by the Syrian Government has been cut. In addition, herders have been forced to sell their animals at a fraction of the value and people are paying increased prices for their daily food needs. To help Iraqi refugees, the international community must also assist their Syrian hosts.

Inside Iraq, several militia and sectarian groups have singled out Palestinians as recipients of a collective death sentence. Nearly one thousand Palestinians from Iraq are living near the border between Iraq and Syria in a makeshift refugee camp located in the no man’s land between both borders. They have been denied entry by the Syrian government and they refuse to return to Iraq. Another two thousand are living in similar conditions on the Iraqi side of the border. This vulnerable population needs to be resettled immediately.

Actions needed:
The US must lead the international community’s efforts to provide assistance to Iraqi refugees and their host countries. Resettlement countries must increase their targets for Iraqi refugees, and immediately resettle Palestinian refugees from Iraq.

Field Reports
  • Statelessness: International Blind Spot Linked to Global Concerns
    09/02/2009
    When world leaders gather to address hot issues such as security, governance, poverty, discrimination, human trafficking, and climate change, they invariably skirt around one of the problems that links them all: statelessness. Taking steps to uphold the nationality rights of the more than 12 million stateless persons around the world could go a long way toward responding to these inter-related challenges.
  • Iraqi Refugees: Women’s Rights and Security Critical to Returns
    07/15/2009
    The Iraqi refugee crisis is far from over and recent violence is creating further displacement. Iraqi women will resist returning home, even if conditions improve in Iraq, if there is no focus on securing their rights as women and assuring their personal security and their families’ well being.
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In Depth Reports
  • Futures Denied: Statelessness Among Infants, Children, and Youth
    10/22/2008
    Statelessness, or the lack of effective nationality, impacts the daily lives of some 11-12 million people around the world. Perhaps those who suffer most are stateless infants, children and youth. Though born and raised in their parents’ country of habitual residence, they lack formal recognition of their existence.
  • Buried Alive: Stateless Kurds in Syria
    02/13/2006
    Syria is at a critical crossroads, faced with a timely opportunity to maintain stability and security in the country by realizing the nationality and its concomitant rights of all residents. In particular, an estimated 300,000 stateless Kurds live within the country’s borders, but are in a unique situation in relation to the larger Kurdish population due to a 1962 census that led to their denationalization.
Advocacy Letters
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Congressional Testimony
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Successes
A campaign by Refugees International and other organizations led the U.S. State department to increase the resettlement of Iraqi refugees from 200 in 2006 to 13,823 Iraqis in 2008.