UNHCR failing to uphold its responsibility to displaced Syrians: Activist group

Duvar English

The Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity (SACD), an organization that represents the displaced, has said that the United Nations refugees agency UNHCR is failing in its humanitarian responsibility to displaced Syrians.

In a report released on Nov. 25, the organization raised a number of concerns about the UNHCR's strategy on return of refugees and internally displaced persons in Syria and drew on its own research to highlight the risks.

The UNCHR has failed to communicate accurate information to potential returnees about security threats, arbitrary arrests, harassment and lack of basic services in Syria, which therefore led to “ill-informed returned decisions,” said the SACD in its report.

“UNHCR’s reporting tools, designed to provide granular information and analysis of obstacles and conditions for return, and identifying the necessary actions to address them, simply do not exist. Most importantly, the Operational Update nor any of the other UNHCR’s public documents does not make a single mention of the security risks for returnees or its lack of access to monitor and report on its own protection thresholds in the majority of Assad-held areas,” said the report.

Despite the absence of basic conditions for a safe and dignified return to Syria, the UNHCR is working with donors and other aid actors in an attempt to implement cash programming for returnees, which is likely to encourage and incentivize returns, said the report.

“There are real fears from Syrians, as well as in donor and humanitarian circles that the cash payments could coerce people back prematurely into an unsafe situation,” it said.

SACD said that the UNCHR’s lack of reporting on the reality facing returnees prompted them to conduct their own research into the fate of returnees and people from “reconciliation areas” -- areas which the Syrian government reclaimed from the opposition forces through “reconciliation deals.”

Accordingly, SACD interviewed 290 returnees and people from these “reconciliation areas” and warned that returning to the government-held areas is not safe for the vast majority of displaced Syrians.

More than a quarter of those interviewed had been detained themselves or had a family member arbitrarily arrested by the security services, the organization said. Of those respondents, 75 percent had been arrested within the last 18 months.

“Two thirds of returnees say they did not fulfill their expectations by returning to Syria. 65 percent of returnees stated that they achieved nothing by returning because either they were stuck in the poor living and economic conditions prevailing in the regime areas, or were subjected to harassment, arbitrary arrest or feared forced recruitment to Assad’s military of themselves or a close family member. The combination of the listed factors made 68 percent of returnees advise other IDPs [internally displaced person] and refugees not to return,” the organization said.

SACD thereby concluded that returns should not be encouraged until safer living conditions persist in the government-held areas. The UNCHR “must account for misleading narrative curated through its social media which omits any information on security threats facing returnees in Assad-held areas,” it said.