Refugees Reluctant to Return to Syria

Isabel Debre for the Associated Press reports that, as countries in the Middle East begin to restore relations with Syrian President Bashar Assad, many Syrian refugees who fled violence fear they will be forced to return to their homeland. There is an estimated 1.3 million Syrian refugees in Jordan. Read more.

As Middle East countries strained by refugees, many Syrians who fear the prospect of “returning to a country shattered by war and controlled by the same authoritarian leader who brutally crushed the 2011 rebellion.”

In recent months, Lebanon and Turkey have deported hundreds of Syrians in what has been criticized as a violation of international law.

KJ