When refugees return to Syria, the world is silent

If the West wants to address the Syrian refugee crisis, it must also remember those that are returning to the war in Syria, writes Taylor Luck

The UN-run Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees, north east of the Jordanian capital Amman. Khalil Mazraawi / AFP

As western powers struggle to cope with the influx of thousands of Syrians into Europe, most have ignored the far more deadly migration undertaken by hundreds of Syrians each day.

Over the past two months, the United Nations and other international aid agencies have documented a growing trend of Syrian refugees leaving Jordan and Lebanon to return to war-torn Syria.

The number who have returned to Syria from Jordan has nearly tripled from 50 per day in July to about 150 per day the following month, with nearly 4,000 returning in August alone. Lebanon has reported that over 140,000 Syrians have left the country since the beginning of 2015.

Syrians who have made the journey say they face roaming militias, hundreds of checkpoints and now Syrian and Russian air strikes. Why would any family abandon relative safety and return to war?

The reasons driving this reverse-migration are strictly economic. In August, the World Food Programme (WFP) suspended food aid to 220,000 Syrians, and cut aid to a further 212,000 in half, to $14 (Dh51) per person per month. Syrian refugees in Lebanon had their food assistance cut to $14.50 per person per month. Other NGOs have suspended rent-assistance and food aid programmes as donations dried up.

In a recent UN refugee agency survey, 72 per cent of the Syrians making the perilous return journey to Syria cited WFP food cuts as the main factor behind their decision, while 27 per cent cited the rising cost of living in Jordan.

Even before the aid cuts, Syrians in Jordan were struggling. Over 86 per cent live below the poverty line of $3.20 (Dh12).

As aid was cut gradually over the past year, Syrians piled on debt. According to UN figures, the average Syrian family in Jordan now has debts of $1,000 (Dh3,672) and now for every Syrian who arrives in Jordan each day, three other Syrians leave.

Western powers say they have heard the call and are willing to act, pledging to step up their support for the UN’s Syrian refugee response. In a joint action, European countries pledged $1.1 billion (Dh4bn) in late September to prop up the UN’s programmes in refugee host countries.

Yet as the past four years of the Syrian crisis have proven, pledging and paying are two different things.

Even if western powers follow through on their pledges, the influx of aid will only serve as a bandage, treating the symptom rather than the illness.

Syrians in Jordan and Lebanon are still unable to work legally, and remain dependent on the international community’s conscience and pocketbooks.

International powers must work to find a more durable solution for the 1.5 million Syrians displaced across the region. Whether it be humanitarian safe zones in Syria or large-scale investments in host countries, western powers must act fast to give hope to the growing number of families being pushed back into the flames of war.

Journalists and observers are present on the coasts of Greece and Turkey as well as in the overcrowded Viennese train stations to witness the plight of thousands of Syrians risking it all for a better life in Europe. In a single moment, they broadcast heart-wrenching scenes that can mobilise all of Europe – such as with the image of a drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi.

But where are the cameras when families do the unthinkable and go back into a war zone? Who is there to watch when hundreds of Syrian go, as many call it,“back into hell”?

The fact remains that Syrians struggling to feed their families in Jordan and Lebanon seem just as distant to many Europeans as the battlefields in Syria themselves.

If the West wants to honestly address the Syrian refugee crisis, it must urgently assist not only the tens of thousands who have arrived on their shores, but the tens of thousands who have nowhere to turn. History, and an entire generation of Syrians, will be judging.

Taylor Luck is a political analyst and journalist in Amman