Yasser, a 32-year old man from Syria’s Homs, was one among millions of Syrians, the world’s biggest refugee population, forced to leave their country in the face of a terrible civil war.
Yasser was one of nearly 300,000 returnees, who left their host countries of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey for Syria between 2016 and 2021, a period in which the conflict has appeared to calm down compared to the previous 2011-2016 time span. “There was hardly anyone in our town. Our house was totally destroyed. No rooms had survived.
Syrian refugees walk as they carry containers at an informal tented settlement in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon March 12, 2021. Under the pressure of anti-refugee sentiment, some Syrian refugees in Lebanon returned to Syria, but they were horrified by detentions and other bad treatment. “They broke the bone in my shoulder. My hand was swollen; I couldn’t move it, they kept cuffing me anyway. I was shocked with electricity until I fainted. I was totally naked still. They put water on me to wake me up,” Yasser toldFor every Syrian disliked by the regime, it’s almost standard procedure to be accused of being a terrorist.
Denmark has recently removed temporary protection on Syrian refugees from the Damascus region, forcing them to return to the unsafe country.