1. Unheard Voices: What Syrian Refugees Need to Return Home
- Author:
- Maha Yahya, Jean Kassir, and Khalil El-Hariri
- Publication Date:
- 04-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- As the Syrian regime regains territory, there have been growing calls in neighboring countries for refugees to go home. Yet refugees have conditions for a return—conditions that political efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict have largely ignored. To understand refugee attitudes toward return, the Carnegie Middle East Center listened to the concerns of Syrians—both male and female, young and old—struggling to build meaningful lives in Lebanon and Jordan. What is most striking is that despite the increasingly difficult challenges they face, a majority are unwilling to go back unless a political transition can assure their safety and security, access to justice, and right of return to areas of origin. Economic opportunity and adequate housing are important but not requirements. Above all, their attitudes make it clear that both a sustainable political settlement and a mass, voluntary return are contingent upon international peace processes that account for refugee voices.
- Topic:
- Security, Refugee Crisis, Conflict, Syrian War, Peace, Justice, and Transition
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan