Cyprus Urges EU To Permit Return Of Syrian Refugees

Cyprus has called on the EU to revise the status of Syria as an “unsafe” country so that Syrian refugees in European host countries can be repatriated. Cypriot Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou raised the request at a meeting of the Council of the EU in July. The current designation of Syria as unsafe dates from the onset of civil war in 2011, and means that EU members are prohibited from returning Syrian migrants to their country of origin. Minister Ioannou claimed that Cyprus –  “along with other member states” – favours a change to this status so that Syrians can be legally deported.

Experts maintain that Syria remains unsafe for refugees, despite the abatement of violence in recent years. Bill Frelick, Director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, condemned Minister Ioannou’s comments, saying “The absence of indiscriminate violence in part of a country does not mean the country is safe.” Human Rights Watch reported in 2021 that refugees returning to Syria faced torture and sexual violence at the hands of the regime.

It is not the right time for Syrians who fled the war to return. President Bashar al-Assad, the dictator whose brutality instigated the civil war, is still in power, and fighting continues in the north-east of the country. In the west, conditions remain dire following a destructive earthquake in February. Besides these ongoing crises, the threat to returning refugees of abuse by government officials – which has been well-documented by Human Rights Watch – guarantees that any state forcibly repatriating Syrians would be in breach of the principle of non-refoulement under international law.

Nevertheless, Cyprus is not the first state to suggest that Syrian refugees should be sent back. Türkiye and Lebanon have both begun deportations, and Denmark has stripped some Syrians of residency permits. According to a poll by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, fewer than 2% of Syrian refugees intend to return to Syria in the next year, and only 29% of hope to return in the next five years.

As President Assad seeks to restore diplomatic ties between Syria and the wider world, some states may be convinced that Syria is once again a stable and safe place to live. This would be a mistake. It is true that the short-term plans for accommodating Syrians which were hastily crafted when war broke out have reached their expiry date. But the solution is to replace them with a long-term integration strategy – not to abandon those whom the plans have failed.

Matthew Price

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