By Emma Farge
Giant-scale returns of refugees to Syria may overwhelm the nation and even stoke battle following the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad, the pinnacle of the U.N. migration company mentioned on Friday.
The U.N. refugee company has estimated that 1 million folks will return to Syria within the first six months of 2025. Some European nations have already frozen asylum purposes for Syrians.
“We consider that hundreds of thousands of individuals returning would create battle inside an already fragile society,” Amy Pope, director-general of the Worldwide Group for Migration, informed a Geneva press briefing after a visit to Syria.
“We aren’t selling large-scale returns. The communities, frankly, are simply not prepared to soak up the people who find themselves displaced,” she mentioned, calling for help from donors to assist stabilise and rebuild the nation.
Pope mentioned she was urging governments to “decelerate on any plans to despatched folks again”.
She mentioned some communities may but flee due to uncertainties about life beneath the brand new authorities, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group which as soon as had ties to al-Qaeda.
“We heard from communities, for instance, the Christian group, who hasn’t but left, however are very a lot nervous concerning the subsequent a number of months and wish to guarantee that they do not turn out to be the targets of assault,” Pope mentioned.
Syrian rebels seized management of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after greater than 13 years of civil struggle and ending his household’s decades-long rule.
The US, different Western powers and lots of Syrians welcomed Assad’s fall, however it’s not clear whether or not HTS will impose strict Islamic rule or present flexibility.
There may be widespread apprehension amongst Syrians that the brand new administration will gravitate in the direction of hardline non secular rule, marginalising minority communities and excluding girls from public life.
High U.S. diplomats have been anticipated to carry Washington’s first in-person official conferences with Syria’s new de facto rulers led by HTS in Damascus on Friday, hoping to gauge how the previous al Qaeda affiliate plans to run the nation.
This text was produced by Reuters information company. It has not been edited by World South World.
