In this picture taken on June 13, 2023, a Syrian woman walks between tents at a refugee camp in Saadnayel in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (PHOTO / AFP)
A focus on finding solutions to ease the refugee crisis in the Middle East is high on the international agenda during regional rapprochements.
Analysts said humanitarian considerations have been largely disregarded and that while an innovative approach could be involved by offering some trade concessions for countries hosting refugees, a logical reason would be to stop support for armed militants so that peaceful conditions could be realized.
Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein, King of Jordan, said at the United Nations General Assembly during his speech on Sept 19 that Jordan “will not have the ability nor the resources to host and care for more refugees” if the crisis continued as his country was also facing growing challenges, and that Jordan’s case “is a microcosm of the entire region”, which, he said, will continue to suffer until the world “helps lift the shadow of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict”.
Mohammad Najib Azmi Mikati, president of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon, said his country “continues to bear the burden of successive waves of refugees” and that the international community’s response “remains inadequate and falls short of a sustainable solution”
He noted that more than 345 million people face food insecurity, daily hunger, or starvation. Among the most vulnerable are 108 million refugees. And 40 per cent of these refugees are children yet “these numbers cannot really convey the tragedy”.
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He also said Syrian refugees’ future “is in their country, not in host countries,” and noted that “refugees are far from returning”. On the contrary, more Syrians are likely to leave their country as the crisis persists.
Arhama Siddiqa, a Middle East analyst and research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad in Pakistan told China Daily that the prevailing regional reconciliations observed this year were primarily driven by economic interests, the impact of COVID-19, ongoing fiscal constraints, and the Russia-Ukraine standoff.
“These factors have collectively intensified the imperative to establish sustainable channels underpinned by robust economic foundations. It is noteworthy that these rapprochements have largely disregarded humanitarian considerations,” said Siddiqa.
“Significantly, the nations involved in these reconciliations have borne the substantial burden of the Syrian refugee crisis as can be seen by the statements at the ongoing UN General Assembly, and Turkiye’s anti-immigration crackdown,” she added.
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Also at UNGA, Mohammad Najib Azmi Mikati, president of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon, said the primary challenge for Lebanon was filling the presidential vacancy, along with reforms needed to achieve economic recovery and ease the financial crisis.
With regards to the Syrian crisis, Mikati said Lebanon “continues to bear the burden of successive waves of refugees” and that the international community’s response “remains inadequate and falls short of a sustainable solution”. He called for all stakeholders to develop a road map to solve the Syrian refugee crisis.
Lebanon, he added, wants to deepen its cooperation with international organizations to exchange information on the Syrian crisis. He also brought the attention of the international community to support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and reminded them of their “humanitarian and moral responsibility towards Palestine refugees”.
Jordan and Lebanon, "are already resource-starved and therefore the influx of Syrian refugees has increased the population pressure in these countries,” Manjari Singh, assistant professor at Amity Institute of International Studies at Amity University, told China Daily.
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“Now that rapprochements are happening, between Saudi-Iran, Syria’s reinstatement in the Arab League and thawing of relations with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE, an expectation may have germinated in the minds of Jordanians and Lebanese that a solution to the Syrian refugee crisis will also be taken seriously,” Singh, who is also former associate fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies in New Delhi, added.
Moreover, she said, these host countries have also been critiquing the international organizations for not sufficiently funding the requirements of the refugees and that had led the countries to fund their stay from their National exchequer, which for resource- starved countries, that is “too much to ask for”.
Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies, told China Daily that the mainstream media always report that the reason why Syrian people fled was to “escape the dictatorial regime” when in fact, the United States played a significant role “in supporting the undemocratic armed movement for overthrowing the Syrian regime”.
“The militant group, named ISIS or ‘moderate rebels’, has killed innocent people and destroyed the basic infrastructure, forcing them to leave their homeland. So, the refugee problem for Jordan is like the one in the saying: ‘You reap what you sow’,” said Sulaeman.
The current situation, she noted, is that most of the areas previously occupied by foreign-supported militants still cannot be rebuilt because Syria is facing economic sanctions – this situation is the main reason why refugees have not been able to return to their homeland.
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In addition, armed groups still occupy a number of areas, such as Idlib and Afrin, and continue to carry out attacks on civilians. The US and even Turkish militaries were even present on the ground.
“For this reason, the solution that must be taken is, of course, logically, to stop support for these armed militants so that peaceful conditions can immediately be realized in Syria, as well as lifting economic sanctions on Syria. Improving Syria's relations with Arab regimes, as well as new strategic cooperation between Syria and China, could accelerate Syria's reconstruction process,” said Sulaeman.
Siddiqa from ISSI said a potential innovative approach could involve the European Union offering trade concessions to these countries contingent upon the formal employment of Syrian refugees.
“This proposition aligns with the increasingly popular policy argument that, in the spirit of burden-sharing and pre-empting secondary migration, countries hosting a substantial number of refugees should be granted enhanced export opportunities as a form of support,” she added.
