Syrian refugees subjected to torture and rape after returning home

ARK News... Amnesty International stated that Syrian refugees returning home were tortured, detained, and disappeared by security forces, and urged foreign governments to protect them from deportation and forced repatriation.

In a report entitled “You are going to die”, the London-based human rights organization documented the violations of 66 returnees by intelligence officials, including 13 children.

Among them, five detainees died in custody after returning to war-torn countries, and the whereabouts of 17 forced missings are unknown.

The report documents the Syrian government’s response to refugees returning to Syria from Lebanon, Rukban (informal settlements on the border between Jordan and Syria), France, Germany, Turkey, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates from mid-2017 to 2017-2021.

The report cited the testimony of a Syrian woman, Alaa, who was arrested at the border crossing point when she and her 25-year-old daughter were returning from Lebanon. The two were detained for five days.

“They took off my daughter’s clothes. They handcuffed her and hung her on the wall. They beat her. She was naked. A man put his penis in her mouth,” the report quoted Allah as saying.

When the report was released, Syrian refugees in some Western countries, including Denmark, were under pressure to return home.

Amnesty International refugee and immigrant rights researcher Marie Forestier said: “Any government that claims that Syria is now safe is deliberately ignoring the terrible reality of the country and making refugees worry about their lives again.”

She said that although military hostilities in most parts of Syria may have subsided, the Syrian government has “not a tendency to seriously violate human rights”.

The Syrian government and its main international supporter, Russia, have publicly called on refugees to return to their homes and accused Western countries of discouraging Syria on the grounds that it is still insecure.

Syria denies that refugees face indiscriminate torture and retaliation. President Bashar al-Assad stated that millions of refugees are forced to stay in host countries due to “pressure or intimidation.” The host countries are economically enticing them to Benefit from international assistance.

Assad almost suppressed the armed rebellion against him and regained control of 70% of the country.

He won his fourth term in the May election. The West claimed that the election was fraudulent, but the government said that this shows that despite the ten-year war, the country is still operating normally.

Amnesty International urges European governments as well as Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon to stop any practices that force people to return.

The European Council and the European Parliament issued statements stating that conditions are not conducive to the safe and voluntary return of Syrian refugees.

Similarly, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR calls on countries not to forcibly repatriate Syrian nationals to any place in Syria, even in government-controlled areas, such as the capital area.

The conflict in Syria began in 2011 when the peaceful protests against Assad’s rule evolved into a multilateral conflict that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

It divided the Middle East countries and attracted foreign countries engaged in proxy wars.

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