The UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner’s Statements on a Supposed “Positive Shift” in The Syrian Regime’s Handling of Returning Refugees Conflicts with SNHR’s Documentation as Violations Against Returnees and Residents Persist

The Syrian Regime Has Arrested 182 Forcibly Repatriated Refugees and Killed Five Through Torture in its Detention Centers Since the Start of 2024

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights:

On Friday, September 13, 2024, the National News Agency, Lebanon’s official news agency, which is affiliated with the country’s Ministry of Media, reported a statement attributed to Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which the news agency said had been made during a meeting between Abdullah Bou Habib, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants in Lebanon’s caretaker government, and a Menikdiwela-headed UNHCR delegation, held to discuss the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. In the statement, Menikdiwela claimed that the UNHCR has seen a positive shift in the Syrian regime government’s handling of the issue of displaced people, adding that there is a momentum that can be utilized with respect to the issue of the Syria’s early recovery, which would pave the way for the return of refugees. Menikdiwela also revealed that the UNHCR is working to secure the ‘voluntary’ return of 30,000 Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Syria in the near future.

The claims made in the UN official’s statement are wholly inconsistent with the violations still being perpetrated by the Syrian regime, including gross violations, such as torture and enforced disappearance, with the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) still regularly documenting such violations and reporting on them in our daily news articles and monthly reports. Such claims also contradict the reports issued by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, including its most recent report on September 9, and the reports issued by the UN Human rights Office (OHCHR), including a report issued on February 13, 2024, which confirmed that many Syrians who had fled the war face serious human rights violations and abuses upon returning to Syria, as well as reports by international human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International. It seems that Menikdiwela has failed to look at the overwhelming majority of these human rights reports which directly contradict her claims on this issue; had she done so, she would surely not have made such a suspicious statement.