Syrian refugees victims of abuses on their return, according to Amnesty International
Audio 01:07
Syrian refugees in a camp in northeast Lebanon (Illustrative image).
© JOSEPH EID / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The war in Syria is not over, as the events in Daraa show, as well as these testimonies collected by Amnesty International.
The latter reveal that Syrians have been victims of enforced disappearances, torture, sexual violence and detention, after returning to the country they had fled during a decade of war.
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Of the 6.5 million Syrians who have taken refuge abroad since
the start of the war
, around 280,000 have made their way home.
They are officially encouraged by the regime in Damascus and very often the difficult conditions of their exile have led them to this choice.
Disappearances, deaths in prison and rapes
However, Amnesty International has collected dozens of testimonies from civilians who were victims of abuses upon their return to Syria: five cases of detainees who died in prison, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and sexual violence.
Marie Forestier collected these testimonies for Amnesty International: “
I am thinking of the case of this mother of a family who returned from Lebanon with her 6 and 5 year old children. As soon as she passed the border post between Lebanon and Syria, she was questioned. And the head of the intelligence services who questioned her asked her
:
"But why did you leave Syria? You don't like Bashar al-Assad? You are a terrorist? Syria is not a hotel that we can leave and then come back like that! "
After telling her that, he raped her in front of his children and he raped his 5 year old daughter.
"
According to the human rights organization, these testimonies show that Syrians must be protected in the countries where they have found refuge.
In recent months, countries like Denmark have questioned their reception policy, believing that Syria
is now a "safe country"
.
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Lebanon
Syria
Refugees
International Migration