The fate of Syrian refugees in Lebanon

by Joumana Talhouk September 14, 2018

written by Joumana Talhouk September 14, 2018

Recent news reports have surfaced on a possible United States-Russia deal to arrange for the return of refugees to Syria—reports that coincided both with the announcement that thousands of Syrians have died in regime prisons, and with one of the worst massacres in the conflict, perpetrated by ISIS in the city of Swaida. The US-Russia deal has been welcomed by Lebanese politicians, particularly those who have been scheming to repatriate Syrians for years now. But, unsurprisingly, the absence of a clear and coherent strategy for repatriation by the Lebanese government puts Syrian refugees at grave risk. In June, UNHCR interviewed Syrian refugees in Arsal who had expressed their willingness to go back to Syria in order to verify that they had the documentation needed for return and to ensure they were fully aware of the conditions in their home country. In response, caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil accused the agency

Joumana Talhouk

Joumana Talhouk earned her BA in Sociology and Anthropology in 2017 from the American University of Beirut (AUB), where she received the Amal Saidi Prize for Excellence in Sociology and Anthropology. As a researcher at AUB, her recent work on the Lebanese government's policy response to the Syrian refugee crisis was published in the Journal of Refugee Studies. Joumana was the president of the AUB Secular Club, the largest student-led political group in Lebanon. In 2016, she was an elections coordinator with Beirut Madinati, a grassroots campaign for municipal elections. Upon graduation, Joumana co-founded Mada, a political youth network across different Lebanese universities. She is also a member of a feminist cooperative working for social, economic, environmental, and gender justice. Joumana plans on pursuing an MPhil in Development Studies at Oxford.

The fate of Syrian refugees in Lebanon

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