Fleeing Syria's Civil War, Syrian Refugees in Jordan Fear Repatriation

A UN refugee agency survey of some 3,000 Syrian refugees across the region in February found that just 1.1% of refugees intend to return to Syria in the next year - The AP
A UN refugee agency survey of some 3,000 Syrian refugees across the region in February found that just 1.1% of refugees intend to return to Syria in the next year - The AP
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Fleeing Syria's Civil War, Syrian Refugees in Jordan Fear Repatriation

A UN refugee agency survey of some 3,000 Syrian refugees across the region in February found that just 1.1% of refugees intend to return to Syria in the next year - The AP
A UN refugee agency survey of some 3,000 Syrian refugees across the region in February found that just 1.1% of refugees intend to return to Syria in the next year - The AP

As Jordan hosted regional talks this spring aimed at ending Syria’s isolation after more than a decade of civil war, Syrian refugee Suzanne Dabdoob felt a deep pressure in her brain and in her ears, she said, a fear she hadn’t felt since arriving to Jordan 10 years ago.

Ahead of the meeting, Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed that 1,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan would be allowed to safely return home — a test case for the repatriation of far greater numbers. Jordan’s top diplomat spoke only of voluntary returns. But panic spread through working-class east Amman, where Dabdoob and many other Syrians have built new lives in multistory, cement-block buildings.

“I would rather die right here than go back to Syria,” said Dabdoob, 37, whose home was razed by airstrikes in the Syrian city of Homs, The Associated Press reported.

She fled to Amman with her five children, her accountant husband, who dodged military service, and her sister, who she said is wanted for abandoning her civil service job.

“We are scared that, even indirectly, the Jordanian government will pressure us to leave,” she said.

As Middle East countries strained by vast numbers of refugees restore relations with Assad, many Syrians who fled are now terrified by the prospect of returning to a country shattered by war and controlled by the same authoritarian leader who brutally crushed the 2011 protests.

Even as public hostility and economic misery in neighboring countries has squeezed Syrian refugees, few are clamoring to return. The number of registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, Türkiye and Lebanon has remained roughly the same for the last seven years, according to UN figures.

Hoping to speed up their exodus, Lebanon and Türkiye have deported hundreds of Syrians since April in what rights groups consider a violation of international law.

“Jordan long has said that refugees are welcome. But now the official rhetoric has moved toward supporting their return,” said Adam Coogle, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.

Human rights groups say it’s still too unsafe for refugees to return to Syria given the risks of arbitrary detention, disappearance and extrajudicial killings there. Even the most fortunate returnees encounter bread lines, a currency collapse and electricity shortages after a dozen years of a conflict that has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of its pre-war population of 23 million.

“My family tells me there is no more war, sure, but there is also nothing left,” said Mohammed, a 34-year-old carpenter who fled Syria in 2013 and opened a hand-carved wooden furniture shop in Amman identical to his father’s workshop in Damascus.

Giving only his first name for security reasons, Mohammed said he hoped never to return, citing stories of Syrian security forces arresting returnees to squeeze thousands of dollars in bribes out of their families. His two daughters, 4 and 10, know no other home.

“Here, I know what it’s like to live with dignity,” he said.

Jordan currently hosts an estimated 1.3 million of the 5.2 million Syrian refugees spread across the region, according to government figures.

Since Assad attended his first annual Arab League summit in 13 years this spring, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has described his country’s hopes for refugee returns as an inevitable result of Assad’s rehabilitation.

For Jordan, a large displaced population lingering in the country for generations raises the sobering prospect of the country’s 2.2 million Palestinians.

The experience of those refugees, whose families fled or were pushed out during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948, has taught Jordan that the longer refugees stay, the less likely they are to return, said Hassan Momani, professor of international relations at University of Jordan.

“There’s this fear in Jordan’s collective memory,” he said.

“We are way above our capacity. We ring the alarm,” Safadi told a conference on Syria in Brussels last month.

Earlier this month, he visited Damascus and held talks with Assad. “What we are sure of is that refugees’ futures lie in their country,” he said.

Few Syrians who fled the war for Jordan appear to agree. Just a small number of Syrian refugees in Jordan are voluntarily returning home: 4,013 people in 2022, down from 5,800 in 2021, according to United Nations figures.

A UN refugee agency survey of some 3,000 Syrian refugees across the region in February found that just 1.1% of refugees intend to return to Syria in the next year even as most say they harbor hope to return one day. Among respondents in Jordan, just 0.8% said they intended to return in the coming year.

“This is an important indication that right now, today, conditions are not conducive for returns,” said Dominik Bartsch, the UNHCR representative to Jordan.



Israel’s Cutoff of Supplies to Gaza Sends Prices Soaring as Aid Stockpiles Dwindle

Members of Abed family, warm up by a fire at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians at the Muwasi, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of Abed family, warm up by a fire at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians at the Muwasi, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Israel’s Cutoff of Supplies to Gaza Sends Prices Soaring as Aid Stockpiles Dwindle

Members of Abed family, warm up by a fire at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians at the Muwasi, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of Abed family, warm up by a fire at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians at the Muwasi, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel’s cutoff of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s 2 million people has sent prices soaring and humanitarian groups into overdrive trying to distribute dwindling stocks to the most vulnerable.

The aid freeze has imperiled the progress aid workers say they have made to stave off famine over the past six weeks during Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas agreed to in January.

After more than 16 months of war, Gaza’s population is entirely dependent on trucked-in food and other aid. Most are displaced from their homes, and many need shelter. Fuel is needed to keep hospitals, water pumps, bakeries and telecommunications — as well as trucks delivering the aid — operating.

Israel says the siege aims at pressuring Hamas to accept its ceasefire proposal. Israel has delayed moving to the second phase of the deal it reached with Hamas, during which the flow of aid was supposed to continue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he is prepared to increase the pressure and would not rule out cutting off all electricity to Gaza if Hamas doesn’t budge.

Rights groups have called the cutoff a “starvation policy.”

Four days in, how is the cutoff affecting Gaza?

Food, fuel and shelter supplies are threatened The World Food Program, the UN's main food agency, says it has no major stockpile of food in Gaza because it focused on distributing all incoming food to hungry people during Phase 1 of the deal. In a statement to AP, it said existing stocks are enough to keep bakeries and kitchens running for under two weeks.

WFP said it may be forced to reduce ration sizes to serve as many people as possible. It said its fuel reserves, necessary to run bakeries and transport food, will last for a few weeks if not replenished soon.

There’s also no major stockpile of tents in Gaza, said Shaina Low, communications adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council. The shelter materials that came in during the ceasefire’s first phase were “nowhere near enough to address all of the needs,” she said.

“If it was enough, we wouldn’t have had infants dying from exposure because of lack of shelter materials and warm clothes and proper medical equipment to treat them,” she said.

At least seven infants in Gaza died from hypothermia during Phase 1.

Urgently checking reserves “We’re trying to figure out, what do we have? What would be the best use of our supply?" said Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for UNICEF. "We never sat on supplies, so it’s not like there’s a huge amount left to distribute.”

He predicted a “catastrophic result” if the aid freeze continues.

During the ceasefire's first phase, humanitarian agencies rushed in supplies, with about 600 trucks entering per day on average. Aid workers set up more food kitchens, health centers and water distribution points. With more fuel coming in, they could double the amount of water drawn from wells, according to the UN humanitarian agency.

Around 100,000 tents also arrived as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians tried to return to their homes, only to find them destroyed or too damaged to live in.

But the progress relied on the flow of aid continuing.

Oxfam has 26 trucks with thousands of food packages and hygiene kits and 12 trucks of water tanks waiting outside Gaza, said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead in the West Bank.

“This is not just about hundreds of trucks of food, it’s about the total collapse of systems that sustain life,” she said.

The International Organization for Migration has 22,500 tents in its warehouses in Jordan after trucks brought back their undelivered cargo once entry was barred, said Karl Baker, the agency's regional crisis coordinator.

The International Rescue Committee has 6.7 tons of medicines and medical supplies waiting to enter Gaza and its delivery is “highly uncertain,” said Bob Kitchen, vice president of its emergencies and humanitarian action department.

Medical Aid for Palestinians said it has trucks stuck at Gaza's border carrying medicine, mattresses and assistive devices for people with disabilities. The organization has some medicine and materials in reserve, said spokesperson Tess Pope, but "we don’t have stock that we can use during a long closure of Gaza.”

Prices up sharply Prices of vegetables and flour are now climbing in Gaza after easing during the ceasefire.

Sayed Mohamed al-Dairi walked through a bustling market in Gaza City just after the aid cutoff was announced. Already, sellers were increasing the prices of dwindling wares.

“The traders are massacring us, the traders are not merciful to us,” he said. “In the morning, the price of sugar was 5 shekels. Ask him now, the price has become 10 shekels.”

In the central Gaza city of Deir Al-Balah, one cigarette priced at 5 shekels ($1.37) before the cutoff now stands at 20 shekels ($5.49). One kilo of chicken (2.2 pounds) that was 21 shekels ($5.76) is now 50 shekels ($13.72). Cooking gas has soared from 90 shekels ($24.70) for 12 kilos (26.4 pounds) to 1,480 shekels ($406.24).

Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Israel cut off all aid to Gaza for two weeks — a measure central to South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. That took place as Israel launched the most intense phase of its aerial bombardment of Gaza, one of the most aggressive campaigns in modern history.

Palestinians fear a repeat of that period.

“We are afraid that Netanyahu or Trump will launch a war more severe than the previous war,” said Abeer Obeid, a Palestinian woman from northern Gaza. "For the extension of the truce, they must find any other solution.”