syrian refugees travel

March 13, 2024

Syria Refugee Crisis Explained

Here's What You Need to Know:

1. when did the syrian refugee crisis begin, 2. how are the türkiye-syria earthquakes impacting syrians, 3.   where do syrian refugees live do all syrian refugees live in refugee camps, 4. what are syrian’s greatest challenges, 5. how are syrian children impacted by this crisis, 6. what is the un refugee agency doing to help syrians, when did the syrian refugee crisis begin.

The Syrian refugee crisis began in March 2011 as a result of a violent government crackdown on public demonstrations in support of teenagers who were arrested for anti-government graffiti in the southern town of Daraa. The arrests sparked public demonstrations throughout Syria which were violently suppressed by government security forces. The conflict quickly escalated and the country descended into a civil war that forced millions of Syrian families to flee their homes. Thirteen years later, the conflict is ongoing with Syrians continuing to pay the price—more than 16.7 million people in Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance, accounting for 70 percent of the population.

How are the Türkiye-Syria Earthquakes impacting Syrians?

On February 6, 2023,  two powerful earthquakes  struck south-eastern Türkiye and northern Syria, claiming thousands of lives and causing untold destruction to homes and infrastructure across the region. This is a crisis on top of existing crises already impacting internally displaced Syrians and Syrian refugees.

In Türkiye, the heavily impacted areas are regions where Syrian refugees live in high numbers. Syrian refugees were already vulnerable, living with protection risks and economic insecurity. For people inside Syria, the earthquake has only brought on more misery and pain and catapulted some of the most in need communities in the country into utter desperation. 

As of March 2024, the earthquake has impacted 8.8 million people across Syria, uprooting tens of thousands—many of whom had already been displaced. The earthquake claimed 60,000 lives, with tens of thousands injured and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. In north-west Syria alone, more than 40,000 people remain displaced by the earthquake and are living in temporary reception centers.  

The immediate impact of the earthquake has been devastating, but the full extent of the damage is yet to be seen. The long-term impacts of the earthquakes pose serious challenges for Syrians and will require a robust response on multiple fronts.

Where do Syrian refugees live? Do all Syrian refugees live in refugee camps?     

Syrian refugees have sought asylum in more than 130 countries, but the vast majority live in neighboring countries within the region, such as Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Türkiye alone hosts the largest population of Syrian refugees: 3.3 million. Approximately 92 percent of refugees who have fled to neighboring countries live in rural and urban settings, with only roughly five percent living in refugee camps . However, living outside refugee camps does not necessarily mean success or stability. More than 70 percent of Syrian refugees are living in poverty, with limited access to basic services, education or job opportunities and few prospects of returning home.

What are Syrians' greatest challenges?

Protracted displacement, the war in Ukraine, global inflation and the earthquakes that struck south-eastern Türkiye and northern Syria are some of the biggest challenges Syrians currently face. 

Poverty and unemployment are widespread within Syria, with over 90 percent of the population in Syria living below the poverty line. By October 2023, the cost of the food basket had doubled compared to January and quadrupled in the last two years. An estimated 12.9 million people are food insecure as a result of the economic crisis. 

The situation for Syrian refugees living in neighboring host countries has deteriorated as well. Economic challenges in neighboring countries like Lebanon have pushed Syrians in the country into poverty with more than 90 percent of Syrian refugees reliant on humanitarian assistance to survive. In Jordan, more than 93 percent of Syrian households reported being in debt to cover basic needs. Ninety percent of Syrian refugees living in Türkiye cannot fully cover their monthly expenses or basic needs. 

Millions of refugees have lost their livelihoods and are increasingly unable to meet their basic needs - including accessing clean water, electricity, food, medicine and paying rent. The economic downturn has also exposed them to multiple protection risks, such as child labor, gender-based violence, early marriage and other forms of exploitation.

How are Syrian children impacted by this crisis?

Thirteen years of crisis have had a profound impact on Syrian children. They have been exposed to violence and indiscriminate attacks, losing their loved ones, their homes, their possessions and everything they once knew. They have grown up knowing nothing but the crisis. Today, over 47 percent of Syrian refugees in the region are under 18 years old and more than a third of them do not have access to education. In Syria, more than 2.4 million children are out of school and 1.6 million children are at risk of dropping out.

Children’s rights during the crisis are undermined on a daily basis. An increasing number of Syrian children have fallen victim to child labor, with cases in Lebanon almost doubling in just one year.

Read some of their stories

What is the UN Refugee Agency doing to help Syrians?

The UN Refugee Agency has been on the ground since the start of the crisis providing shelter, lifesaving supplies, clean water, hot meals and medical care to families who have been forced to flee their homes. UNHCR has also helped repair civilian infrastructure – including homes, school facilities and recreation centers, supported educational activities for children and provided psycho-social support.

UNHCR and humanitarian partners are responding to the Türkiye-Syria Earthquakes by stepping up their assistance in the two countries. In Syria, UNHCR has delivered protection assistance, including psychosocial support, to more than 311,000 people affected by the earthquakes. UNHCR is also providing shelter support, cash assistance and other aid to those affected. In Türkiye, UNHCR has provided over 3 million relief items including tents, containers, hygiene kits, bedding and warm clothing for refugees and local residents in temporary accommodation centers. UNCHR is also supporting protection activities for more than 500,000 people – including legal counseling, identification and referral of people with specific needs, psychosocial support and cash assistance. 

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• How to help Syrian refugees

The war that has devastated Syria since 2011 is far from over. Here's how you can donate, volunteer and find other ways to help Syrian refugees.

Thank you for your compassionate response to the plight of refugees fleeing war and persecution in Syria and other countries in crisis—and especially for your interest in joining with the International Rescue Committee to assist them. Here's how to help Syrian refugees and other families uprooted by conflict:

Donate to an organization that helps Syrian refugees 

The International Rescue Committee is providing humanitarian aid to millions of people displaced by nine years of brutal conflict in Syria . The IRC is the only aid group helping Syrians trapped by violence inside their country and  helping Syrian refugees in Europe, the Middle East and the United States. 

The IRC is consistently awarded high marks by charity watchdog groups for our efficient use of financial support and the effectiveness of our work. 

You may be able to double — or even triple — the impact of your generous donation with a matching gift from your company . Many companies already match employee contributions to charitable organizations. See if your employer will join you in supporting the IRC and refugees.

Support refugees on an ongoing basis

By donating monthly as a Rescue Partner, you support the IRC’s lifesaving work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities. Your steady financial support enables the IRC to respond swiftly and effectively when conflict strikes, to rescue lives in the midst of chaos, and to help Syrian refugees and other fragile communities rebuild and move toward a more stable future.

Donate clothing or other goods to refugees

Cash donations are the most efficient way for humanitarian organizations like the IRC to provide assistance to Syrian refugees and others in need. However, many of the IRC’s offices in the United States accept certain in-kind donations of clothing, children’s items and household goods to benefit refugees rebuilding their lives in the U.S. Reach out to the IRC office closest to you for information on the items that are most needed.

Unfortunately, we cannot accept in-kind donations of emergency relief items from the general public for refugees outside of the U.S. These items often include offers of air travel, clothing, tents, food items, etc. Additional information on why the IRC and other aid organizations adhere to these policies can be found on the Center for International Disaster Information website .

Raise money to help refugees

We’ve created a special fundraising feature to make it easy to raise money for Syrian refugees and other refugees online. Set up a personalized donation page and ask your friends, family and community to donate to help people whose lives have been shattered by war and persecution who are seeking safety.

Volunteer to help refugees

The IRC offers various volunteer opportunities throughout the year to help refugees to rebuild their lives in the U.S. Volunteers play an integral role in our work to restore safety, dignity and hope to people whose lives have been uprooted by war. Take a look at the volunteer opportunities posted by an IRC office near you .

Due to security reasons, the IRC does not send volunteers to our overseas programs, even in emergencies.

Speak out to support refugees and resettlement

The Trump Administration has drastically reduced the number of refugees allowed to enter the country for resettlement. Only 563 Syrian refugees were permitted into the U.S in fiscal year 2019; just 320 are expected to arrive in 2020.

Join us to take action today, call your representative and ask them to support the GRACE Act to ensure that the U.S. admits at least 95,000 refugee women, men, and children each year in line with historic norms.

Learn more about the IRC's relief and refugee resettlement efforts

Read an overview of the IRC’s response to the refugee crisis and learn more about our work on behalf of Syrian refugees in  Iraq , Jordan ,  Lebanon , Europe  and the United States .

Help raise awareness of the refugee crisis

Join the International Rescue Committee on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and Instagram and to get updates on the Syria crisis response and ways you can help Syrian refugees, and to help us spread the word. Thank you.

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Syrian refugees say they're feeling unwelcome in Turkey, but have nowhere else to go

Peter Kenyon

Many people in Turkey are growing increasingly weary of hosting the millions of Syrian refugees that have been there for years — but the Syrians have no place to go.

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The Syrian refugee crisis, explained in one map

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Stories like that of  Aylan Kurdi , the Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish shore after drowning on the journey to Greece, and  Osama Abdul Muhsen , the Syrian refugee father who was kicked and tripped on camera by a Hungarian journalist, have shown how the Syrian refugee crisis is experienced on a human level. But the severity of the crisis becomes much clearer when you zoom out and see how it unfolds on a continental scale:

Numbers in circles represent Syrian refugee populations. Numbers in squares represent all refugees, Syrian and non-Syrian. (Javier Zarracina/Vox)

Most of the world's 19 million refugees  are not Syrian — about 4 million are from Syria — so the story of the global refugee crisis is far from just a Syrian story. And many of the stories told in this map, particularly the difficult journeys into and then across Europe, apply to migrants from other countries as well, such as Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many others. This map focuses on Syrians because the Syrian refugee crisis is itself an important story, and also because it is representative of the broader refugee crisis.

One of the first things you'll notice in this map is that the largest population of Syrian refugees isn't in Europe — it's in the Middle East, in Syria's neighboring countries, often in vast and underfunded UN-run refugee camps. That is an important part of why so many refugees are traveling to Europe: Many see little hope of returning home to Syria anytime soon, and see little future for themselves and their families in the camps in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Another story this map helps to tell is the number of routes into the European Union, and particularly toward the more northern EU states that are often more likely to accept refugees. Syrian refugees in Turkey or Lebanon frequently go across the eastern Mediterranean to Greece from Turkey, but some also travel to Egypt and take the trans-Mediterranean route there. Some go across land entirely, crossing from Turkey into Bulgaria.

These routes are dangerous. Refugees crossing the Mediterranean often travel in poorly constructed dinghies that make even the short trip from Turkey to Greece dangerous. Around 2,700 people (that's a total, not just Syrians) have died so far trying to cross the Mediterranean, including roughly 200 in one desperate  late-August boat trip.

And even when you get to land, you're not safe: 71 migrants crammed into a truck suffocated to death in a truck in Austria, also in  late August . So those arrows on the map, big and small, by no means indicate secure travel routes — rather, they point to roads and seaways born out of desperation.

Once on the European continent, Syrian refugees often go to the Balkans to enter the EU at  Hungary or Croatia .  But even once in the EU, refugees must confront a number of European countries that are working to keep them out, or keep them from moving freely across Europe. The border controls between Hungary and its neighbors, for example, or between Austria and Germany are a major and at times perilous impediment to refugees.

Such border controls are also, many argue, against the spirit of the EU, among which the Schengen Area countries (marked in purple) are supposed to allow free movement across one another's borders.

As you can see on the map, Hungary has built a fence on its border to keep out refugees. Greece, already reeling from its own financial crisis, has been unable to process the thousands of migrants — forcing refugees in places like Lesbos to set up impromptu tent cities near the port.

Most displaced Syrian, though, are still in Syria: about 8 million. In total, there are about 12 million Syrians who've been forced to flee their homes.  It's a disaster.

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What happened to the Syrian refugees who got stuck in Turkey?

Gaziantep, in southern Turkey, is home to about half a million Syrian refugees, many of whom had hoped to make it Europe

T he first to arrive at Gaziantep’s Irani Bazaar are the bakers, lighting their saj grills before the sun comes up to make Syrian flatbread for the day’s customers. The smell of sesame and fresh unleavened bread fills the neighbourhood in the Anatolian city by the time the street’s other traders arrive to open their shops.

When the bakery doors open at 7am, a nearby restaurant owner stops by to pick up the huge round sheets for traditional Syrian breakfast: dipped in za’atar and olive oil, or served alongside beans, falafel, fatteh and hummus. Shopkeepers along the length of the street take bites in between sips of Turkish tea, Nescafé or thick Arabic coffee as they prepare for the work ahead.

As the rest of the city wakes up, the sound of Arabic is everywhere, competing with the noise of Gaziantep’s traffic. Despite the name, Irani bazaar isn’t Iranian: it’s the heart of the city’s Syrian community.

“The street has changed in many ways. We picked Irani bazaar and the neighbourhoods around, originally, because the rent was cheap. Most of the shop owners are Syrians now. It’s the major centre for us,” said 52-year-old Alaa al-Dein Shasho, who recently gave up his grocery shop on the street to start an air conditioning business like the one he had at home in Aleppo .

“Our chicken, legumes, vegetables, spices, they all come from Irani bazaar,” said Lubna Helli, who owns Lazord restaurant, a few streets away.

“The market reminds us of Syria, but specifically the markets of Aleppo,” she said. “When you go there, everybody speaks Arabic, most of the shopkeepers are from Aleppo and it’s full of Syrian people. It is like home.”

Gaziantep is closer to Aleppo – just 60 miles away – than any Turkish city, and the two ancient trading posts share many cultural and historical ties. But for most of the Syrian community here, Aleppo now might as well be another planet.

When Syrians fled their country to escape the horrors of the now 10-year-old war, it gave Europe its biggest refugee crisis since the Holocaust. About one million Syrians have since settled on the continent, the majority in Germany, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands.

In 2016 the EU struck a deal with Turkey : in exchange for €6bn (£5.1bn) in aid, Ankara agreed to stop refugees and migrants making the deadly crossing over the Mediterranean and the long walk through eastern Europe. Syrians and others who have made it over the sea to Greece since the deal are now mostly held in camps .

As a result, Turkey is far and away the world’s biggest refugee host nation, with 3.7 million registered Syrians already, and a population that keeps growing – about 500,000 Syrian children have been born here since the crisis began.

Gaziantep is the centre of this new reality for both Syrians and Turks. The city hosts about half a million Syrians – but while Istanbul has a similar number, newcomers there have been absorbed into a metropolis already home to 17 million people, compared with Gaziantep’s pre-war population of 1.5 million.

Life is still far from easy for Syrians in Turkey, but it is better than Jordan or Lebanon, where refugees are mostly denied the right to work or integrate into society, and hundreds of thousands still live in camps.

For President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ’s government in Ankara, the influx of Syrians – at least 110,000 of whom have already obtained Turkish citizenship – represents a promising new bloc of potential voters.

The Gaziantep authorities in particular have been praised for their efforts in helping the two communities integrate, soothing worries about rising rents, stagnating wages and extra pressure on city infrastructure by creating “ a model of tolerance and pragmatism ”.

But not everyone thought they would end up here. Ahmad al-Taweel, a graphic designer from Damascus, fled to Turkey in 2013. He wanted to make a new life in Belgium, attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Izmir on the Aegean coast five times before giving up and settling in Gaziantep.

“I was desperate to go to Europe . After a year of trying in Turkey I thought I wouldn’t be able to find work or finish my studies here. But the boat sank three times. Once the coastguards sank it on purpose. After failing so many times I had to give up. I thought I was going to die if I kept trying,” the 32-year-old said.

“I am happy in Turkey now. I learned the language, I have a decent income, I got married recently to a Turkish woman. I’ve built myself a good life.

“The refugees who have got stuck in camps in Greece and other places in dire humanitarian conditions, the thousands of people who have drowned … The refugee crisis changed my opinion about European governments, to be honest. I was disappointed to see their real face, which is ugly.”

Many are not as lucky as Taweel. A million Syrians in Turkey work without proper permits, leaving them vulnerable to extortion by employers. About 40% of children remain out of school, and 64% of urban Syrian households live close to or below the poverty line, according to the Brookings Institution, risking the creation of “ an isolated and alienated underclass ”.

Turkey’s economic downturn in 2018 led to a backlash against Syrians which culminated in an illegal deportation campaign the following summer. And in early 2020, tens of thousands of people attempted the journey to Europe once again after Erdoğan said Turkey would no longer block their passage in an attempt to pressure the EU.

Ankara’s plans to eventually resettle refugees in “safe zones” it has wrested from border areas in Syria previously under Kurdish control have been widely viewed as an attempt at demographic engineering.

While Bashar al-Assad is still in control in Damascus however, going home remains unimaginable for the vast majority of the 5.6 million people who fled.

“I would love to go back to Syria, but it’s impossible now,” said Helli, the restaurant owner.

“I already began my business here; my children are in Turkish school. Maybe I might expand my restaurant with one in Istanbul. My life is here now,” the 43-year-old added.

For Azam al-Ahmad, Europe still beckons. The 29-year-old was forced to drop out of his law degree when the revolution began. He has worked long hours in textile factories in Gaziantep since, earning less than his Turkish colleagues, and with no medical insurance, to support his young family.

“The plan was always Europe, to join my brothers in Germany. I have had to save up, and my wife sold her jewellery, to pay smugglers for the journey. If I get caught, I could lose my protection status or get deported … But it’s still worth it.”

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Here Is The Long Route Many Refugees Take To Travel From Syria To Germany

One of the most common routes for those fleeing the war-torn nation involves moving across seven countries by foot, boat, and train.

BuzzFeed News Reporter

An estimated 400,000 refugees from countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East – largely from Syria – escaping war, persecution, and poverty will have entered Europe by the end of 2015, the United Nations estimates.

This is the route across Europe taken by a large majority of the refugees.

Please note: This is not the precise route.

A Unicef spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that refugees have been following this route in large numbers in recent months mainly because the weather is good. As winter approaches, though, they may choose to travel on land through Bulgaria rather than Greece.

Below is a country-by-country guide on this path, as well as information on recent developments in those areas.

1. the large majority of refugees flee syria and initially cross the border into turkey..

– Syrians are fleeing their country because it is engulfed in a civil war that has killed more than 220,000 people since 2011, the UN estimates. There could be 4.27 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN by the end of 2015.

– An estimated 200,000 Syrian refugees are staying in camps Turkish cities along the Syria border. A large number are in a camp at Nizup, while many others are entering through the border at Akcakale, in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa.

– According to local Turkish media , in at least 10 cities the number of Syrian refugees "now constitutes a sizeable portion of the city", including in Kilis, which sits on the border.

2. Refugees then travel west, through Turkey, and arrive at coastal cities, such as Izmir. After arriving there, they prepare to travel by boat to Greece.

– In Izmir, on Turkey's Aegean coast, thousands of refugees are staying in tents and hostels before making their way across the sea.

– Along the coastline, criminal gangs are reportedly charging Syrian families tens of thousands of dollars to transport them to Greece.

3. Refugees then face the perilous journey by boats across the sea to Greece. Many make their way to major cities such as Athens.

– Poor weather often creates incredibly dangerous conditions as people cross the Aegean Sea in rubber dinghies, boats, or ferries. On Sunday, 34 people – including 15 children and four toddlers – drowned when an overcrowded boat capsized off the Aegean island of Farmakonisi due to storms and high winds.

– In the adjacent Mediterranean sea, an estimated 430,000 refugees taking a different route to Europe have crossed, according to the International Organization for Migration. More than 2,500 people have died while attempting to get to Greece.

– After crossing the Aegean, many refugees travel through Greek islands such as Kos and Lesbos and then to the mainland. Others arrive in cities such as Idomeni and Athens. In Athens, makeshift camps are being set up in public spaces such as Victoria Square.

epoca libera @epocalibera #refugeesGr live under bad conditions in makeshift camp Victoria Sq. #Athens #Greece more@ http://t.co/JF49QnvHBG 08:40 PM - 13 Sep 2015 Reply Retweet Favorite

Katja Lihtenvalner @Lihtenvalner Still no toilets & no running water for refugees Square Victoria #Athens Help of local community increased #Greece 06:22 PM - 13 Sep 2015 Reply Retweet Favorite

4. Refugees then move north, mostly on foot, and arrive to the city of Gevgelija on the Greece-Macedonia border.

– In recent weeks, an unnamed refugee camp has been set up on the border. There, refugees are registered before they board trains to northern Macedonia.

– Last Thursday, 4,000 refugees – one of the largest single waves of refugees on the Greece-Macedonia border so far – clashed with guards on a bridge after migrants wanted to move faster through the border due to torrential rain.

Rossalyn Warren @RossalynWarren Here are some of the families (largely from Syria and Afghanistan) that have just crossed the Greece/Macedonia border 11:54 AM - 09 Sep 2015 Reply Retweet Favorite

5. Refugees generally move across Macedonia by train. After the five-hour ride from Gevgelija , they reach Tabanovce in the northern part of the country, on the Serbian border.

– A small minority of the refugees can afford to travel by taxi or coach to the border.

– At Tabanovce train station, people who have travelled by train and car disembark to cross into Serbia by foot.

– Lydia Gall, a Human Rights Watch researcher, told BuzzFeed News that they expected 24,000 people to arrive on the Macedonia-Serbia border between Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. She predicted those numbers will continue to grow.

Rossalyn Warren @RossalynWarren These are the faces of the many, many children travelling through Macedonia to Serbia hoping for a better life. 01:29 PM - 08 Sep 2015 Reply Retweet Favorite

6. Refugees then move through Serbia and into Hungary.

– Refugees generally cross into Hungary in and around the village of Roszke, where in the last week, Hungary has prepared to seal off the border.

– At least 160,000 people have entered Hungary from Serbia this year alone.

– On Monday, Hungary's vice chancellor confirmed the army is being sent in to help police prevent refugees from crossing over, and a new razor-wire fence is being built along the border. These moves have been widely condemned by human rights groups.

– Hungarian police deployed water cannons and used tear gas on refugees on the border with Serbia on Wednesday afternoon.

Oliver Varney @OliverVarney The makeshift camp at border by Roszke has noticeably grown over last week #refugeecrisis #hungary 06:02 PM - 12 Sep 2015 Reply Retweet Favorite

Carlo Angerer @carloangerer During standoff on railway tracks near Szeged, a young refugee offers a cookie to a Hungarian police officer. 02:48 PM - 08 Sep 2015 Reply Retweet Favorite

– Hungary's border closure has forced refugees to carve out a new route into Western Europe, by traveling west through Croatia.

– The new route being taken by refugees would take them from Serbia to Croatia, through Slovenia, and towards western Europe.

– Croatian prime minister Zoran Milanovic says they allow free passage for refugees, and that the country is "working intensively" to ensure refugees are able to pass through with ease.

7. Many refugees then travel by train or coach to Budapest, Hungary's capital, from where they can catch trains to the Austrian capital of Vienna.

– For those who manage to pass through the Hungary-Serbia, they head north towards Budapest where they can catch a train and head wes to the Westbahnhof train station in Vienna and then board trains heading towards Munich in Germany.

– At the start of September, Keleti train station in Budapest – which became a crucial artery for refugees travelling by rail to Austria – was closed. The closure caused chaotic scenes, and an estimated 1,200 refugees decided to continue their journey to the border by foot. Eventually Hungarian authorities agreed to bus people to the border with Austria.

8. Finally, the large majority of refugees arrive in Germany.

– On Sunday, Germany temporarily reintroduced border controls as it struggled to cope with a flood of thousands of refugees and migrants arriving from Austria. The German government is expecting 800,000 refugees to arrive this year.

– Munich authorities estimated around 13,000 people arrived in the city on Saturday. Officials in Germany's southern state of Bavaria have since warned that they are at "the limit" with the number of refugees arriving, and are struggling to house those who are already there.

– Although the response from Germans to the new arrivals has been mixed, there have been a number of incidences of crowds cheering refugees as they exit train stations.

9. For some refugees, the journey does not end there. Many travel onwards to Denmark and Sweden.

– Last week, Denmark suspended all rail links with Germany and closed a motorway in an attempt to stop refugees from entering the country. Many of the refugees – who resorted to crossing the country by foot – were attempting to reach Sweden. Train services were later resumed.

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UN refugee agency tells Cyprus to stick to the law in its efforts at sea to thwart refugee boats

FILE - Migrants aboard a Cyprus marine police boat as they are brought to harbour after being rescued from their own vessel off the Mediterranean island nation’s southeastern coast, at Protaras, Cyprus, on Jan. 14, 2020. The United Nations agency for refugees says on Friday, April 29, 2024, Cypriot efforts at sea to stop numerous Syrian refugee-laden boats departing Lebanon from reaching the European Union-member island nation mustn’t contravene international human rights laws. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

FILE - Migrants sit on a Cyprus marine police boat as they are safely brought to a harbor after being rescued from their own vessel off the Mediterranean island nation’s southeastern coast, of Protaras, Cyprus, on Jan. 14, 2020. The United Nations agency for refugees says on Friday, April 29, 2024, Cypriot efforts at sea to stop numerous Syrian refugee-laden boats departing Lebanon from reaching the European Union-member island nation mustn’t contravene international human rights laws. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

FILE - Migrants aboard a Cyprus marine police patrol boat as they’re brought to a harbor after being rescued from their own vessel off the Mediterranean island nation’s southeastern coast of Protaras, Cyprus, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. The United Nations agency for refugees says on Friday, April 29, 2024, Cypriot efforts at sea to stop numerous Syrian refugee-laden boats departing Lebanon from reaching the European Union-member island nation mustn’t contravene international human rights laws. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

FILE - Migrants stand aboard a Cyprus’ marine police patrol boat as they are brought to harbour after being rescued from their own vessel off the Mediterranean island nation’s southeastern coast, near Protaras, Cyprus, on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. The United Nations agency for refugees says Cypriot efforts at sea to stop numerous Syrian refugee-laden boats departing Lebanon from reaching the European Union-member island nation mustn’t contravene international human rights laws. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

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NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The United Nations’ refugee agency said Friday that Cypriot efforts at sea to stop numerous Syrian refugee-laden boats departing Lebanon from reaching the European Union-member island nation mustn’t contravene international human rights laws or put passengers at risk.

Cypriot authorities have reportedly dispatched police patrol vessels just outside Lebanese territorial waters to thwart boat loads of Syrian refugees from reaching the island about 110 miles (180 kilometers) away.

The Cypriot government says a crumbling Lebanese economy coupled with the uncertainty brought on by the Israeli-Hamas war and the recent tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Lebanon has resulted in a huge number of rickety boats overloaded with migrants – almost all Syrians – reaching the island.

Earlier this week, Cypriot patrol craft reportedly intercepted five boats carrying hundreds of Syrian refugees and migrants. The boats turned back and the passengers disembarked safely.

UNCHR spokesperson in Cyprus Emilia Strovolidou told The Associated Press that according to testimonies of passengers’ relatives, Cypriot authorities “forcibly pushed back” the boats using “violence” and “techniques to destabilize the boat.”

Strovolidou said the U.N. agency was “not in a position to confirm” those testimonies.

A Cypriot senior official strenuously denied that any coercion was used in any way to get the boats to return to Lebanon, insisting that the Cypriot government doesn’t engage in any pushbacks and acts “fully in accordance with international law.”

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he cannot disclose details of ongoing operations, dismissed as “lies” allegations that Cypriot authorities resorted to using any type of force.

Strovolidou said Cyprus is also bound by international law not to return individuals to any country which could in turn deport them to their homeland where they could be at risk of harm or persecution.

The Lebanon office of UNHCR said in a statement that it was aware of more than 220 people who had disembarked from the returned boats in northern Lebanon on Wednesday. Of those, 110 were refugees registered with UNHCR and all of them were released, it said.

Saadeddine Shatila, executive director of the Cedar Center for Legal Studies, a Lebanon-based human rights organization that tracks migration issues, said his group had information that the Lebanese army had detained and possibly deported Syrians from at least one of the returning boats who weren’t registered with UNCHR.

The Lebanese army has in the past occasionally deported all Syrians aboard seized migrant boats, including registered refugees, a practice that drew an outcry from human rights organizations.

Lebanese political officials have been calling for years for the international community to either resettle the refugees in other countries or assist in returning them to Syria, and security forces have stepped up deportations of Syrians over the past year. Some of the deportees have reportedly faced detention and torture upon their return.

The Cypriot official said the Cyprus government in coordination with the European Commission is preparing an additional financial support package for Lebanon to help the country stop migrant boat departures. He said that support is conditional on Lebanon’s effectiveness in stopping migrant boat departures.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen are due in Beirut May 2 to discuss the aid package.

The official said people smugglers are exploiting people’s fears over the ongoing conflicts in the region and are brazenly advertising in Lebanese coffee shops available seats on boats to Cyprus for $3,000 a head – a bargain compared to the $7,000 required for a trip to Italy.

Cyprus will convene a meeting of other EU countries next month to elicit additional support for its initiative for the bloc to formally redesignate some areas of Syria as safe zones. The Czech Republic and Denmark are behind the idea.

According to the Cypriot official, doing so wouldn’t mean that Syrians hailing from those safe zones are deported back to their country, but they would lose any allowances, benefits and the right to work, creating a disincentive to others to come to Cyprus.

He said Denmark is already implementing such a policy on its own and it’s a measure that the Cypriot government could consider if arrivals continue to increase.

Sewell reported from Beirut.

Follow AP’s global migration coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Saturday, May 04, 2024 4:29 pm (Paris)

• International

EU-Lebanon deal aims to prevent Syrian refugees from reaching Cyprus

The European Union plans to allocate €1 billion in aid to Beirut in exchange for cooperation from the Lebanese authorities in curbing illegal immigration to Europe.

By  Hélène Sallon   (Beirut, Lebanon, correspondent) and Philippe Jacqué   (Brussels, Belgium, correpondent)

Time to 4 min.

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Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, announced on Thursday, May 2, alongside Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, that €1 billion in aid would be allocated "to contribute to Lebanon's socio-economic stability," in exchange for "good cooperation" from the Lebanese authorities in the fight against illegal immigration to Europe.

In response to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who urged the European Union (EU) to instead help Syrian refugees in Syria "to encourage them to return voluntarily," von der Leyen promised that the EU would be "exploring how to work on a more structured approach to voluntary returns to Syria, in close cooperation with UNHCR (the UN refugee agency)." She called for international support "for humanitarian and early recovery programs in Syria."

Lebanon believes it can no longer bear the burden of Syrian refugees, most of whom have fled the civil war since 2011. According to the Lebanese authorities, there are almost 2 million of them in Lebanon, representing a third of the country's population. Only 805,000 are registered with the UNHCR, which suspended registration of Syrians in 2015 at Beirut's request. Stricken by an economic crisis since 2019, Lebanon is calling on the international community to relocate them to other countries or help them return to Syria.

Intense lobbying

The president of Cyprus has lobbied the EU intensely to obtain this funding for Lebanon. Close to the Lebanese coast, the island has seen an influx of Syrian refugees since the outbreak of violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border, echoing the war in the Gaza Strip. Between January and mid-April, more than 3,000 people attempted to cross from Lebanon by sea, compared with 54 over the same period in 2023, according to the UNHCR.

Since February, Beirut has refused to take back undocumented Syrian refugees who have fled to Cyprus, despite an agreement to this effect signed with Nicosia. In response, the Cypriot authorities have suspended the registration of asylum applications by Syrians. The NGO EuroMed Rights has also accused the Cypriot coast guard of forcibly turning back at least three boats carrying asylum seekers from Lebanon, which the Nicosia authorities are denying.

EU funding for the period 2024-2027 will include €736 million in aid for education, social protection, and healthcare for Syrian refugees and vulnerable people in Lebanon. In addition, €264 million will be allocated to training and equipping Lebanese security forces to manage migratory flows. Most of these European funds will be allocated via international organizations. The international community has indeed made any direct support to the Lebanese state contingent on enacting economic and financial reforms.

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Lebanese minister wants to open sea crossings to allow syrian refugees to leave for europe.

Lebanese caretaker Minister of the Displaced Issam Sharafeddine has called for the opening of Lebanon's maritime borders to allow Syrian refugees to "safely" leave Lebanon for Europe.

His comments, which were made in a televised interview on Friday , came as Lebanon struggles to cope with the high number of refugees it hosts.

The comments also came as rights groups note an increase in arbitrary arrests, torture and forcible return of Syrian refugees from Lebanon in recent months amid heightened anti-refugee sentiment in the country.

"There are known international obstacles in the refugee file," Sharafeddine told MTV channel, alluding to the European Union (EU) maintaining that refugees cannot be returned to Syria except if their return was "safe, voluntary and dignified". "We, as a ministry, have a deportation plan for refugees," he said, adding that he would push for the opening maritime borders "widely to serve as a means of pressure to return Syrian refugees to their country".

While Lebanese politicians are pushing back on EU calls to assist migrants and refugees from Syria, the army commander, Joseph Aoun, remains committed to preventing illegal sea migration because it's prohibited by international law, local media reported .

Will the EU strike a new anti-migration deal with Lebanon?

Sharafeddine's comments came just a day after an Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said that Lebanese Armed Forces [LAF] had forcibly returned Syrians to Syria, including an army defector and an opposition activist.

The rights watchdog said that Syrian refugees were trying desperately to remain in Lebanon despite deportation orders and an increasingly hostile environment exacerbated by officials' scapegoating of the refugee population.

Syrians who are forcibly returned to Syria face arrest, torture, and execution at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, rights groups have warned, as well as forcible conscription into the regime's army.

"Lebanese officials have for years imposed discriminatory practices against Syrians in the country as a way of coercing them to return to Syria, which remains unsafe," said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at HRW.

"Arbitrarily arresting, torturing, or deporting Syrians who face a well-founded risk of persecution if returned are additional blights on Lebanon’s refugee record."

In March, a  United Nations (UN) report  indicated that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was aware of "13,772 individuals deported from Lebanon or pushed back at the border with the Syrian Arab Republic in approximately 300 incidents in 2023", including 600 people in one day on 8 November. It further said that "local authorities in 27 municipalities took measures limiting the ability of Syrian refugees displaced in south Lebanon from finding alternative shelter".

The reference was in relation to the displacement of tens of thousands of residents in South Lebanon following the cross-border hostilities between Israel and Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups that have been ongoing since October 2023.

Since the killing of a local political party official on 7 April, which the Lebanese army  alleged  was carried out by a group of Syrian nationals, Lebanese ministers and political officials have made calls for the return of Syrians in Lebanon, fuelling ongoing violence against Syrians.

In April, Syrians in Lebanon were reportedly  beaten  and  faced pressureto leave  their homes, with  governorates  and  municipalities  imposing discriminatory curfews,  unlawfully restricting  Syrians’ right to freedom of movement.

According to UNHCR, Lebanon has the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometre in the world, with the Lebanese government estimating that there were 1.5 million Syrian refugees in the country.

The country is also grappling with the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history - one that the World Bank has said was likely to rank as one of the worst the world has seen in the past 150 years.

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Refugee Processing and Security Screening

This page provides information about the security screening and background checks required by the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) as well as the refugee resettlement process. The USRAP is an interagency effort which includes a number of governmental and non-governmental partners both abroad and in the United States.

USRAP screening includes both biometric and biographic checks, which occur at multiple stages throughout the process, including at the time of preliminary Resettlement Support Center (RSC) interview, before a refugee applicant’s departure to the United States, and on arrival in the U.S. at a port of entry. The screening of refugee applicants involves numerous biographic checks that are initiated by the RSCs and are reviewed and resolved by U.S. government agencies. These include:

DOS Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS) 1

DOS initiates CLASS name checks for all refugee applicants during pre-screening by the RSC. This includes name checks on the applicant’s primary names as well as any variations used by the applicant. The checks are complete before the USCIS interview, and USCIS reviews and resolves possible matches either at headquarters or in the field at the time of the interview. USCIS includes evidence of the name check response in the case file. If there is new biographic data requiring review at any time during the adjudication process, USCIS requests another CLASS name check and places the case on hold until that response is received.

Interagency Check (IAC)

Our robust interagency vetting process screens biographic data, including names, dates of birth, and other data points of all refugee applicants within designated age ranges. The RSC captures this information at the time of pre-screening, and it is subsequently provided to the intelligence community (IC) and law enforcement partners through a centralized and coordinated process established in fiscal year 2022 at the National Vetting Center (NVC). IC screening of refugee applicants began in 2001 and has expanded over time to include a broader range of applicants and records. The interagency checks centralized at the NVC leverages advanced technology and process automation to consistently apply the highest integrity vetting processes across the checks.

Before USCIS approves a refugee application any information returned from an applicant’s interagency checks must first be addressed and cleared. If new information is identified at any time during the adjudication process of a case requiring new interagency checks, USCIS may request the check again as appropriate. 

Biometric Checks

Before or at the time of USCIS interview, applicant fingerprints are submitted and biometric checks are initiated. The biometric checks initiated by USCIS for refugee applicants include:

FBI Fingerprint Check through Next Generation Identification

Recurring biometric record checks of criminal history and previous immigration data.

DHS Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT – formerly known as US-VISIT)

A biometric record check of travel and immigration history for non-U.S. citizens, as well as immigration violations and law enforcement and national security concerns. Enrollment in IDENT also allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to confirm identity at the port of entry.

DOD Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency’s Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS)

A biometric record check of Department of Defense (DOD) holdings from areas where DOD has or has had a significant military presence. DOD screening began in 2007 for Iraqi applicants and incrementally expanded to all refugee nationalities by 2013.

1 CLASS is a DOS name-check database that U.S. government agencies use to access critical information for adjudicating immigration applications. CLASS contains records provided by numerous federal agencies and includes information on persons with previous visa refusals, immigration violations, criminal histories, and terrorism concerns, as well as intelligence information and child support enforcement data. In addition to containing information from DOS sources, sources for information in CLASS includes National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and Terrorism Screening Center (TSC) (terrorist watch lists), DHS/CBP’s TECS System, Interpol, DEA, HHS and FBI (extracts of the NCIC Wanted Person, Immigration Violator, Foreign Fugitive Files, VGTOF, and the Interstate Identification Index).

The USCIS refugee interview itself, though not a system check, is also a vital part of the refugee screening process. Highly trained USCIS officers conduct extensive in-person, overseas interviews with all refugee applicants on each case to elicit information about eligibility for refugee status. During the interview, the officer:

• Confirms the basic biographic data of the applicant(s);
• Verifies that the applicant(s) was/were properly given access to the USRAP;
• Determines whether the principal applicant has suffered past persecution or has a well- founded fear of future persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion in his or her home country;
• Determines whether the applicant(s) is/are admissible to the United States and have not participated in persecution of others;
• Determines whether the principal applicant has been firmly resettled in another country – the finding of which would make him or her ineligible for resettlement through the USRAP; and
• Determines whether discretion should be exercised favorably to approve the application.

The officer develops lines of questioning to elicit information regarding any involvement in terrorist activity, criminal activity, or the persecution/torture of others, and conducts a credibility assessment, consistent with the REAL ID Act, on each applicant. Before the interview, USCIS officers receive training on country-specific issues for populations they interview, including briefings from outside experts from the intelligence, policy, and academic communities.

The Controlled Application Review and Resolution Process (known as CARRP) is a USCIS- wide process for handling cases with national security concerns. In general, a national security concern exists when a person or organization has been determined to have a link to past, current, or planned involvement in an activity or organization involved in terrorism, espionage, sabotage, or the illegal transfer of goods, technology, or sensitive information. USCIS trains officers to identify national security concerns in refugee applications and refer those with national security concerns for specific handling in accordance with USCIS policy and procedures.

The USCIS Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate and the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) work together on enhanced review of certain refugee cases. This review involves screening data against publicly available social media.

FDNS synthesizes this information in an assessment for the USCIS officer. It provides case-specific context, and the interviewing officer can use it to inform lines of inquiry related to the applicant’s eligibility and credibility. 

Even if USCIS approves an applicant for refugee status and that individual possesses the required USCIS-approved Form I-590, CBP must still find that applicant admissible to the United States. Prior to departure, individuals flying to the United States from a foreign country are subject to CBP vetting. CBP inspects applicants for admission to the United States upon their arrival at a U.S. port of entry and makes the final determination about whether to admit them into the United States.

More Information

• Flow Chart: United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) (PDF, 242.41 KB)

Ukrainian refugees, Russian exiles seek shelter in Turkey

Already a host to millions of Syrians, Turkey emerges as a safe haven hub amid Europe’s war.

Istanbul, Turkey – For more than a hundred years, Turkey, Russia’s southern neighbour across the Black Sea has hosted waves of refugees and exiles.

In the 19th century, Circassians fled to the Ottoman Empire from a genocide by tsarist Russia.

Keep reading

‘we are refugees’: russians flee rising authoritarianism, lives in a suitcase: the refugees fleeing the russia-ukraine war, uk will pay households $456 a month to host ukrainian refugees.

Then in the early 1920s, an estimated 200,000 took shelter in Istanbul from the Russian Civil War, increasing the city’s population by a fifth. They included the famous author Vladimir Nabokov.

Few stayed, however, with the majority resettling in Paris, London and New York. More recently, the 1990s and 2000s saw refugees arrive from war-torn Chechnya.

Now, as Moscow continues its military campaign in Ukraine, many anti-war Russians have flocked to Turkey.

And while the majority of Ukrainian refugees have fled to neighbouring EU countries, a significant number are also settling in the country.

The interior ministry announced on March 7 that upwards of 20,000 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in the country, though that figure is likely to have increased substantially since then.

On the evening of March 14, in a crowded passport queue at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport, where hundreds of people waited for about half an hour to pass through, it appeared as if more than half of those in line held Ukrainian passports.

On March 5, Kristina, 36, left Kyiv with her two sons – aged three and 16 – and her mother by car to the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi, where they boarded a bus to Istanbul that passed through Romania and Bulgaria.

The journey took a day and a half.

In a snap decision, Kristina had decided on Turkey because she thought she might be able to seek refuge with her ex-husband, the father of her younger son who lives in Istanbul.

But upon arrival, he refused to let them stay with him.

The family ended up on a basement floor in Turkey’s largest city before volunteers helped them find a spacious, suburban modern apartment where they now live with another Ukrainian family.

In Ukraine, she packed just one bag with some clothing, medicine, travel documents and her teenage son’s computer, Kristina told Al Jazeera by phone.

The apartment’s owner is allowing Kristina and her family to stay for three months, rent-free.

Meanwhile, according to some estimates, at least 200,000 Russians have fled their country since the war began in late February amid a crackdown on anti-war sentiment and growing fears for the economy.

With European airspace closed, they have left for destinations to the south and east, such as Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan – and Turkey.

But because of Western sanctions against Russia, many are unable to access their bank accounts and are struggling to get by.

“This is just a useless piece of plastic to me right now,” said 25-year-old Diana, brandishing a bank card from her wallet.

While Russia was partially banned from the global SWIFT payment system, and Visa and Mastercard stopped their operations there, Russians can still pay with their bank cards inside the country.

But those who are abroad are unable to use their funds, which includes stranded holidaymakers and people who have fled in recent weeks.

Diana, who was working as a motion designer in St Petersburg, now earns $4 a day working at a small café in the Fatih district of Istanbul after the owner took pity on her. But this is not enough to cover the rent at the hostel where she stays, she said.

“As I understand, the owner of the hostel understood this was a mass refugee crisis and even cancelled other people’s reservations so we wouldn’t be kicked out on the street,” she told Al Jazeera. “I don’t even know where to go. I hope that I can find a job and relocate somewhere.”

‘Our doors and hearts are open’

The influx of newcomers came as Turkey already hosted some four million refugees, the majority of whom are Syrian.

As Turkey’s economy has declined in recent years, the tendency among the public to blame refugees has increased, and polls indicate that most citizens want Syrians to return.

Tensions have boiled over into violence, with attacks against refugees and the neighbourhoods they live in reported in Istanbul and Ankara

“The anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey has a great deal to do with depicting especially Syrian and Afghan males as the ones who fled without fighting for their countries. On the other hand, the first convoys carrying Ukrainians to Turkey consisted of women and children,” Omar Kadkoy, an analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey, told Al Jazeera.

“As such, populist media outlets and politicians could use similar images to draw a painting of favoured/unfavoured asylum seekers and refugees, and further inflate the anti-sentiment towards specific vulnerable groups,” Kadkoy added.

Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasised that Turkey is a safe place for refugees.

“We will continue to keep our doors and our hearts open,” he said in a speech last week.

“Yesterday, they came from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, they have come from Ukraine, and we don’t know where they will come from tomorrow. Do not worry, this country will always continue to be a shelter for the oppressed.”

Kadkoy said, “Welcoming Ukrainians fleeing the war is ethically unquestionable. Furthermore, Turkey has been sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Extending open arms to Ukrainians is another way of sharing responsibility with Ukraine and other countries that took in Ukrainian refugees.”

Another recent arrival is Greg Mustreader, a popular YouTuber and blogger who fled to Turkey from Moscow with his girlfriend a week ago, afraid of political persecution for being outspoken against the war, which he insists on calling a war and not, as it is officially known, a “special operation”.

Mustreader told Al Jazeera he considers himself quite privileged compared with others in his situation, explaining that he is fluent in the field of cryptocurrencies and able to convert these to dollars or lira at cryptocurrency exchange offices in Turkey.

He planned to stay in the country for now and keep producing content on both his Russian and English YouTube and TikTok channels, urging his Russian followers to use VPNs as more and more social media is blocked; Russia has recently targeted Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

“I feel that I have to try to do my best to at least do something to influence the situation in my country, even while being abroad,” he said.

‘Delicate balance’

As well as managing several groups of refugees, Ankara also has to tread carefully as an ally of both Russia and Ukraine – and has taken on the role of mediator, along with France and Israel.

Although Turkey is part of NATO, its relationship with Moscow is more complicated than the rest of its allies.

For example, it has not closed its airspace to flights from Russia, nor has it imposed any sanctions. At the same time, it has sold combat drones to Ukraine which have inflicted attacks on Russian forces.

“From our point of view, it may look a bit weird but from Turkey’s point of view, it makes sense. And it’s consistent with the type of relationship that Ankara has with Moscow,” Eleonora Tafuro, a research fellow at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, told Al Jazeera.

Turkey has many delicate interests it does not want to jeopardise by upsetting Russia, Tafuro said, including the continuing conflict in Syria, to which both countries are a party, as well as a Black Sea pipeline carrying Russian gas directly to Turkey, a pipeline which could help make Turkey a crucial energy hub as the situation in Ukraine deteriorates.

Turkey  hosted the first meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Antalya.

While the talks did not lead to any tangible results, Tafuro argues it was at least a diplomatic success on the side of the Turks.

“It’s a delicate balance, and Turkey needs to maintain it,” Tafuro summarised.

Refugee agency chief warns that the number of Syrians leaving Lebanon is likely to rise

The number of Syrian refugees leaving Lebanon is likely to keep rising, the head of a top international agency working with migrants warned Tuesday, as pressure builds due to their arrival on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus .

Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration, said that around 3,000 Syrians have left Lebanon since January, compared to 4,500 for the whole of last year. Many of them have headed to Cyprus, about 110 miles (180 kilometers) away.

In response, Cyprus suspended the processing of asylum applications by Syrian nationals earlier this month due to the large numbers. Cypriot authorities have reportedly dispatched police patrol vessels just outside Lebanese territorial waters to thwart refugee boats trying to head to Cyprus.

Pope told The Associated Press that governments are cutting aid funding to agencies working with people who have fled Syria, which has been ravaged by civil war for over 13 years, and that this is making things worse. At the same time, some Lebanese communities are getting tired of hosting them.

“My concern is that we will see it become increasingly difficult for Syrians to stay safely in Lebanon. And when people cannot stay safely in one place, they do what every human being will do, is look where they can go,” Pope said.

“The numbers are ticking up,” she said. “Lebanon is becoming a less hospitable place for them to stay.”

Asked why aid to Syrian refugees is being cut, Pope said: “Because the number of conflicts has gone up, because the Syrian populations have been displaced now for almost 10 years, because the assumptions are we can’t continue to fund Syrians when we have increasing numbers of people from different parts of the world.”

The Cypriot government says a crumbling Lebanese economy coupled with uncertainty brought on by the Israeli-Hamas war and the recent tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Lebanon has resulted in a huge number of rickety boats overloaded with migrants – almost all Syrians – reaching the island.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen are due in Beirut on Thursday to discuss a possible aid package.

Follow AP’s global migration coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/migration

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