Host countries of Syrian refugees are telling them it’s time to go home, but according to Nuna of Triumphant Mercy, home isn’t as safe as some might hope.
As some governments claim, some places in Syria are relatively safe, and some refugees are admittedly reluctant to return not because of safety but because of the economic stability they’ve found in their host countries.
However, “there’s also truth in the pressure and in the difficulties of some families to go back because of deserting the Army or because of the alliance against the government,” Nuna says. “If they proclaimed themselves against the government, going back to Syria after this government would be a bit difficult.”
This increased pressure is uprooting families and individuals who are already weary and battered. Nuna says these refugees may no longer live in fear of losing their lives, but they do face “the trauma of being arrested, the trauma of being taken prisoner, of being beaten, and of being forced into signing something or doing something that you don’t want to do.”
For years, they’ve been working to help displaced refugees feel safe. “People started to feel that they can start a life, that they got out of the trauma,” Nuna says. Now, with new pressure from host countries, “the trauma’s back. Now they sleep not knowing if, at four in the morning, the camp will be surrounded by the military just coming to take people to prison.”
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SOURCE: Mission Network News, Alex Anhalt
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