Syria’s Stateless Refugees

More than half a million in number, Syrian-born Palestinians face a unique and particularly challenging vulnerability when applying for refugee status. While they have been born in Syria, many lack Syrian citizenship (and thus a Syrian passport) due to Syria’s citizenship laws as well as the desire to maintain their Palestinian nationality to retain the right to return to Palestine. Most of Syria’s neighbors have traditionally denied entry to Palestinians as part of complex politics resulting from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As residents of Syria, Palestinian Syrians have faced the same circumstances as other Syrian refugees, and immigration officials have been instructed to extend the same consideration to Palestinian Syrians as other Syrians. Al Jazeera investigates cracks in the process of asylum application and other challenges faced by Palestinian-Syrian refugees.

Read more:
“Palestinian Syrians: Twice refugees” (Al Jazeera)

Additional reading:
“Palestinian Refugees from Syria” (Inter Press Service)
“Arab Countries Are Forcing Palestinian Exiles Back Into Syria” (The Daily Beast)

(Image Credit: UNRWA via AP, via Al Jazeera)