Analyzing Syrian Refugee Crisis

ANALYSING SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS
Analyzing Syrian Refugee Crisis
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1ANALYZING SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS
The civil war in Syria can be traced back to the year 2000, around the time when ISIS
rose to prominence. There is plenty of reason why the civil war in Syria started; it has some
colonial roots, some ethnic clashes and primarily the war in Iraq. When Bashar al-Assad got
elected in the year 2000, the tensions in Syria rose around that period. The Assad government
started the torment in Syria which led to a pro-democracy protest all over Syria. This turned onto
a bloody civil war in the year 2012 and has been going on ever since. The war has killed multiple
numbers of people and has breached many human right laws. An UN commission enquiry on
Syria has found evidence of the fact that the government and the opposition have both used the
suffering of the civilians as a way to torment each other. Tactics like cutting of the food sources,
water supply and medical needs have been used by both the parties to wage war against each
other. The Syrian refuge crisis has been called by The United Nations High Commission for
Refugees (UNHCR) as the world largest refugee crisis (Shireen, 2018). 4.9 million Syrians have
fled the country and taken refuge in different countries all over the world (Shireen, 2018). Many
of the Syrians have fled to the neighboring nations of Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey.
Europe is also the host to many refugees (Refaat & Mohanna, 2013). Syria faces the biggest
human rights issue till date. The inhuman conditions through which the Syrians have to go
through everyday have forced them to seek asylum in other countries but despite the troubles that
the Syrians have gone through many European nations have turned a blind eye towards the
refugees (Newsome, 2019). This essay would try to analyze the problem of the Syrian people,
the national and the international human rights problem that the country and the refugees are
facing and the various laws that have been broken with this process.
The conflict in Syria has faced major humanitarian issue over the past few years. In case
of any emergency faced by the civilians, the help would not be able to reach them because of the

2ANALYZING SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS
condition of the city. The rate at which the displacement occurred on Syria is massive and there
are several reasons behind it. Civilians are attacked on a daily basis irrespective of the fact that
whether they have supported any group or the government. Refugees who had taken shelter in
the neighboring countries also reported that the frequent bombardment and the constant fear
being attacked have compelled them to move away from the neighboring country (Dimitrova,
Ozdora-Aksak & Connolly-Ahern, 2018). There is a lot of violation of the human right laws in
Syria. The major breach of human rights has risen from the sectarian nature of the conflict. The
sexual violence that has accompanied the crisis has also been the major concern for the UN. The
UN commission has reported that the sudden bombardments, forced displacements, the violence
inflicted on the civilians are all crimes against humanity and war crimes. The fear that
displacement has caused, has been used by the government and the opposition as a tool for
sectarian cleansing. The effect of the war is deterring but the civilians have been majorly affected
by the insurmountable violence that they have to go through on a daily basis. People do have any
basic civil rights, they do not have the access to proper health acre neither do they have the
means to earn their own livelihoods, these are the reason they are being forced to move to a place
where they can at least get some basic human rights.
The people who are migrating from Syria to other countries pose some problems for the
host country as well, because the refugees are plenty in number and every country needs to
invest a certain amount of money to make sure that the refugees do not face a problem while
living in a foreign country (Trauner,2016). During the World War II era, the atrocities that Hitler
committed and the violence that he perpetrated on the Jews led to the creation of an international
regime which was committed to protect the human rights of the citizens. The law that was
drafted by the international community was called the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’

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and the ‘Convention Concerning the Rights of the Refugees’, these two laws protect the human
rights of the refugees and makes it obligatory for all states who are a part of that contract to
provide shelter to the people have come to their country to seek asylum (Peters & Besley, 2015).
The Universal Declaration of Human Right has provided guidelines depicting the ways to protect
dignity of human beings regardless of their class, caste, gender, race, religion, creed and
ethnicity (Brown, 2016). Human rights scholars have noted the term refugee is limited and it
does not cover all the people who seek refuge in some other country which is not their homeland.
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which was drafted in the year 1951, lists two
categories of refugees who does not fall under the non-refoulement clause, first, people who have
committed crime against humanity, against peace or waged a war, committed non-political crime
before seeking refuge to the foreign land or have been found guilty by the UN on some grounds
will not be given refugee in any foreign land (Peters & Besley, 2015). Secondly, the people who
were formerly had the refugee status but are now considered threat to the national security in the
country they are seeking refuge in, will not be given the status of a refugee (Peters & Besley,
2015).. There is another major problem with the Convention of Refugees; this convention does
not clearly state the states which are under the conventions (Kneebone, 2018). This suggests that
the states that are sovereign does not necessarily have to abide by the convention (Balsari et al.,
2015). The convention is a well-structured document that mostly covers all grounds, except for
some problems like addressing the needs of the refugees and the states that have are sovereign
should have a clear cut guideline.
For the past 7 years, the conflict has faced not only human rights violation and broken
international laws but there were major health crisis as well (Taleb et al., 2015) . The people that
are still there in the country, for them the major trouble lie in getting access to basic health care