Dr. Amani Khadour
Appearances
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
You're listening to Today Explained. My name is Dr. Amani Khadour. That's newly minted. I just defended my doctorate a few days ago. Congratulations. Thank you. You're having one hell of a month. Oh, yeah. It was hours before all of this unfolded. So it's been, you know, a whirlwind. I'm the director of a humanitarian NGO called Syria Relief and Development. Many know it as SRD.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
I'm operating on the ground in Syria. And then I also hold an associate faculty position at Johns Hopkins at their Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
My heritage is Syrian. My parents are Syrian. But I grew up in the U.S. my whole life. So I grew up in the Midwest.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
I'm in Gaziantep, Turkey. So for those unfamiliar, it's in the southeast of Turkey, one of the cities where that was the epicenter, actually, of the earthquakes that hit last year.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Let's talk about outflow first. This is a country that has probably six to seven million refugees outside of the country, one of the highest. For those that have been following Syria for the past decade plus, this is one of the highest numbers of refugees across the world, now probably closely tied with Afghanistan and Ukraine. But for quite some time, it was Syria.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
A lot of these refugees ended up in surrounding countries.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Almost four million Syrian refugees have settled in countries neighboring Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. And then the rest ended up in many, many places, Europe, the UK, the US, Canada.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
But I would say the bulk, really, of refugee-hosting countries for Syrians have been the surrounding ones, including Turkey, where I reside right now. And then in terms of inflow within the country across the various governorates, the majority of displaced communities have been in the Northwest. This is one of the highest displaced populations across the world right now.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Within the country, it's about 70%. six or so million displacements, and in the Northwest it's housed about four million. So these four million have come from other parts of the Northwest as a result of aerial attacks to civilian infrastructure, hospitals, clinics, schools, marketplaces. Some were fleeing forced military conscription. particularly young men of military age.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
So really a mixture of reasons. But the Northwest in particular, I would say, really housing the majority of the displaced.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
I think yes, but there's a caveat. So absolutely, I think without, you know, getting emotional about this, you can feel the hope. And you can see the resilience of the Syrian people across the world right now. Scenes of people celebrating in almost every country and real solidarity. I think this is a moment in history. This is a moment in time for people.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And before discussing kind of what's next, the apprehension that others might be questioning Syrians about is let's let Syrians have this moment. Let's let them celebrate, rejoice, feel the joy. feel the pain, feel the suffering, excuse me, feel the loss and the family separation, the detainments, the persecutions. This is a bittersweet moment for a lot of people.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And I think it's really important to let them process all of this. But On the other hand, when a lot of Syrians are now either wanting to return or at a minimum just get permission to enter the country to reunite with parents that they haven't seen for 10 years, young men and women that had to leave the country, separate from their families.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
out of safety or simply because of how much economic deterioration there was. It's also, for me, I'm very cautious about what this means when many say they want to return. Is the time necessarily now? No. Is there a firm timeline? I also don't know. What I would say, especially to host countries, is this is not a moment to exploit asylum policies. This is not a moment to sort of
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
weaponize this critical point in time and immediately start discussing returns, especially if they're not this trifecta, voluntary, safe and dignified for people.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
So it's been a dizzying few days. I believe Austria has. I am cautious to mention names of other countries, but even prior to this moment in time, a few countries have been looking at their migration policies. So this is not a secret. Anyone can Google this. Germany has been looking at its migration policies. Holland has been looking.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Denmark previously is really trying to understand what are the conditions in Syria. So that they can also, I don't know if it's reframe or recalibrate their own migration policies and determine, is it safe for returns and can Syrians be sent back now?
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Oh, that's really hard. I mean, a lot of people, it's just home for them. It's just, I'm going back home. I'm going back to, you know, mom and dad or my brothers and sisters that were, you know, five years old before and now they're teenagers. Like the heartwarming story. So many of my colleagues, my team, you know, are going back right now and reuniting with family. And it's so touching.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
I think a lot of people had lost hope. There was a clear disillusionment, I would say, with the international system. very demoralized before this. But I do worry that what people are going back to now, you know, the country needs reconstruction, it needs development, it's been destroyed. So there really isn't in certain areas much to go back to. That's not the case for all parts of Syria.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Inflation has hit the country hard. So generally economic insecurity in Syria and outside, which also adds to some of the push-pull factors for some Syrians that have struggled also outside of the country, especially in neighboring countries, unable to afford basic services, basic amenities.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
you have decimated infrastructure, so public infrastructure, schools, very little job prospects, and across the health system, obviously, and I'm a public health practitioner, so this has been my area of focus for many, many years now is the hospital and healthcare infrastructure that's almost completely collapsed in certain areas.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
I mean, I think a lot of people now are grappling with this, especially, you know, I think of a lot of my colleagues and friends who've had children that have been born in other countries now, and there's this identity, you know, where we know, we hear there's something called Syria, that we're originally from there, what that actually means, you know, they may be too young to process that.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
It's a tough decision then to kind of uproot them all over again, especially when some people, you know, Some of the ones in Jordan and Lebanon, they're on their fourth or fifth, sixth displacement. They've started their lives over multiple times. So some also just want stability in any form.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
So to then also be introduced to a different form of stability all over again, I think it's just, there's only so much a person can handle.