Surrounded by his children and wife, a young man from Daraa was stopped by the Syrian regime’s forces while returning from Lebanon to Syria at the Jdaidet Yabous crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border. He was taken to an unknown location after it was discovered that he was wanted by the security services.
A relative of the young man who was arrested at the border at the end of September said to Enab Baladi that the young man had defected from regime forces and had been living in Lebanon for years.
The relative, who requested anonymity for security reasons, added that the young man had surrendered himself to the Syrian authorities and did not expect to be arrested as he was still within the legal period of the presidential amnesty issued by Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad in September, which includes defectors from the army.
On September 22, Bashar al-Assad issued a general amnesty covering crimes of desertion and minor offenses committed prior to that date, but he excluded certain misdemeanors and violations.
The legislative decree No. 27 for 2024 included a general amnesty for the entire penalty of perpetrators of domestic and foreign desertion crimes specified in military penal code.
The provisions of the decree did not include those who remain hidden and fugitives “from the face of justice,” unless they surrender themselves within three months for internal desertion and four months for external desertion.
Regarding the young man’s situation, it was expected that he would be included in the amnesty decision that had only been issued ten days prior and was still effective for months.
His relative added to Enab Baladi that the security conditions in Lebanon and the burden of Israeli military operations prompted him to leave Lebanon, and returning to Syria was his only option.
Arrest and release
This arrest case is not the first for returnees from Lebanon, as another young man from Daraa province was also arrested while returning to Syria with his family. However, the regime’s security forces released him later on the condition that he return to Lebanon.
According to a relative of the young man arrested at the same crossing on September 25, he was detained while entering Syria, and his news was cut off for hours, while his wife and children were allowed to enter Syria.
The source indicated that the young man had suffered burns all over his body ten days before his arrest due to a work accident in Lebanon, and he did not receive organized treatment afterward, which raised concerns among his family after his disappearance at the crossing point.
He added that the young man was unarmed, had no previous security notifications against him, and his family still does not know the reason for his arrest despite entering Lebanon legally.
After more than 24 hours of his arrest, the young man was released but was forced to return to Lebanon, and the security authorities at the border crossing did not allow him to enter Syria, according to his relative who also resides in Daraa province.
Amnesty as a trap
The cases of the arrest of these two young men do not indicate a change in the regime’s policy, as Syrians have long been arrested in their cities and villages. However, what is different in the cases of these two young men is that they were fleeing military operations in Lebanon, similar to hundreds of thousands of other Syrians and Lebanese.
Tamer al-Jahmani, a lawyer in the Defense Authority for Detainees of Opinion and Conscience in Syria, told Enab Baladi that every citizen has the right to freedom of movement, which is protected by the constitution. They have the right to leave the country and return whenever they wish, especially in cases of displacement and escape from conflicts.
He added that the United Nations and the Hague and Geneva Conventions have stressed the need to facilitate the movement of individuals during armed conflicts and to provide care and protection for them. By analogy, this is an obligation on the host country, and if they are citizens, it is best for their own state to take care of them. However, the Syrian regime, as is well known, “does not respect any international law or constitution.”
Regarding the regime’s non-compliance with the amnesty decree issued by Bashar al-Assad, al-Jahmani said that the regime “is trying to deceive the international community” by sending political messages that it is open to sectors of society. However, most countries and international organizations are aware that these decrees have no positive effect on the Syrian people.
He added that the decrees are merely “a trap similar to the trap of settlements,” as the regime intends to arrest defectors and conceal them in security branches.
Al-Jahmani warned those wanted among the Syrians against returning through the regime’s official channels, pointing out that they may face arrest.
Nine cases
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented arbitrary arrests targeting Syrian refugees returning from Lebanon, fleeing from the escalating Israeli airstrikes since September 23.
On October 2, it reported that it documented the arrest of no less than nine Syrian refugees, mostly from rural Damascus, regarding “mandatory and reserve conscription.”
The human rights organization indicated that the arrests took place at official and unofficial border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, with most of them taken to security and military detention centers in the provinces of Homs and Damascus.
Additionally, on June 20, the SNHR released a report on the occasion of World Refugee Day, stating that it had documented at least 4,714 cases of arrest of returnees from refugees and displaced persons by the Syrian regime’s forces since the beginning of 2014 until June 2024.
The report noted that of the 4,714 arrest cases, the regime released only 2,402. The fate of 2,312 people remains unknown in detention, with 1,521 of them becoming forcibly disappeared.
Other human rights organizations have also issued reports about the regime’s arrests of returning refugees. Amnesty International released a report titled “You’re Going to Your Death,” and Human Rights Watch released a report titled “Our Lives Are Like Death.”
400,000 entered Syria
On October 7, the Disaster Risk Management Unit of the Lebanese government announced that more than 400,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria, most of them Syrians, since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Lebanon two weeks ago.
The Lebanese unit indicated that the Lebanese General Security registered the displacement of 300,774 Syrians and 102,283 Lebanese to Syrian territory since the start of the Israeli war on Lebanon on September 23, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA).
For its part, the Immigration and Passport Department in the Syrian regime’s government stated that approximately 330,000 Syrians and Lebanese have fled to Syria due to the Israeli war on Lebanon.
The local Al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday from a source in the Immigration and Passports Department that the number of returning Syrians to their country reached about 239,000, including about 5,000 who entered within the last 24 hours.
The same source added that the number of Lebanese arrivals in Syrian territory was about 91,000, including around 3,000 who entered within the last 24 hours.
There is a daily movement of crossings from Syrians and Lebanese toward Syrian territory following the Israeli military escalation in Lebanon, with some leaving Syria as well for other countries like Iraq, Jordan, and Gulf countries.
Lebanon shares its land borders with Syria at six crossings, making it the only state with a land border with Lebanon apart from the border with occupied Palestine, which is currently a hotspot due to the Israeli escalation. There are no crossings for citizens’ entry and exit in that area.
The number of displaced persons is increasing with the escalation of Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, as well as other Lebanese areas, amid expectations of a larger wave of displacement toward Syria as Israel continues its ground invasion of southern Lebanon.