Six years after the 2015 migration crisis, during which hundreds of thousands of families fled warring Syria, via Turkey, to find refuge in Europe, the Syrians are this time caught in the trap fomented by Alexander Lukashenko. They are not the only ones to find themselves stranded at the borders of Belarus. Driven into exile by conflicts and tattered economies, Iraqis, Afghans and Yemenis, among others, also believed the Belarusian dictator who dangled them a gateway to the European Union (EU). Officially, Minsk has put an end to this disastrous game and, following the warning shots of the Twenty-Seven, this “smuggling” of migrants was interrupted.
Hoping to join his three eldest sons who left for Germany in 2015, Umm Iyad (pseudonym) flew to Belarus this fall for 15,000 euros. She left behind her, in Kamechliyé, a Kurdish stronghold in northeastern Syria, her youngest child, aged 10, and her husband. “The situation has continued to deteriorate in Syria, she explains. My little one cannot follow a normal education. Buying food is getting more and more difficult. “ In Damascus, prices increased by 50% between July and September.
From 2011
After experiencing a nightmare on the Polish border, Oum Iyad managed to rent accommodation with relatives while waiting to see: “It seems that Germany is going to open a humanitarian corridor. “ On November 17, Minsk said the EU would facilitate the reception of migrants in Germany. Berlin did not confirm.
Bassam Al-Ahmad, director of the organization Syrians for Truth and Justice, makes a distinction between the 2015 and 2021 sequences. “In 2015, Syria was the scene of incredible violence. Today, the Syrians are leaving because they cannot make a decent living. “ Among the causes of the debacle, Mr. Alahmad points to Western sanctions, “Not those which target war criminals [dont des personnalités du régime], but those which affect sectors of the economy ”. As for the host countries – Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon – they too are facing economic difficulties and donor fatigue.
The massive Syrian exodus, which captured Western attention in 2015, had actually started much earlier. From the first months of the bloody repression, by the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, of the popular uprising of 2011, the population had fled to neighboring countries. This migration has never stopped: the illegal departures of Syrians from the Lebanese coast to Cyprus even increased in 2021.
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