The Syrian President and UN Policy Makers

Refugees International states:

‘While the Syrian government deserves credit for decades of assistance to hundreds of thou-

sands of Palestinians, and now to the growing number of Iraqi refugees present on their

territory due to the ongoing crisis in Iraq, it must recognize in a concrete way the rights of

hundreds of thousands of individual Kurds within its own borders who have been arbitrarily

denied the right to Syrian nationality. the Syrian government needs to repeal all draconian

restrictions on the free expression of Kurdish cultural identity and grant citizenship to

individuals who lack it.’

[Buried Alive - Stateless Kurds in Syria, Refugees International: Maureen Lynch/Perveen Ali, January 2005]

The conclusions Refugees International made in this 2005 report remain relevant and furthermore they provide a structure by which we can evaluate the UN's own operations in Syria. UNHCR policy-makers need to recognize that their current policy of operation in Syria replicates the exact same position as the Syrian state, which is condemned in UNHCR publications. Both UNHCR and the Syrian government have offered laudable assistance to Palestinians displaced in Syrian camps since 1948. Equally they have provided assistance to Iraqi refugees fleeing sectarian conflict and security threats in Iraq, who are now living integrated within Syrian towns. Yet neither the UN nor the Syrian government have taken any concrete steps to provide a remedy to the 300,000 stateless Kurds within the same territory.