‘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.’
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.
