From the editors
Four years ago we published an issue on ‘The Syria crisis, displacement and protection’. In the Foreword to the issue, the former UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, Nigel Fisher, observed that “While the crisis may be prolonged,…
Foreword: Syria in 2018 – in search of solutions
This important issue of Forced Migration Review draws our attention to the current challenges facing displaced Syrians and the continuing search for solutions. The statistics of Syrian displacement are staggering – and the numbers continue to rise. Half of Syria’s…
Protecting the dignity of displaced Syrians
As a Syrian with a background in humanitarian analysis, research and writing, for a long time I have been eager to write about the importance of dignity to Syrians at this particular moment in time. It has repeatedly struck me…
One camp, three refugee groups: challenges for local NGOs
Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp is located on about 1km2 of land close to Beirut’s international airport, and is one of twelve official Palestinian camps in Lebanon established following the creation of Israel in 1948. Before the Syrian conflict, it accommodated…
Refugee-led humanitarianism in Lebanon’s Shatila camp
Shatila camp, covering less than a square mile on the southern borders of Beirut, is one of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon that was established in 1949, for merely 3,000 people. Today, the camp occupies the same limited space but…
The role of municipalities in ensuring stability
The eastern Lebanese region of Beka’a, which shares a long border with Syria, hosts around 360,000 registered Syrian refugees. This is both the highest absolute number among regions in Lebanon and also the highest proportion of refugees to local population.…
Competing security and humanitarian imperatives in the Berm
When the Government of Jordan severely restricted entry through its border with Syria at Rabaa’ al-Sarhan in October 2014, 5,000 internally displaced Syrians were turned away. They established temporary shelters within 200 metres of Jordan, and in doing so they…
Categorising Syrians in Lebanon as ‘vulnerable’
M, a Syrian man in his mid-30s, living with two children, his wife and his mother, had not received food aid in over a year. He wondered what it was that made his family ineligible for assistance when neighbours had…
Rethinking the lessons from Za’atari refugee camp
Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, the second largest camp in the world and temporary home for 80,000 Syrians, was built in 2012, materialising over two weeks as thousands of Syrians fled the city of Dara’a in southwestern Syria. The physical…