Make Refugee Status Conditional?
The return of Syrians after the end of the civil war suggests a reassessment of U.S. resettlement policy may be in order
By Nayla Rush on August 29, 2025
Former Lebanese President Michel Aoun recently called for the revocation of refugee status of Syrians in Lebanon, arguing that the presence of most Syrian refugees was no longer justified, given the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, which brought an end to more than 14 years of civil war.
Can the United States take a lesson from this?
Lebanon hosts 1.5 million Syrians, of whom about 700,000 are currently registered as refugees with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The relatively low number reflects the Lebanese government’s request that UNHCR cease registering Syrians as refugees back in 2015.
Revoking the refugee status of Syrians in Lebanon would, according to Aoun, oblige the Lebanese government “to radically change its policy, not to limit itself to voluntary return programs, to immediately implement repatriation programs for Syrian refugees, and to carry them out.”
https://cis.org/Rush/Make-Refugee-Status-Conditional
