The Syrian Refugees as a Regional Security “Problem”

Abstract

The intention of this article is to demonstrate how Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, the principal host states of Syrian refugees, have been affected by the large flow of people who have entered their territories. With an exodus of approximately 3.2 million people to date, the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war has become one of the major security problems of these host countries and one of the most important aspects of the internationalization of the Syrian conflict. Although this study recognizes the matter of different interdisciplinary perspectives, particularly the humanitarian, it emphasizes the statistic view that links the security and refugees as a “problem”. This “realistic” perspective allows the reader to grasp how and why the “problem” of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan led the governments of these countries to generate policies to preserve or expand their security interests: placing these interests over and above humanitarian considerations. Lebanon, the country most affected by the refugee crisis, has experienced this process in various ways. Apart from having to control outbreaks of violence in refugee camps, the Lebanese government made these localities true centers of operations against Syrian jihadists, attacking the refugee camps under the pretext that these groups were sheltering there. Refugees also contribute
to the alteration of the precarious socio-demographic balance in Lebanon. All these factors led the Lebanese government to attempt to control the entry of more refugees, while reducing their ability to improve the conditions of those who were already settled there.
Turkey, on the other hand, has suffered from the Syrian civil war primarily
because of the ethno-religious violence unleashed along its border as well as the strategic position occupied by refugee camps in combat zones. The Turkish government has played an important role in this sense, since from the beginning of the civil war it has provided logistical and political support to the Syrian opposition. In that sense the border remains a zone along which groups can exchange weapons or circulate combatants. Humanitarian aid, certainly politicized, will only exacerbate the precariousness which refugees already experience. Jordan, upon having received hundreds of thousands of refugees, has had to face an increasing security problem. Government decisions regarding the refugees, however, are tied to the acquisition of “humanitarian aid” and military support from its strategic allies such as the United States as part of the “global war on terror”. In fact, refugee camps serve to train or recruit fighters who will fight against the Syrian regime and militants of the Islamic State. In short, the expansion of the conflict along these borders has not only caused the refugees’ situation to deteriorate but has also led to a situation in which these same refugees have been converted into bargaining chips by the states involved in order to consolidate their power.