What’s keeping Syria’s Palestinian refugees from returning to camps?
May 12, 2017
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The situation of Palestinians displaced from their refugee camps in Syria remains complex. Some progress toward returning them to their homes in the camps has been noted, even as other efforts have stalled.
These are refugees driven from their homes in camps by the Syrian civil war. Many are second-time refugees, having ended up in Syria in the first place because they were displaced from the West Bank after the 1967 war with Israel.
During an April 16 meeting, the PLO factions in Syria welcomed news that Sabina camp residents might be able to return in the near future, pending further negotiations with militants in the area. The factions also praised the government’s measures to allow movement in and out of the Khan al-Shih camp, and for the government’s ongoing negotiations with gunmen to get them to leave the Yarmouk camp. The Yarmouk talks have been particularly complicated by many factors.
