Syrians' Right to Legal Documents - INDICATORS

Syrians’ Right to Legal Documents

Due to the importance of personal identification documents and the negative
consequences of not possessing them on the lives of individuals, this study was
conducted, in order to reveal the numbers of Syrians who do not have personal
identification documents, and to define the most prominent personal identification
documents that Syrians suffer tremendously to obtain, while listing the negative
consequences of not possessing them.
The study was conducted in the cities of Idlib and Salqeen in Syria, it also included the
city of Urfa in Turkey and the regions of Arsal and the Bekaa in Lebanon, in which 305
male and female participated, taking into consideration while selecting them a
number of variables such as status of residence, age and social status, and data
collection was conducted using a questionnaire with closed-ended questions.
The results of the study showed that many Syrians, whether residing in the liberated
areas or in the countries of refuge, do not possess the personal identity documents of
all kinds, especially passports, civil registry record or educational documents.
Additionally, many Syrian children are still not registered at official state departments
and many young people, who are more than fourteen years old, still do not possess
IDs. Many Syrian have lost their personal identification documents as a result of the
bombing of their areas or during displacement, or it was confiscated or destroyed by
the various military bodies and forces dominated by the Syrian regime.
The fear of being arrested by the pro-regime forces prohibited many Syrians from
traveling to regime areas which constituted the main reason for the Syrians’ inability
to obtain any official document. In addition to the fact that many of them cannot
afford paying for these documents, considering that paying bribes to employees of the
governmental institutions or hiring a lawyer is the most common ways to obtain these
documents.
As for the negative outcomes of the non-possession of official documents and not
registering personal affairs documents in the official government departments, the
most concerning issue is depriving unregistered children from their nationality,
particularly in the event of the inability to register the marriage documents, and the
inability of people without personal IDs to vote or run for public services jobs or state
departments jobs, in addition to depriving them of many of their most basic rights that
people cannot live properly without it, such as the right to education, the right to
work, the prevention of travel and the restriction of individual freedom and
deprivation of health care.

Syrians’ Right to Legal Documents

It is no secret that the conflict in Syria has had catastrophic results for over eight years,
the fighting and the heavy shelling targeting civilian areas have forced millions of
Syrians to flee their towns and villages and move internally or take refuge to
neighboring countries. the recently published UN’s reports estimate the numbers of
Syrian refugees in turkey at around four million, while one million refugees reside in
Lebanon
internally, three and a half million citizens are currently living in Idlib governorate,
most of whom were forcibly displaced from their areas as a result of the reconciliation
agreements with the Syrian regime. Moreover, many people were forced out of their
region due to the fear of being prosecuted or arrested by the regime forces, or to
escape the brutality of the radical organizations.
Syrians living in liberated areas suffer from the lack of governmental services due to
the closure of all official departments and institutions that handled the affairs of
residents, which resulted in the inability of local residents or displaced people to
register their personal affairs documents such as marriage and divorce, or their newly
born children in the social services departments, as well as the inability to obtain
personal identification documents such as educational documents, IDs, passports or
other documents.
Syrian refugees in both Turkey and Lebanon face many challenges in obtaining
personal identification documents from diplomatic missions, primarily the high cost
of official documents issued by such missions, security checks and the possibility that
people who visit diplomatic mission could face risks when they return to Syria in case
they had travelled out of it illegally

Syrians’ Right to Legal Documents

Syrian refugees in both Turkey and Lebanon face many challenges in obtaining
personal identification documents from diplomatic missions, primarily the high cost
of official documents issued by such missions, security checks and the possibility that
people who visit diplomatic mission could face risks when they return to Syria in case
they had travelled out of it illegally