modern exodus and birth of new stateless generation...

1 | P a g e Journal On Contemporary Issues of Law (JCIL) Vol. 2 Issue 3

MODERN EXODUS AND BIRTH OF NEW STATELESS

GENERATION: AFTERMATH OF SYRIAN CRISIS IN THE WORLD

Prashna Samaddar1

“All national rootedness is rooted first of all in the memory or the anxiety of a displaced or

displaceable population.”

-Jacques Derrida, Specters of Marx2

Exodus, the word which gives a connotation of mass displacement is known to mankind for its

antiquity. The literal meaning of which is; ‘a situation in which many people leave a place at

the same time’3 or ‘departure of usually a large number of people’4, has its initiation in 17th

Century Greek culture where it was ‘exodos’ and in Latin where it was ‘exodus’

contemporarily. The Exodus, is also believed to be a name of book which is considered to be

a second book of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible.5 The book had highlighted the struggle

which Israelites had to undergo through various tribulations to get freedom from slavery in

Egypt. The importance of the freedom from any bondage and positive aspect of mass

displacement is so glare that, authors in their various commentaries has found ‘The Exodus’ as

one of the most important book in Holy Bible.6 It is well evidenced from the pages of world

history that, mass displacement was never an event in isolation. It has occurred in every regime

from time immemorial either for good or for bad. The world has witnessed uncountable

processes developing and fading away but something which was always constant without any

limitation of time, place or culture was mass displacement of human folk from one place to

another for various reasons.

1 Research Scholar, WBNUJS, Kolkata 2 Nevzat Sozuk, Human Displacement and Statecraft: The Ascent of territorial Nation State, State and Strangers,

, Borderlines, Volume 11 (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, London, 1999), chapter 2, available at;

http://www.upress.umn.edu, [Last accessed on 10 January, 2016] 3 Meaning of exodus, available at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/learner/exodus, (accessed 2

January, 2016) 4 Meaning of exodus, available at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/exodus, (accessed 2 January, 2016) 5 Childs & Brevard , The book of Exodus (Eerdmans, 1979) 6 Dozeman & Thomas , Commentary on Exodus (Eerdmans 2009)

http://www.upress.umn.edu/

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/learner/exodus

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/exodus


GLIMPSES OF SOME EXODUS AROUND THE WORLD

If it is looked upon by travelling in a timeline, incidents of massive deportation of mankind has

its presence in almost every nation form the very inception of its concept, whether it is the

Canaan of 740 BC, where 10 out of 12 Israelite tribes were expelled from the ancient Israel by

the Assyrian rulers, or when in 1685, the Louis XIV has issued an edict (Edict of Fontainebleau)

whereby, they were declared to be persecuted if they practice their Protestant belief freely.7

Though the exact number of people displaced is not known, the historians claim such a

displacement as a remarkable one of the time which affected more than 2,00, 000 people.

Again, in 1783, after 150 years, approximately, 5 to 7 million people displaced and relocated

in what is called Turkey at present.8 During the time, Turkey has experienced a radical

transformation whereby a bulk of Muslim population arrived from countries like, Caucasus,

Crete, Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia. They had covered the territory so vividly that even

today one out of three citizen of Turkey held to be the descendent of those people.9 The history

continues with its valour and again in 1880’s, Russia witnessed a massive exodus of some

millions of Jews (2 million approx.) towards US, UK an elsewhere in Europe due to sudden

and several brutal attacks on Jews of the country after Tsar Alexander was assassinated.10

The world has ruptured its fashion very recently in Twentieth Century when it has witnessed

two World Wars in 1914 and 1945 consecutively. Resultantly it proved to be an era of exodus

and created a world community of refugees leading to haphazard lives of millions. These

historic moments had left almost 40 million refugees in Europe alone. The exodus was such

blatant that it shook the entire International Law regime and compelled it to make certain

regulatory measures for prohibition of future displacement. The latter incidents of Palestine in

1948, Uganda in 1972, Afghanistan in 1979, Balkans’ Conflict in 1992, Great Lake Refugee

Crisis in Rwanda in 1994, Sudan’s war in Darfur and deplorable situation of Iraq 2003,

Colombian conflict for decades and one of the main epicentre of the present discussion; the

Syrian crisis.

So it is very clear by now that, there is no one or two rare incident which the world has

evidenced where people have to leave their normal place of stay for an uncertain period due to

7 Mona Chalabi, What happened to history’s refugees?, The Guardian, available at

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/jul/25/what-happened-history-refugees#Edict of

Fontainebleau (accessed 3 January 2016) 8 Ibid 9 Mona Chalabi, supra note 5, para 3 10 Mona Chalabi, supra Note 5, para 5


plethora of reasons, rather it has been a very often incident which has engulfed almost every

corner of the world and has resulted into a considerable deportation of people from one place

to another. Now the concern is that no human society would like to displace themselves without

any plausible reason sufficient enough to disrupt their normal place of dwelling. Thus though

in some cases migration causes due to certain positive reasons, exodus in strict happens only

when there remain certain gross inaccuracy due to which people are forced to expatriate. Hence

it becomes important to highlight the reasons based upon which the exodus generally and

specifically happens around the world.

CHIEF REASONS OF EXODUS

As has been discussed above, human civilization is always in need of a better place to live in.

So in want of that, people have shifted and placed themselves in such places where they could

find better opportunities for various aspects. But that very phenomenon can’t be termed as

exodus in its strict interpretation. That happens only when certain underlying cause(s) make a

stable and well fashioned society into an unsuitable and disrupted community where it becomes

impossible for the human race dwelling over there for ages to continue their lives. There are

multifarious reasons due to which an exodus can take place and those may change their form

and nature with the passage of time. Hence the chief reasons has been bifurcated into two parts;

former part will discuss about the traditional and latter about the modern form of exodus.

TRADITIONAL EXODUS

There are various reasons which existed from the very inception of human civilization due to

which people have to change (or forced to change) their habitual residence. For the sake of

understanding, they have been categorised as traditional exodus. Following are some chief

reasons due to which the world has witnessed mass displacement in multiple times.

ANNEXATION

After the globe has taken the form of a global human society from its unmanned nature, and

some powerful brains have undertaken the task to overpower others; the practice of

‘Annexation’ have taken its initial shape. The term annex etymologically stands as, ‘to take

possession of a land forcefully or without permission’.11 Entire world has to witness the process

11 Meaning in Cambridge Dictionaries, available at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/annex,

accessed on [9 January, 2016]

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/annex


of annexation time and again because of the overpowering nature within human behaviour. The

process not only has brought geographical changes as to the boundaries and the territorial

revision of the states (as interpreted under International Law) but also affected the lives of

innumerable in their regular wellbeing. As the process itself has an element of forceful

possession so it could be well understood, it has never retained a pleasant picture with it. The

after effect has been such vital in some cases that the entire societal structure has been disturbed

in the name of mass displacement. Some of the glaring examples of such exodus are;

In 1772 Belarusian annexation by Russian Empire led a massive disturbance in the

territory of Belarus. After successful annexation, the Empire started the process of

Russification, which has consequentially gave birth to certain internal turbulence and

displacement. From 1794 to World War-I, a string of internal conflicts and external

pressures has been faced by the place. In 1880’s as a result of constant suppression on

the inherent people of the state, a revolutionary organisation Gomon was created by

Belarusian students in Saint Petersburg. But instead of constant effort to save the state

from displacement, around 1906-07, almost 33,000 people of peasant class has

displaced themselves from Belarus and went to the State of Siberia.12

The Soviet Union has forcibly annexed Estonia along with Latvia and Lithuania in

consequence to Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact13 in the summer of 1940. Though the formal

annexation was during that time, the repressive actions of the Union has started years

earlier. In the matter of deportation of Estonian people, it has started not later than 1941.

A decree of either being arrested or be deported to some other land was an option left

to them. According to 13th June order issued from Moscow, approximately 10,000

Estonian were deported. Among them, over 7,000 were women, children and elderly

people. One of the important fact to be noted here is that, in the latter surveys it was

found out that among all deportees almost 25% were minors i.e. below 16 years of age.

The total deportation was such that within one week of 1941 almost 95,000 people were

12 Belarus History, Official Website of Republic of Belarus, available at http://www.belarus.by/en/about-

belarus/history,(accessed 9 January, 2016) 13 On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany concluded a treaty of non-aggression known as the

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact after its signatories, the Soviet Union's People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs

Vyacheslav Molotov and Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany Joachim von Ribbentrop. In the secret protocols

that accompanied the treaty of non-aggression, the two totalitarian powers divided Finland, Estonia, Latvia,

Lithuania, Poland and Romania in violation of international law into respective spheres of influence, which led

to Nazi Germany starting the Second World War on 1 September 1939 with its attack on Poland. Available at

http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/history/soviet-deportations-from-estonia-in-1940s.html, (accessed 9 January,

2016)

http://www.belarus.by/en/about-belarus/history

http://www.belarus.by/en/about-belarus/history


affected from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Bessarabia (Moldova).14 Latter

this Soviet occupation was followed by Nazi Germany in 1941.15

There are many more incidents which could be exemplified to show how the annexations or

invasions around the world had effected the lives of people. Whether it is Iraq invasion in

Kuwait or it is Chinese repeated invasions in Tibet or even the recent seizure and fortification

of China on Spratley Islands and other South China Sea territories;16 all are the enlisted forceful

occupation of one State over the other to usurp power leading to shift of uncountable in pitiful

lives.

WAR

This is one another big reason which has forced mankind to always flee from their habitual

residence in hope of safety and security. Wars are also antique and are almost consequential or

contemporary to the process of annexation. Practice of indulging in wars is rather one of the

measures through which annexations were accomplished in old regimes. Etymologically the

term means, ‘armed fighting between two or more Countries or groups’.17 Under the

International Law domain it means, ‘a state of contention or an armed contest between two or

more States whereby; a situation of hostility is invited among them. In other words, every

connection by Force between two Nations in their external matters under the authority of their

respective governments is termed as War’.18 In present times the term war has been replaced

by the term ‘armed conflict’ to widen its ambit by its broader concept under the International

Law periphery.19As has been mentioned earlier, Wars are one of the gravest reasons to give a

steep rise in the number of mass displacement. From the beginning of the concept of Nation

State, war was present in almost every times. Some examples where war has caused exodus in

old times are elucidated.

14 Soviet Deportations of Estonia in 1940’s, available at; http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/history/soviet-

deportations-from-estonia-in-1940s.html, [accessed 9 January, 2016] 15 Ibid 16 Facts of the world, available at https://www.quora.com, (accessed 9 January 2016) 17 Meaning of war, Cambridge Dictionaries Online, available at http://thelawdictionary.org/war, (accessed 10

January 2016) 18 Definition of War, Black’s Law Dictionary, 2 Edition, available at http://thelawdictionary.org/war, (accessed

on 10th January 2016) 19 Final Report on Meaning of Armed Conflict, International Law Association, The Hague Conference, 2010,

available at; final report.org, (accessed 10 January 2016)

http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/history/soviet-deportations-from-estonia-in-1940s.html

http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/history/soviet-deportations-from-estonia-in-1940s.html

https://www.quora.com/

http://thelawdictionary.org/war

http://thelawdictionary.org/war


The Babylonian captivity is referred to three interrelated human displacement of Jews

by Babylonians in 6th Century BC is one of the most ancient recorded mass

displacement in the history of mankind.20

In approximately 480 BC, the territory of Athens was evacuated as a strategic counter

measure against Persian Army by the Greek officer of State and navy Commander

Themistocles which led to the displacement of about 100,000 inhabitants.21

1237-1293, thousands of people from Eastern Europe were fled from their inherent

paces to other parts of the Globe to get protected from repeated Mongolian attacks.22

There are other many incidence which could be put forward to provide positive back up. The

interesting point is that this traditional cause of exodus is common in almost all the times even

in the present context this cause remains relevant in the matter in mass deportation.

THEOCRACY

This is one other cause which has sometime resulted into mass displacement in some places of

the world in ancient period. There was a time when the form of government based on theocratic

believe was very much prevalent. The literal meaning of theocracy is, ‘a form of government

which is based on religious believers and are ruled by religious leaders’.23 There was a tendency

of these rulers to establish their belief to as much as they can, and with that mind-set, they have

always tried to engulf the other territories and establish their respective religion or religious

belief. In the wake of that target, many of the inherent people were again been banished and

the result was again either death or mass displacement.

During the middle ages, religion was a main source of persecution. Episodes of

religious cleansing tended to target Jews, often the largest minority in European

countries. In Spain, which had a large population of Jews and of Muslims, Jews were

expelled in 1492 and Muslims in 1502 consecutively. Those who remained were forced

to convert to Christianity, though all Muslim converts (called Moriscos) were expelled

in the early 17th century.24

20 Dawson and Sonia Farber, Forcible Displacements Throughout The Ages (Leiden, London, 2012) pg. 19 21 Ibid, pg.29 22 Ibid, pg. 34 23 Meaning of Theocracy, available at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary, (accessed 10 January 2016) 24 Ethnic Cleansing, available at http://www.history.com/topics/ethnic-cleansing, (accessed 10 January 2016)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary


1308, expulsion of Jews and 17th Century expulsion of French protestants by the Edict

of Fontainebleau from France was a result of establishment of religious

predominance.25

ETHNIC CLEANSING

This again is one other reason due to which people across ages have been unwillingly removed

from their habitual place of stay. In the name ethnic cleansing much has happened around the

world resulted in some exemplified mass displacement. Ethnic cleansing has been defined as,

‘an attempt to get rid of members of certain ethnic by other (whom they consider as unwanted)

in order to establish an ethnically homogenous geographical area.’26 Now this homogeneity

can be brought on any consideration, it may be the colour, cast, creed, language, political belief,

culture or even religion. The main target becomes similarity in any one of the elements’ of

human practice. In history, like other above cited reasons, this was also a factor which has took

place as one of the glaring reasons for human displacement.

The Assyrian Empire practiced ethnic cleansing when it forcefully uprooted millions

of people in conquered lands to resettle between 9th Century and 7th Century BC.

Groups such as the Babylonians, Greeks and Romans continued this practice of

cleansing, though not always on such a large scale and often to procure slave labours

from the respective zones.27

In North America, most Native Americans in North America were forced to resettle in

territory allotted to them by the mid of 19th Century when the Homestead Act of 1862

opened up most of the remaining lands to white settlers, those tribes who resisted, such

as the Sioux, Comanche and Arapaho, were brutally crushed.28

Thus from above certain explanations it is clear that, human civilization has faced several

wraths of human displacements in the envelope of plethora of reasons. Some of the causes has

faded away their existence with time but some has remain constant in the present context too.

25 Displacement on religious belief, available at http://graphics.wsj.com/migrant-crisis-a-history-of-

displacement,(accessed 10 January 2016) 26 Supra note. 23 27 supra Note 23 28 Ibid

http://graphics.wsj.com/migrant-crisis-a-history-of-displacement

http://graphics.wsj.com/migrant-crisis-a-history-of-displacement


MODERN EXODUS

This is the latter part of the classification made to understand the nature of mass displacement.

In the latter times, the globe has come up with certain changes. Specially, after the International

legal regime has started taking its vigour, the unbound nature of any or every form of human

displacement has faded away to some extent but yet is present. The process of annexation of

territories are now became an old phenomenon, if any State revise its territory or get divided

into more than one State, that give rises to mass displacements but that could not be covered

under annexation. But except that, the other factors like; war, religionism (though not theocracy

in its strict sense), ethnic cleansing are still existing and give results to many of the episodes of

mass displacements among the present generations. Though as has been said earlier, the

International Law has made some regulatory measures to stop such kind of upheavals very

often, especially in the case of War, but couldn’t resist such situations to happen strictly that

results in armed conflicts devastating the area and human folk under its affect. And such other

factors like; protecting and proliferating ones religious believe, ethnic cleansing are such issues

which can though be actively controlled in the couch of various treaties or protocols, but remain

deep rooted among the societal structure so strongly that they continue to become source of

human displacement very now and then. The biggest examples which has been put forward by

the world in the present context are the two consecutive World Wars (I & II). It has been

observed that, these wars have led to the greatest extent of exodus and other human losses.

There are certain more reasons or factors which has come into prevalence from the gradual

development of mankind. The development of political set up and their gradual sophistication

has now become one of the big reasons to cause human displacement. With the growth of

science and technology which has gifted some unbelievable positivity has also led to the

banishment of millions in some cases. Thus the scientific and technological advancement has

become one of the chief factors which has given a considerable rise in the graph of human

displacement. One other factor which has taken place in the list is the climatic conditions. That

though is beyond the human control, in some cases happens due human intervention and undue

influence on natural processes. There is a list of certain human displacements in medieval and

modern world, whereby a considerable population has to face the aftermath in the name of

displacement. Such displacements were so vivid that they have forced International Law to

rethink and frame some measures to at least address such issues which take birth due the human

displacement like; refugee hood and statelessness.


Time Period

Incident/

Victimised State(s)

Extent of human

displacement

Plausible Causes

1914-1918 World War- I Millions of the

European Civilians

were uprooted

without being the

participant to the

War.29

Overpowering

tendency of States

and armed rebellion.

1939-1945 World War-II About 60 million

people were

displaced.

Annexation.

1950-1953 Korean War Approximately 1 to 5

million people were

displaced.

War

1955-1975 Vietnam War 3 million people have

been estimated to be

displaced.

War

Since 1948 Israel Palestinian

Conflict

Approximately 5.1

million of people are

displaced

Territorial issues

among the States and

ethnic issues

1991-1995 Former Yugoslavian

Conflict

Almost 2.7 million

people were

displaced.

Armed Conflict

Since 1979 Afghan Conflict 2.6 million people are

displaced already

Invasion and

annexation.

1994 Rwanda 3.5 million people are

displaced (includes

internal

displacement)

already

Genocide

29 Peter Gatrell, Europe on the Move: Refugees and World War One, available at http://www.bl.uk/world-war-

one/articles/refugees-europe-on-the-move (accessed 10 January 2016)

http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/refugees-europe-on-the-move

http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/refugees-europe-on-the-move


Since 1991 Somalia 1.1 million are

displaced already

Political upheaval

1955-1972; 2013 Sudan and South

Sudan

660,000 people were

displaced

Civil war and

regional violence

2012 Myanmar 4,79,000 displaced

people

Ethnic cleansing

2013 Central African

Republic

4, 20,000 displaced

people

Armed conflict

2003- present Iraq 4 million displaced

people already

War and internal

conflicts

2011- present Syria

Almost 11.6 million

people are already

displaced (includes

internal

displacement)

Religious friction and

foreign involvement

The above table shows the extent of disruption happened in the European Union and other parts

of the World in modern times and how far people have been displaced due to such reasons. The

next part of the paper will elucidate the major problems faced by European Union due to these

recent displacement and also the other side of the coin will be highlighted i.e.; the condition of

individuals due to such displacements.

RECENT CRISIS AND CRISIS

Above tabulated facts shows how much destructive incidents has been displayed in the world

platform in some recent years which has led to the displacement of above millions of human

individuals. According to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

Global Trend 2014, it has been observed that; ‘that the number of refugees, asylum-seekers,

and internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World War II era,

exceeded 50 million people.’30The agency has got such data with them so it can be assumed

that the number can be more colossal than this which are either not registered or can’t be

30 War’s Human Cost’: World's population of displaced tops 50 million, UN refugee agency reports, available at:

http://www.un.org [accessed 8 January 2016]

http://www.un.org/


counted under any limitation (especially those who were previously stateless). By the end of

2013, it was observed that most of the countries from where most of the people have displaced

are Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Colombia,

Iraq and some more.31 At present, the Syrian crisis has reached to the highest point of traumatic

situation which has shaken the entire International community form its bottom. This has

become one of the gravest displacement in the history of mankind in the post-World War era.

The roots of the Syrian civil war go back years before fighting began in 2011. Since the uprising

has started, it has gone through several dramatic changes, each of which has made the

geopolitics surrounding the conflict more fraught and the lives worse for the Syrian civilians

who suffered the most.32 If the history of Syrian crisis is looked upon, it has started due to

various course of incidents.

After World War-I, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and out of its ruins France took control

roughly in 1920 of a stretch of Ottoman territory on the eastern Mediterranean which latter

came to be known as Syria and Lebanon. This territory was always ethnically and religiously

diverse and that diversity itself become a precursor for the present situation. Alawite Shia

Muslims (one minority group) in particular saw French colonialism as an opportunity. For

being long time persecuted by the much larger population of Sunni Muslims, some Alawites

joined up with French colonial authorities. In particular, they joined the newly constructed

Syrian military; a development the French welcomed as a means of cementing their power. The

French eventually left, but the borders were there. In 1963, the Syrian military took power, and

the government quickly became dominated by Alawites. By 1970, almost all the top power

brokers in Syria were Alawites. This created a dangerously precarious political situation. The

Alawites saw (and continue to see) maintaining a sectarian government as their best hope for

securing themselves from persecution and even massacre. But the Sunni majority was blocked

from meaningful political power and they were angry about it. That year, Hafez al-Assad, an

Alawite made Syrian forces intervene in Lebanon’s civil war. The Muslim Brotherhood and

many other Syrian Sunnis saw this as heresy proof that the Assad regime needed to go. They

launched a low-intensity civil war which went on for six years. To counter them, the Alawite

regime courted allies among privileged Sunnis and the Christian minority. Assad finally ended

the war in a particularly brutal fashion. In 1982, the city of Hama, where the opposition was

strongest, thousands of civilians were slaughtered. But that was the wrong conclusion to take.

31 Ibid 32Zack Beauchamp, Syria’s Civil War: A brief History, available at:

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/14/9319293/syrian-refugees-civil-war (accessed 8 January, 2016)

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/14/9319293/syrian-refugees-civil-war


Hama didn’t solve the real causes of Syria’s strife. The root issues and the competing sides

were almost same in both 1976 and 2011.The lesson of Hama must have been at the front of

the mind of every member of the Assad regime. Meanwhile four protestors were killed in the

city of Deraa. The killing sparked nationwide protests and Deraa crackdown is widely

acknowledged as the beginning of the revolution. These protests initially had no sectarian cast

or agenda, and grew large enough to threaten the very foundations of the Syrian government.

The Assad regime continued to respond the only way it knew; with force and killing more at

subsequent protests. This was part of a deliberate strategy to turn a nonviolent conflict into a

war. And that gruesome strategy is really at the heart of the country’s current problems. Perhaps

inevitably, the Assad regime’s routine pattern of slaughtering the opposition caused protesters

to take up arms. The core of the conflict quickly became the fight between anti-regime rebels

and the Syrian government and remains so today. The Free Syrian Army was the first major

rebel military group to organize. As 2011 dragged on, the protester led revolution was gradually

overtaken by outright fighting. By January 2012, the Syrian uprising had become a civil war.

During the Iraq War, one of the worst of several Sunni extremist groups was al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The group was so awful that many Sunni Iraqis turned against it, helping to largely (though not

completely) defeat the group by 2007 or so. But by 2011, al-Qaeda in Iraq had begun

rebuilding. And it saw the growing conflict in neighbouring Syria as an opportunity to gain

weapons, bases, and recruits. In August 2011, AQI leader sent a top deputy to Syria. His goal

was to set up a new branch of the extremist organization in the country and received success

by establishing Jabhat al-Nusra. Years later, the franchise divided in two after AQI changed its

name to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and asserted total control over Nusra. Some

fighters pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda’s central leadership, while others to ISIS. This was all far

off in mid-2011. But the fact that ISIS had operatives in Iraq as early as August 2011 illustrates

how quickly it recognized that Syria was an opportunity and just how deep its roots in the

country go. As Assad’s crackdown worsened, international condemnation grew. In October

2011, the UN Security Council considered a draft resolution condemning Assad’s crimes

without being called for a referral to the International Criminal Court. Russia and China vetoed

it. When another draft resolution was proposed in February 2012, they vetoed that one too. The

underlying reason is believed to be the bonding of Syrian government with that of Russia. In

March 2011, Syria was still calm. Libya’s uprising looked to be on the verge of terrible

violence, and Western countries sought a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the

NATO to intervene against government forces. When protests spread to Syria, an actual

Russian ally, Putin was determined not to let what had happened in Libya happen again. He


leveraged Russia’s military and diplomatic might to aid Assad in his war against his own people

and vetoed the UN Security Council resolution to condemn Assad. By mid-2012 Assad was in

serious trouble. He had lost effective control over much of the country. Next is the relation

between Syria and Iran. Syria’s alliance with Iran dates back to 1980. It uses Syria to convey

weapons and other goods to its proxies and allies, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon and

Hamas in Gaza. In return, Assad’s regime gets military and political assistance from Tehran. It

is impossible to say whether Iran’s aid was the only thing that saved Assad from defeat back

in 2012 and early 2013. But there is no doubt that Iran’s assistance has been crucial to Assad

and a major reason the conflict has continued for so long. In April 2013, something happened

that proved catastrophic for Syria; ISIS and al-Qaeda started breaking up. This left ISIS to

gradually emerge as an autonomous component within the Syrian conflict. In February 2014,

ISIS was formally exiled from al-Qaeda, making itself and Jabhat al-Nusra into enemies. The

competition between the two groups further radicalized the opposition, as they were now two

powerful jihadist groups in Syria. And it gave ISIS the freedom to fully implement its brutal

ideology. Al-Qaeda and ISIS split was the beginning of a new or even darker period in Syria’s

war. On August 2013, Assad’s forces launched Sarin gas; a horrifying and deadly chemical

weapon into the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, killing somewhat 1,423 civilians. Morally, it

symbolizes the depravity of Assad’s strategy. Politically, it put the international community at

a crossroads. Since early in the uprising, the Obama administration had been calling for the

Assad regime to go, but resisted any major efforts to help the rebels. But it had declared

chemical weapons use to be a ‘red line’, any further action could trigger an American military

response. After Ghouta incident, Obama submitted a plan for punitive airstrikes in Syria to

Congress. Meanwhile, Russia was denying that the Syrian government had launched the attack.

But Syria’s rebels felt betrayed and came to believe that the US would never fulfil its promises

to help them. That is one of several reasons’ why subsequent US efforts to work with rebels

have failed so dramatically. In June 2014, ISIS swept northern Iraq taking the country’s second

most populous city, Mosul. That August it invaded Iraqi Kurdistan which is a close US partner.

This together with the televised execution of two American journalists, prompted Obama to

declare a plan to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS. Obama created a program for training

and equipping friendly rebels but the plan has been totally botched in implementation. Roughly

54 US-trained Syrian rebels have been fielded but about half were quickly killed or captured

by Jabhat al-Nusra. But in early 2015, ISIS lost 9.4 % of its total territory in both countries

while Assad lost 16 % of his land in Syria, a staggering decline in just six months. ISIS’s

defeats in Syria are primarily due to Kurdish advances in the country’s north. For months, ISIS


besieged the Kurdish town of Kobane and was repulsed in February 2015, the group’s first

major defeat in Syria. Assad, meanwhile, has a lost a lot of ground, one key reason is a new

rebel coalition called Jaish al-Fatah, whose name means the Army of Conquest. Jaish al-Fatah,

which includes Jabhat al-Nusra and several other rebels, has proven remarkably effective in

combat with Assad’s forces. The four years of fighting and shifting battle lines have proved

hell for Syria. About 250,000 people have been killed, and roughly 11.6 million people have

been displaced from their homes out of those; 4 million have been forced out of the country

entirely.33

These refugees are largely housed in overcrowded and underfunded camps in neighbouring

countries such as Turkey and Lebanon. With little hope of returning home, many of these

families are still seeking new lives in Europe. The numbers of Syrians heading to Europe have

swelled in the past year and a half. The journey is expensive, uncertain and often fatal, as has

been seen in the tragic case of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian boy whose body was found on a Turkish

beach speaks the horrors they are fleeing with and to their hopes of finding a future for their

children. Again in mid-September, a few dozen Russian military jets showed up at an aging

military base along with a couple hundred troops to guard them. On September 30, 2015;

Russia officially launched airstrikes in Syria, its first overt combat operation in the war. These

strikes are really just an escalation of Russia’s long-running strategy of propping up Assad.

Russia’s act in Syria is definitely a significant development; particularly for the Syrian civilians

trapped in the crossfire.34According to the current facts, there are more than 4.7 million Syrian

who have taken refuge to the neighbouring Countries, approximately one million have applied

for asylum in the hope for their safety in Europe and still more than 13.5 million are still in

need of assistance inside the territory of Syria.35 These ill-fated population are at a high state

33 Fast facts of Syrian Crisis:

13.5 million People in Syria need humanitarian assistance.

4.3 million Syrians are refugees, and 6.6 million are displaced within Syria; half are children.

Most Syrian refugees remain in the Middle East, in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt; slightly

more than 10 percent of the refugees have traveled to Europe.

Children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, exploited, or

left stateless. Millions have been forced to quit school,

Available at http://www.worldvision.org/news-stories-videos/syria-war-refugee-crisis, (accessed 8 January

2016). 34 Ibid 35‘Quik Facts: What you need to know about Syria Crisis’, Mercycorps, February 5, 2016, available at

https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/syria-turkey-iraq-lebanon-jordan/quick-facts-what-you-need-know-

about-syria-crisis, (accessed 1 March 2016)

http://www.worldvision.org/news-stories-videos/syria-war-refugee-crisis

https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/syria-turkey-iraq-lebanon-jordan/quick-facts-what-you-need-know-about-syria-crisis

https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/syria-turkey-iraq-lebanon-jordan/quick-facts-what-you-need-know-about-syria-crisis


of vulnerability, they can be the easy prey of being stateless in future and some may end up

their lives in an uncertain anomaly unknown to any records.

MODERN EXODUS AND STATELESSNESS

The above discussed refugee crisis has given birth to various human rights denial to the affected

individuals; one of the pertinent issues among them is of being in a legal limbo, starving for

national protection in some cases (de facto statelessness) and searching for a nation to recognise

them as their own in other cases (de jure statelessness). According to UNHCR, the children

taking birth from Syrian parents now are in a great threat of being stateless in future. There is

a high probability that, these children might not receive the nationality from their parents if

they are born outside their country of origin or if they are born in such territory where jus soli

is not recognised and nationality is conferred through jus sanguinis only to those child who are

born out of parents having the nationality of that particular concerned state only or if they are

born in such states where nationality is not conferred naturally, there has to be some official

process to be followed.36 The inability to gain any nationality due to these displacements leads

to inability of accessing the very basic human rights required to live properly in a society, living

in a stateless status thus makes one inaccessible to various amenities closely associated with

nationality. Expressing the fear in their research outcome, it has been stated by UN refugee

agency that, ‘approximately, 36, 000 new born Syrian babies in Lebanon are stateless with no

identification documents’.37 The registration data of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Refugees indicates that, as of the end of March 2015, nearly 51,000 Syrian children were

born in Lebanon since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict with the maximum of whom are at a

highest risk of being without any national recognition.38 According to Zahara Albarazi,39 “a lot

of those who are resettled are women whose husbands are either killed or lost during

displacements and were with their new born child or were pregnant while resettling themselves.

These new born innocent population may have to face the problem of getting a national

recognition, as according to Syrian nationality laws a single mother can’t transfer her

36 Born in exile, Syrian children face threat of statelessness, August 2015, available at:

http://www.unhcr.org/54589fb16.html, [accessed 11 January, 2016]. 37UN:36,000 Syrians Born Stateless in Lebanon, Aljazeera, available at;

www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/150506060248502.html (accessed 11th January 2016) 38 Ibid 39 She is a Senior Researcher and Co-founder of Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion at Eindhoven, The

Netherlands.

http://www.unhcr.org/54589fb16.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/150506060248502.html


nationality to her successor”.40 These are the account of only those who are registered with any

protective agency, there are considerable populations who are yet to be registered with any

such agencies are even at more risk because they will not be protected in any manner or studied

unlike others. As has been specifically mentioned by the UN refugee agency that, it doesn’t

keep a track of birth of those who are not registered with it.41 Taking Syria into consideration,

many of the new borns who are striving hard inside their domestic territory itself can also face

the problem of no nationality because as has been earlier mentioned; Syrian nationality law

only allows Syrian fathers to transfer their nationality to their children and not the mothers.

This gender biased rule can be the reason of striking out many from receiving the nationality

of their State. The story almost remain the same when we see the fleeing situation of these

people in Europe. Most of the European states recognise the principle of jus sanguinis instead

of automatically granting jus soli which is why it becomes tough to for the children born out

of displaced parents to get national recognition of the nation they are presently residing.42

According to Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “In the short time

that children get to be children, statelessness can set in stone grave problems that will haunt

them throughout their childhoods and sentence them to a life of discrimination, frustration and

despair”.43 There is already a huge count of stateless population in different parts of the world

who are facing the dismal picture of their anomalous situation so if these erupting nationality

issues of displaced children from Syria are not being resolved, their future will also not be

spared from the discriminatory features lodged with Statelessness. Syrian adults are also not

out of the probable clutch of statelessness. Over the past years of war, many Syrians have lost

their identity documents when their homes were destroyed or when they fled the country. Many

Syrians who have managed to keep identity documents find that they are expiring and can only

be renewed at a Syrian consulate or in Syria itself. In recent developments, the self-proclaimed

Islamic State has made a point to destroy Syrian passports and legal records which will

consequentially make it even more difficult for Syrians to return and take up their citizenship

rights.44Thus it is very much evident that the unending plight of statelessness is getting an

impetus out of this crisis situation. But there hopes that in days to come that considerable action

40 supra note 36 41 supra note 35 42 Louis Osborne and Ruby Russell, “Stateless in Europe: We are no people with no Nation”,

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/27/stateless-in-europe-refugee-crisis-we-are-no-people-with-no-

nation, [accessed 4 March, 2016] 43 ibid 44 Sarnata Reynolds & Tori Duuos, “A Generation of Syrians Born In Exile Risk a Future of Statelessness”,

http://www.statelessness.eu/blog/generation-syrians-born-exile-risk-future-statelessness, [accessed 4 March,

2016]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/27/stateless-in-europe-refugee-crisis-we-are-no-people-with-no-nation

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/27/stateless-in-europe-refugee-crisis-we-are-no-people-with-no-nation

http://www.statelessness.eu/blog/generation-syrians-born-exile-risk-future-statelessness


would lead to diminish the problems happened due to recent days exodus and by which the

growing crisis among human civilization to protect themselves, their basic rights and the right

to have nationality for the future generation and for them will be limitified.

PROTECTING STATELESS POPULATION

Nationality is such a right for which the International norms are already at abundance. There

are notable instruments which declare nationality as a rudimentary right for The International

Law Regime has come up with two parent Conventions for protecting the rights and

ascertaining their status, 1954 Convention Relating to Status of Stateless People and 1961

Convention on Reduction of Statelessness respectively. By the end of 2014, 83 States were

parties to 1954 Convention and 61Staes are parties to the 1961 Convention. It is hence very

much evident that the States are not interested to produce stateless population voluntarily, if it

happens, it is because of involuntary actions either on the part of the State or of the individuals.

Sometime State laws and regulations becomes the reason of being stateless. For example now

in case of children taking birth in Lebanon, have to face certain complexities in getting

nationality rights because the Lebanese government either allows to have automatic nationality

if the parents are Lebanese or has to go through some complex official formalities to fulfil the

criteria of gaining nationality of the State.45 In the same manner there are various disparities in

many of the States in relation to their Nationality or Citizenship laws which may become a

reason to create stateless population. Coming to the possibility of child statelessness in Europe,

in accordance to The Convention on Rights of Child, which has been universally ratified by

Europe Nations, conforms that no child taking birth in the territory should be without

nationality. But the stark reality is that, more than 600,000 children in the region are facing

the problem of ‘no nationality’. In fact it has been claimed by UNHCR that every 10 minutes,

45 The process of how the legal status can be obtained in Lebanon;

Once a child is born in Lebanon, parents must obtain a birth notification document from an authorised

doctor or midwife.

Next, they must obtain a birth certificate from a mukhtar (village leader) near the place of birth and then

register the birth certificate with the Personal Status Department (PSD). This registration involves two

steps:

a) Nofous (local registry office), nearest to the place where the child was born

b) Foreigners’ Register, at the governorate, for finalisation and execution of the process.

All the steps above, except for the finalisation with the Foreigners’ Registry, must be completed within one

year of the birth of the child, supra note 35


a child is born stateless.46 One of the biggest campaign has been set up by the European

Network of Statelessness (ENS), which has been nomenclatured as; ‘#Ibelong’ under which

the European Union has kept a target of eradicating the problem of statelessness within ten

years from 2014, i.e., by 2024. But this is very much understood that one sided effort can never

accomplish any target, hence it has been requested by the States to the population at large to

be aware about getting their child’s birth register as soon as they become parents. Moreover

whenever they switch of to any new place, they should ensure that they will not face any

problem in connection the nationality issues (if they get such chances). This campaign has tried

to recommend various agencies like; the Government, the NGOs, UN and normal subjects of

the States to be aware and careful about their part of job to be executed properly so that all the

corners become sound and careful enough to prohibit of being stateless in any manner.

Considerable efforts are been planned and steps are been taken to resolve the highest peak of

refugee situation and displacements in Syria which can hopefully give an optimistic solutions

to the other issues involved with it.

CONCLUSION

The concept of displacement is not at all new, it is as inevitable as the human nature of finding

a better place to live in. But as has been already discussed not all the displacements are for

good, when a collective mass has to displace themselves or they are forced to displace

themselves for any reason, it does not call a good future for the mankind which has to follow

and face such displacements. The kind of destitution it invites becomes unbearable to go

through. The displacements not only snatches the normal lives of many uncountable but also

sometime becomes a precursor for many basic human rights and even sometimes the nationality

issues are also prejudiced. The issue of statelessness either de facto or de jure becomes so

problematic in some cases, that sometimes it takes generations to solve the null nationality/

ineffective nationality status of them and their families. In the present context, the Syrian crisis

is being suspected as one of such displacements where there is a high possibility that a

generation can evolve as countless individuals of the world who will not be able to attain any

nationality for their own. And owing to present situation it is clearly evident that returning to

their homeland would not be possible in some recent times to come. Hence though many of the

46No Child Should Be Stateless; available at;

http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/ENS_NoChildStateless_final.pdf, [accessed 11

January, 2016]

http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/ENS_NoChildStateless_final.pdf


human rights agencies which are working for the betterment of the mankind like; UNHCR or

ENS or ISI (Institute of Stateless and Inclusion); but still it is the primary duty of every State

to maintain the peace and tranquillity of their territory and should have the tendency to retain

their inherent people not indulging them in useless agony which can be so colossal resulting

into outcomes detrimental for their lives. Moreover if the neighbouring countries are interfering

in the matters of any other country, they should do it only for solving the eruptive attitude of

the State not to aggravate it causing problems to the innocent and making their lives a prey of

many uncalled for atrocities. The situation of null nationality can be thus controlled if in certain

cases the countries take the responsibility of retaining their inherent people and not force them

to be a risk and responsibility of other nations.

modern exodus and birth of new stateless generation...

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