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IDPs Return to Regime-Controlled Areas in Idlib and Hama

18-06-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

In several public statements Syrian officials have encouraged the return of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) from opposition areas in northwestern Syria to regime-controlled areas in the countryside of Idlib and Hama. However, no Syrian official has mentioned that returnees must undergo security screening by reconciliation committees as a condition for their return. The journey back is costly, and some returnees face arrest and financial extortion.

For example, Abu Burhan has been waiting for three months to obtain a security approval for his request to return to his hometown in the eastern Idlib’s countryside. Displaced since 2020, Abu Burhan and his family reside in a refugee camp in Atma in northern Idlib. His cousin, who lives in regime-controlled areas, convinced him to apply for return through the reconciliation committee. Abu Burhan said that if he receives a security approval, he will return to work on his pistachio farm, which would provide his family with the minimum living costs, as their financial situation has become dire in the Atma camp.

Abu Burhan fears disclosing any information that might identify him, worrying about security persecution if he returns or if his return request is denied. He plans to return alone initially, leaving his family in the camp. Depending on the situation in his village, he will either return to the camp or have his family join him.

Abu Burhan’s cousin informed him that the pistachio trees on his land have yielded a very good crop this year, prompting him to take the risk of returning to harvest this season. He added that his cousin had managed to bribe a member of the committees responsible for designating absentee lands for public auctions for investment by relatives over the past few years. This allowed Abu Burhan’s cousin to harvest the pistachio crop from his land during these years. However, it wasn’t for free. Abu Burhan said his cousin always negotiated a large share of the crop’s price, exploiting his absence. “I have more rights to the harvest than my cousin. Here in the camp, I don’t have the money to buy bread to feed my family,” he said.

A significant number of those returning to regime-controlled areas are motivated by the desire to return to their farmlands, reinvest in them, and benefit from their produce. A better option than staying in the camps and enduring the harsh conditions there. According to a report by the Syria Response Coordinators team on May 31, 91.16 percent of families in northern Syria are living below the poverty line, with 40.9 percent reaching severe food insecurity. These indicators explain why forcibly displaced people in the north are seriously considering returning to regime-controlled areas despite the potential risks.

Those wishing to return to regime-controlled areas must submit a return request to the reconciliation committee, either through relatives or acquaintances or by contacting the committee directly via WhatsApp, according to a correspondent for The Syria Report. There are three regional reconciliation committees: one in Khan Sheikhoun, another in Maarat Al-Numan, and another in Abu Dhuhour. To submit the request, one must send a photo of their ID card, photos of the family record book, and indicate which family members are returning and justify why the others are not. Often, the justification is that they are outside Syria. Afterward, a committee from various security agencies reviews the request. Approval or rejection of requests usually comes within one to three months. Those whose requests are approved are given a written approval that facilitates their passage through regime checkpoints until they reach their destination.

The correspondent noted that older men are often the ones who decide to return, as young men, if they return to regime-controlled areas, must immediately join the military service, which prevents many of them from returning. Additionally, the opposition Syrian National Army (SNA) prohibits the return of young men aged 18-30.

There is no direct route between opposition and regime-controlled areas. The return journey starts from opposition areas in Idlib and rural Aleppo to the Aoun Al-Dadat crossing between Jarablus, controlled by the Turkish-backed SNA, and Manbij, under SDF control. From the Aoun al-Dadat crossing, returnees move to the Al-Tayha crossing between SDF areas in Manbij and regime-controlled areas in Aleppo.

The cost of the return journey from Idlib to Hama via this route exceeds USD 250, not including the bribes imposed by various checkpoints controlled by different factions along the way.

Returnees must register their personal details with the military police of the SNA in the presence of two guarantors who hold ID cards issued by one of the local councils affiliated with the Syrian Interim Government (SIG). These guarantors must attest that the returnee will not join the regime’s military forces and is returning for agricultural purposes.

Returnees can bring whatever luggage and furniture they wish, but they must send a description of their belongings to the reconciliation committee for registration and make them known to regime checkpoints upon their return so that these belongings don’t get confiscated. They must also specify whether they are returning in their own vehicles or rented ones. These vehicles must be registered with the transport directorates in regime-controlled areas.

Approximately 10 days after returning, the returnee will be notified by a representative of the relevant security branch in the area to report to a specific security branch for an investigation. In many cases, returnees have reported harassment and threats at these security branches, aimed at extorting money from them. One returnee to Khan Sheikhoun earlier this year said he was forced to pay about USD 20,000 to branch officers to secure his release. He confirmed that no charges were brought against him, he was not presented to a court, and he was only released after his relatives managed to raise the full amount. This is essentially kidnapping for ransom, according to the correspondent, who noted that this practice is commonly used against returnees whom the security officers know are financially capable.

Syrian Government Auctions Agricultural Land Owned by IDPs

08-08-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

In June and July 2023, the General Secretariat of the Idlib governorate held a second season of public auctions inviting people to invest in agricultural lands left behind by absentees, including those who fled or were forcibly displaced from regime areas. Although most of the Idlib governorate is outside regime control, part of it still is and the governorate’s official administration continues to formally operate.

The auctions included absentee-owned pistachio groves, as the governorate determined in its Announcement No. 456 on May 18, 2023. The General Secretariat opened up the first auction round of the new season on June 4, afterward holding three additional auctions, the last of which was on July 24. These auctions focused on lands that had not yet been invested in previous rounds.

The governorate increased the required financial security deposits to enter the auctions for the current season to SYP 1 million per hectare, up from SYP 700,000 in the previous season last year. Meanwhile, the value of the final security deposits remained the same as the previous season, which is 10 percent of the “referral” value, that is, the final offer price for the land to be invested in. The technical dossier price for each piece of land applied for by an investor also increased to SYP 50,000, up from SYP 35,000 last season. The investor can obtain the technical dossier from the Contracts Department in the General Secretariat of the Governorate.

The General Secretariat set July 16, 2023, as the formal appointment date for investors to receive their pistachio harvest documents. This document allows the investor to harvest the crop, confirms the completion of payment of the due financial instalments, and prevents any harassment by the watchmen and patrols led by the Idlib Police during the harvesting period. The General Secretariat designated July 20 as the formal start date for the season’s harvest. However, given that the last auction was July 24, the General Secretariat is behind schedule on its original appointments.

According to the General Secretariat, this urgency comes from a keen interest in protecting the rights of non-absentee pistachio grove owners who personally invest in their lands. Their groves are often subject to theft by agricultural worker crews employed by absentee land investors. But now with a set date for the season’s harvest, there is no longer any justification for the work crews to be present outside their designated times.

The General Secretariat has sorted absentee land investors into three categories this season:

The first category includes first- and second-degree relatives of the absentee landowner. They are entitled to apply to invest in their relatives’ lands without having to enter the public auctions, according to Council of Ministers Decree No. 12011 from October 2022, so long as they obtain security approval. They must also provide a statement of inheritance, or family statement, or civil registry extract and proof of their kinship with the absentee landowner, as well as pay an investment fee set by the governorate for members of this category. First-degree relatives include parents, spouses and children while second-degree relatives include grandparents, siblings and paternal grandsons.
In the second category are third- and fourth-degree relatives — participation by these individuals is referred to as “actions by mutual consent”. In such cases, those hoping to invest must submit requests to participate in the auction for the land owned by their absentee relatives, as well as enter the regular auction sessions and pay the initial security deposits. The relative/investor in this category has the right to invest in lands at the final auction price, so long as they indicate their desire to invest in the finale of the auction. The investor must provide a document signed by themself and their other relatives proving that they have agreed by mutual consent to invest in this particular piece of their absentee relative’s land.
Finally, the third category includes all investors who are not relatives. However, according to the most recent auction announcement, this category is only for residents of Idlib governorate. The Syria Report’s local correspondent reported that there have been calls from locals to limit auction participants solely to residents of the area whose lands are offered for investment. These residents argue that an investor from the same village as the original absentee landowner would take more care of the land and preserve it better than outsiders would.

The state-run news agency SANA reported that the Minister of Agriculture, Engineer Mohammed Hassan Qatana, recently visited the southern part of the governorate, which is under regime control, where he stated that the government’s goal of investing in these agricultural lands is to ensure their continued production and preservation of their fruit trees. This is especially true for olive and pistachio trees, which require many years to reach the production phase. Mr Qatana did not refer to the revenues that the Idlib governorate generates from organising the investment of the agricultural lands of the absentees, as an objective for the auctions.

The minister added that a committee is working on amendments to the investment guidelines and conditions for first- and second-degree relatives, in a way that “facilitates the investment of these lands and guarantees the rights of their owners”. He affirmed the government’s efforts to restore the production of these lands and return them to their original owners.

Women Prove Most Significant Investors in Hama Absentee-Owned Lands

04-04-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

Between November 2022 and March 2023, the Hama governorate published lists containing the names of investors in vacant arid lands for the 2023-2024 agricultural season. Vacant lands are those owned by absentees forcibly displaced to opposition-controlled areas in northern Syria. These lands include salikh, or arid, lands not planted with trees.

There are two types of investors: those who won in the public auctions to invest in absentee-owned lands, and relatives whose requests to invest in their absent relatives’ lands were approved by the Hama governorate without having to enter the auctions. Separate lists of investors were issued for each type. In both cases, investors must pay an investment fee called ihala. For auction winners, the fee is the final bid price, while for relatives, it is the initial price set by the governorate.

In October 2022, the Council of Ministers issued Decision No. 12011, which gave priority to first-degree relatives in investing in vacant lands offered for agricultural investment, without requiring these relatives to enter future public auctions. The Council of Ministers also required first-degree relatives to declare the properties they wish to invest in 15 days before the public auctions.

However, contrary to what Decision No. 12011 had stipulated, the Hama governorate’s lists included first- but also second-degree relatives. First-degree relatives are a person’s parents, spouses and children, while second-degree relatives include grandparents, siblings and paternal grandchildren.

According to an announcement posted on January 11 to the Hama governorate’s Facebook page, the central committee, which allocates the farmlands for investment, allowed investors to pay the investment fee in two installments: the first in January and the second in June 2023. This central committee is headed by the Hama governor and includes representatives from the Baath Party branch, Hama police leadership, the Agriculture Directorate, the governorate Executive Office and Legal Department and the Hama Farmers Union. There are also spatial technical committees responsible for counting and identifying absentee lands, which branch off from this central committee.

According to a local correspondent for The Syria Report, the Hama governorate’s General Secretariat delivered more than 2,000 investment contracts to investors through a single window in the governorate building. People can invest in more than one piece of land, each of which has a separate investment contract that includes the property number. Under Decision No. 12011, in order to receive the investment contract, the investors must pay the investment fee and financial guarantees, and provide documents that include a pledge to cultivate the land according to the agricultural production plan determined by the Ministry of Agriculture. Finally, they must also obtain a security approval to invest in the land.

Under Decision No. 12011, absentee landowners with vacant land are considered deceased. Relatives investing in the land must present an inheritance inventory document. The document aims to identify the “deceased” person’s heirs and their degree of kinship, as well as each heir’s shares in the inheritance. The inheritance inventory document has no relation to the deceased’s properties and does not include their assets or real estate. In November 2022, the Hama governorate amended the Council of Ministers decision, allowing first- and second-degree relatives to submit a civil registration extract instead of an inheritance inventory when investing in absentee lands.

According to the correspondent, women make up a large portion of the names on the list of relatives investing in the absentee lands. This is due in part to some forcibly displaced male landowners with vacant lands depending on their female first- and second-degree relatives to invest in their vacant properties. Such arrangements are often done by agreement between the parties which also includes sharing the costs and profits. In most cases, this agreement is made to prevent those outside of their family from seizing and extorting absentee lands.

French NGO Funding Reconstruction of Forcibly Displaced Farmers’ Irrigation Canals

10-01-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

After several years of public auction-run investment in farmlands owned by absentees forcibly displaced from Hama governorate, a foreign NGO has rehabilitated a local irrigation canal, contributing to the legally questionable investment in those lands.

In November 2022, Syria’s General Al-Ghab Plain Management and Development Commission announced on its official Facebook page that its Irrigation and Drainage Directorate had finished rehabilitating irrigation canals that went out of service due to what it described as “terrorist acts”. The directorate had also finished improving the functionality and efficiency of other canals for draining springs and rainwater, in order to prevent wintertime flooding on agricultural lands.

The Commission is an administrative and services entity headquartered in Al-Suqaylabiyeh, a city in rural Hama governorate. It is a legal entity with financial and administrative independence, though affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform.

Among the projects being implemented by the Irrigation and Drainage Directorate is maintenance work on Canal C4 in the Qalaat Al-Mudhiq area, in order to drain water from the Bab Al-Taqeh and Qaalat Al-Mudhiq springs and prevent flooding on agricultural lands during winter. The directorate has rehabilitated 3,060 metres of Canal C4, with a total 1,003 cubic metres of concrete work, 1,470 kilograms of ironwork and insulation of 4.1 kilometres of earthen drains. In addition, the directorate has implemented a 60-metre water intake channel on Canal C4 near Al-Shariah Bridge.

According to a local correspondent for The Syria Report, Canal C4 is among the most important water drainage channels in Al-Ghab Plain area, preventing flooding on farmland by draining water from the Jabal Shahshibbo springs in winter. The canal can also be used to irrigate summertime crops to its west, by providing it with water from the Qalaat Al-Mudhiq and Al-Asharneh dams.

The Commission said in a Facebook post that Canal C4 underwent the maintenance work with help from Secours Islamique France (SIF), a French Islamic aid organisation. Founded in 1991, SIF describes itself as a non-governmental organisation for international solidarity with a social and humanitarian focus. It performs humanitarian and development work in France and around the world, and has operated in Syria since 2009. In 2013, SIF signed a memorandum of understanding with the Syrian Ministry of Education to rehabilitate a number of schools and shelter centres in Rural Damascus and Deir-ez-Zor governorates, and is now providing support to a road lighting project in Al-Suqaylabiyeh. SIF has no known activities in opposition-controlled areas in northwestern Syria.

It is worth noting that the Canal C4 maintenance project will contribute to irrigating farming projects in an area where some lands belong to forcibly displaced people who are no longer present. The past few years have seen the Hama governorate auction off those lands, presenting a serious threat to the housing, land and property rights of the original owners. According to the local correspondent, the lands benefitting from the canal located west of Qalaat Al-Mudhiq and extending to the town of Al-Huwwash to the north are owned by farmers who were forcibly displaced from the area and are no longer able to return and cultivate them. The governorate has offered these lands for investment via public auctions in recent years.

The correspondent clarified that another portion of the lands irrigated by the canal in Al-Huwwash and the nearby towns of Al-Hamra and Al-Amaqiyeh also belong to forcibly displaced farmers, though the governorate has not offered them for investment via the auctions. Instead, these lands are controlled by regime army officers who refuse to enter them into the public auctions as they are military zones located opposite rebel-controlled areas in the Al-Ghab Plain. According to our correspondent, those officers have cultivated and harvested the lands in the past several years, to their own benefit. The last agricultural season saw the officers face trouble irrigating lands in Al-Huwwash and Al-Hamra as Canal C4 went out of service. However, after the canal underwent the rehabilitation work, they are now able to take water from it and water the farmland there.

Council of Ministers Seeks to Increase Investment in Absentee Lands

13-12-2022/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

After successful auctions for farmlands belonging to absentees from the forcibly displaced people, the Syrian government is seeking to replicate the process in other areas under its control.

Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers says it is managing and regulating investment contracts for lands cultivated with fruit-bearing trees, especially pistachios and olives. Such decisions often neglect to mention the owners of those lands or describe the owners as “absent” and their properties as “vacant.”

First-degree kinship

In Decision No. 12011, issued in October, the Council of Ministers allowed first-degree relatives of displaced people to invest in their vacant lands should those properties be put up for public auction. These relatives are exempted from participating in the auctions. However, the decision did not specify the areas included in these auctions.

Based on Ministry of Agriculture Resolution No. 291 o 2022, the decision states that first-degree relatives, such as mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, may announce which of their relatives’ properties they wish to invest in 15 days before the start date of the public auction for those properties.

It is unclear why the Council of Ministers limited its decision to first-degree relatives when similar priority was given to first-, second-, and third-degree relatives in auctions in the Hama governorate. Second-degree relatives include grandparents, siblings and grandchildren. Third-degree relatives include aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. In all these cases, relatives only have priority when investing in the lands going up for auction but for not entering the auction itself.

Inheritance inventory

It appears that the Council of Ministers assumed that absentee owners of vacant lands are deceased, meaning that their relative who is investing in the property must conduct an inventory of the inheritance. This document applies to someone whose death has been proven factually or de jure, per Personal Status Law No. 59 of 1953 and its executive instructions. The inheritance inventory aims to determine heirs entitled to the inheritance and their degree of kinship to the deceased person. It also shows the shares given to each heir.

The purpose of this strange request, i.e. conducting an inheritance inventory for someone who isn’t proven dead, is to identify those closest to the absentee landowners. The inheritance inventory document has no relation to a deceased person’s properties and does not include a list of their assets or real estate. Decision No. 12011 also did not specify which kind of inheritance inventory is required in this case: legal or compatible with Islamic law. For example, legal inheritance inventory is used only for Amiri lands owned by the state, where the beneficiary has only the right to dispose of such properties.

Local committees

According to the decision, the Council of Ministers has approved the formation of local committees in all relevant administrative units tasked with ensuring property ownership for people who lost their title deeds. Each committee comprises the administrative unit head, the local party branch leader, the head of the extension unit, the mokhtar, the farmer’s society head and a local community representative over 50 years of age.

The decision also stipulates that the committees are responsible for the results of their work. Their results are limited to real estate investment in the 2022-2023 agricultural season. The decision affirms that these results have no impact on the future ownership of the real estate in question.

These committees are similar in form and mission to the so-called “spatial-technical” committees in Hama and Idlib governorates. These bodies are tasked with determining ownership of agricultural lands and writing inventories of properties belonging to people who have been displaced to opposition-held areas.

However, the newly announced local committees differ because they include a community representative over 50 years of age. According to a local correspondent for The Syria Report, the measure aims to legitimise the committees to a certain degree. The correspondent added that there are some security requirements for appointing this representative. These conditions include that the representative is a permanent resident of regime-held territory and has no oppositional political views.

These strict requirements limit the representative’s knowledge regarding real estate operations during any period of opposition control over a given area or among opposition groups. This includes any purchases, sales, transfer of ownership via inheritance or heir disposing of their ownership of properties.

There are also fears of corruption and favouritism on the part of the local committees, similar to what happened with the spatial-technical committees in Sinjar and Hawa east of Maarat Al-Numan in Idlib governorate during past agricultural seasons. Members of those committees used their influence and relationships with security officials to form private companies to invest in absentee-owned farmlands. They also blocked the granting of priority to relatives of the landowners.

In cases where there is more than one first-degree relative who wishes to invest in a piece of land, they must visit the relevant local committee to register a record of their agreement over who will invest. Then they must register that document with their governorate’s contracts department and obtain approval to begin investing.

Other miscellaneous provisions

Under Decision No. 12011, investors who are relatives of the landowners must return the lands to their owners should they return. They must also cultivate the land per the Ministry of Agriculture’s production plan or face revocation of their property investment rights.

The decision also requires that investors who are relatives obtain security approval issued by whichever security service controls the area. These approvals are based on security reports and intelligence evaluations by local informants, municipality members, and farmers’ societies affiliated with the Farmers’ Union.

So-called “investor-relatives” must also submit a civil extract record for first- and second-degree relatives of the property owners and those who have invested in the land.

If there are no first-degree relatives identified with the landowner or the relatives fail to prove their kinship, the absentee-owned lands are automatically put up for public auction.