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It could be one the greatest land grabs this century: A real-estate law with profound implications for millions of Syrian refugees and the countries hosting them.
- Under new law, Syrians have just weeks to register and prove they own their homes before Government sells them off at auction
- Millions who have fled or who are internally displaced by conflict are at a disadvantage
- Syrian journalist says it's a tactic by Bashar al Assad to force countries hosting refugees to make concessions to his government
Under the Syrian Government's new Law Number 10, Syrians now have just weeks to register and prove they own their homes before the Government is able to sell them off at auction.
It is a means of regularising land titles and preparing for redevelopment after a period of hellish turmoil.
But it will especially disadvantage the five-and-a-half million Syrians who have fled their country and the six million who are internally displaced.
"Those who get hit harder are people who oppose the Government, people who formed the core of the uprising against the Syrian regime, and these people have been mostly expelled and today live as refugees and displaced to other parts of the country," says dissident Syrian journalist Jihad Yazigi.
Yazigi, who publishes The Syria Report website focused on economic issues, says like all land-grabs, a group of developers with solid government connections is expected to benefit.
"The people who are going to benefit the most are businessmen, regime cronies, powerful investors very closely tied to the regime," he says.
He argues Law Number 10 is the logical extension of an earlier law, which saw long-term contracts granted for the redevelopment of a suburb in Damascus. Rami Makhlouf, the maternal cousin of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, was one of the developers.
"The only really valuable asset today in Syria is land, and these people want to grab it," Mr Yazigi says.
Apart from the obvious hazards of returning to a land still experiencing conflict on several levels, and the fear many refugees have of dealing with the Syrian state, the law risks dispossessing Syrians whose title was never registered with the Government.
Before the war broke out in 2011, this was not uncommon.
"We used to inherit the land from our grandfather, to our father to us," says Mohammed el Shebli, a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon.
Next to the vegetable fields north of Tripoli, he and his wife have built a rudimentary home, made of concrete bricks and tarpaulins. Neighbours keep an eye on their house back home and report that, while all of its contents have been stolen, the structure is still standing.
"I don't know how we can prove it but when we get back, there are neighbours who can certify that these lands belong to us. Otherwise there are no other options, there is no other evidence," he says.
He is unlikely to get that chance.
"I would be devastated if I lose everything but there would be nothing I could do about it. What can I do? I would try to find a country to emigrate to".
Western nations won't help pay Syria's $200 billion reconstruction bill until there's a change of power in Damascus.
But Mr Yazigi argues the Government has found a way to raise some of the funds by selling off the homes of refugees and, in the process, send a powerful message to the international community.
"Indirectly it's telling the host countries and the international community that the refugees you are hosting, the refugees you are afraid of are not going home, unless you make significant concessions to me," he said.
"That can be either political concessions like recognition of the Syrian regime and restoring ties or providing funding for reconstruction."
In the process, millions of Syrian refugees have been thrown into new uncertainty.
Topics: refugees, immigration, unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, syrian-arab-republic
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