Jordan/Syria: Ability of the Muslim Brotherhood to obtain passports for its members and friends

Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2000 states that:

An undetermined number of Syrians who fled the country during the harsh repression of the 1980s [of the Muslim Brotherhood movement] continued to live abroad as political exiles under difficult circumstances. These men and women no longer had valid Syrian passports, placing them at risk of arrest or deportation. Exiles, and their wives and children, could not obtain passports at Syrian embassies if their names were recorded on black lists in Damascus. Entire families thus were left without documentation of Syrian nationality when their passports expired. Exiles also reported to Human Rights Watch that the names of children born to Syrian political exiles abroad could not be entered in Syria's civil status register, making it impossible for them to obtain passports and in effect depriving them of legal recognition of their Syrian nationality. The daughter of one exile, who left Syria with her mother and siblings when she was ten years old, said that her applications for a passport were repeatedly denied. Without a passport, she was unable to return to Syria to pursue advanced university studies and marry her Syrian fiancé. In another case, an exile reported that his son, who earned a medical degree in Jordan but lacked a passport, could not travel outside of Jordan for specialized medical studies. At a meeting in 1999 with nine Syrian women who were the wives or widows of political exiles, Human Rights Watch counted among them seventy-seven children without Syrian passports who were effectively stateless. The twenty-six-year-old daughter of one of the women said: "My father is dead. What is my crime? I have a right to my Syrian nationality and I want to go back to my country."

No information on the ability of the Muslim Brotherhood to obtain passports for its members and friends in Jordan nor further information on its ability to obtain passports for members and friends in Syria could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

However, a 25 February - 3 March 1999 report in the Cairo-based Al-Ahram states that the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordania is the main opposition group and is not perceived as a threat by the Jordanian authorities, but rather as part of the Jordanian political order.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Al-Ahram [Cairo]. 25 February - 3 March 1999. Khaled Dawoud. "His Majesty's Loyal Opposition." [Accessed 30 Oct. 2000]

Human Rights Watch (HRW). 1999. The Human Rights Watch World Report 2000. [Accessed 30 October 2000]

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB databases

LEXIS/NEXIS

Internet sources including:

The Star [Amman]

The Jordan Times

World News Connection (WNC)