“Syrian Men, Boys Caught In ‘Vicious Cycle’ Of Abuse: UN”, Nalia Radio and Television and Agence France Presse

Beirut, December 8, 2017

Syrian men and boys, in their war-torn country and host communities, have suffered “a vicious cycle” of sexual abuse with more devastating consequences than previously reported, the United Nations said Thursday (December 7).

In its new report, “We Keep it in our Heart,” the U.N.’s refugee agency said it had documented widespread sexual violence against Syrian males, including those seeking refuge in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq (KRI).

“There have been documented reports of how Syrian women and girls have suffered sexual violence and displacement. However, this particular issue is a lesser known element of this grim story — the male survivors, the boy survivors,” said UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic.

“The results are clear. There is a vicious cycle here,” he told AFP.

Based on input from 196 refugees and interviews with 73 humanitarian personnel, the report says sexual abuse has been a “disturbing” feature of Syria’s nearly seven-year conflict.

The discovered that men and boys have suffered sexual gender based violence in Syrian detention centers and checkpoints manned by armed factions, — and in countries hosting them as refugees.

The problem goes well beyond occasional happenings. One focus group of refugee women in Jordan estimated that 30 to 40 per cent of all adult men in their community had experienced sexual violence while in detention in Syria.

“One of my uncles in Syria was arrested. A few months after he was released from detention, he told us — he broke down, crying in front of us — that there was not one spot on his body that had not been abused by an electric drill,” said Ahmed, a Syrian refugee in Jordan.

“After he was released he stopped eating and became alcoholic. He died from kidney failure.”

Forms of sexual violence included electric shocks, cigarette burns to the genitals and anus, castration, and gang rape.

“A man would never speak of this. Why should he? We know that everyone in jail is raped – it is normal,” said a participant from a focus group discussion from Kurdistan, Iraq.

The U.N. study clarified four patterns of sexual violence against males. Men and boys experience conflict-related sexual violence in Syria by various actors in the conflict.

Secondly, refugee men and boys report sexual exploration where they work, often under informal working conditions.

Thirdly, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons are being targeted by armed groups and many others in their daily lives.

Lastly, boys are being exploited sexually by boys and men from their community as well as from the host community. Sometimes the exploitation involves trickery and blackmail.

A teenage girl in KRI, recalled, “There was an adolescent boy who took a 7-year old-boy to buy him chips from the store. But he took him and raped him instead.”

Women in a FGD in KRI were particularly distressed and concerned; with one participant emphasizing that, “rape [of younger boys] is happening on a daily basis.” They described the rape of a 10-year-old boy by a 17-year-old boy from the community, which had occurred two days prior, as well as the recent rape of a six-year-old boy by his adult neighbour.

The director of an agency in KRI explained, ““With men on men, they first rape and then blackmail them. They threaten, ‘I will tell or show this to the community if you tell anyone that we did this together.’ They blackmail them into continued rape.

Health and mental health professionals in the report said the abuse effected entire families and led to “profoundly debilitating and destabilizing psychological consequences.”

Entire families were impacted: community ostracism, the onset of domestic violence, and poverty due to loss of livelihood were reported as direct results from the sexual victimization of a husband, father, or son.

Boy survivors at times quit school, and were — along with men — shunned and shamed, and even threatened with death.

Survivors also were afraid of social stigma if they came forward, and humanitarian service providers were sometimes short-staffed or dismissive of male claims.

A mental health officer from the Kurdistan Region in the study states, “Community stigma is the biggest issue for these men. A man must be strong enough not just to defend his family but also himself. The community will not excuse this from a survivor.”

“He would not be respected as a man by the values we have here. He will be known as weak, incompetent, and inappropriate. They will try to leave the camp, to leave the district, to disappear. But you can’t survive long without community here…It is like a suicide, in this sense.”

LGBTI individuals are particularly at risk. “There’s no one [in the LGBTI refugee community] that didn’t go through sexual violence. It’s something that happens to everyone, to all of us,” said Mazen, a young transgender man cited in the report.

The director of an agency in KRI mentions how this climate of impunity creates opportunities for sexual violence perpetration: “There is the double stigma of being gay and refugee – it’s a motivating factor for the perpetrator. There is no one to protect them, and the perpetrators know this.”

“Victims refrain from approaching services and they blame themselves. This reinforces the myth that this is a rare problem, while this study shows the opposite,” said UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic.

(NRT/AFP)

Nalia Radio and Television (NRT)