Report

Lebanese fear permanent settlement of Syrian refugees

Syrian refugees in a camp in northeastern Lebanon. © JOSEPH EID/AFP

Text by: Paul Khalifeh Follow

5 min

The Lebanese authorities are taking extreme measures to control the Syrian presence. The fear of a permanent settlement of the displaced is growing.

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From our correspondent in Beirut,

Khouloud hugs his father and mother before boarding an old Mercedes packed with mattresses, folding chairs, gas stoves and other makeshift utensils and furniture. The young woman, her two children and two sisters are returning to Syria "definitively". Her husband, brother and parents remain in Lebanon where they are granted refugee status.

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I don't know when I'll see them again, but it's better that they come back. The situation is too tense here," says the husband, following the car that disappears behind a bend.

Three days earlier, at the end of April, all Syrian nationals living in this Christian village on Mount Lebanon were summoned by the municipal council which "reminded" them of the rules of conduct. Among them, a curfew imposed from 20 p.m.

Firas, an official at the municipality, speaks of a "diffuse tension" although no particular incident has occurred recently between village residents and displaced Syrians. "This malaise is fueled by rumours and politicians' speeches," says the young man.

The issue of the Syrian presence in Lebanon, estimated at two million people (including more than 830,000 registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR), or a quarter of the population, has suddenly come to the fore in recent weeks. On Twitter, the hashtag "Syrian refugees" is on the rise.

Exchanges on social networks maintain a climate of psychosis, fueled by the tightening of security measures against displaced Syrians and by incidents that are sometimes true, but sometimes exaggerated or unfounded. A few days ago, a report on the discovery of a cache of weapons in a Syrian camp in the eastern Bekaa Valley was widely commented, although denied by the Lebanese army.

Arrests and deportations

The words of a Swedish citizen of Syrian origin, Kamal Labouani, calling in a video for refugees to confront the Lebanese armed forces with weapons, added fuel to the fire. The Foreign Ministry asked Stockholm for clarification for this incitement "to violence and hatred".

In another sign of rising tensions, the Lebanese army expelled more than 175 people "in an irregular situation" in April, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Amnesty International and other NGOs have denounced the "forced repatriations", claiming that some deported Syrians have been tortured or are missing in Syria.

Syrian children play football near their tents at a refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in July 2022. AP - Bilal Hussein

Calls from the international community for a relaxation of these measures have gone unheeded. On the contrary, Prime Minister Nagib Mikati gave instructions to members of his government on 25 April to implement a stricter policy towards displaced persons.

On Tuesday 2 May, Interior Minister Bassam Maoulaoui asked UNHCR to definitively close the cases of Syrian refugees who voluntarily return to their country, and to refrain from reopening them even if they return to Lebanon again. Forty-thousand Syrians are believed to have crossed into Syria at the end of April to celebrate al-Fitr before returning to Lebanon.

The minister called on the country's eight Mohafazat (governorates) to conduct a systematic census of all displaced Syrians and stop renting real estate or issuing documents to unregistered refugees.

Two days earlier, Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar had warned of "a great explosion between Lebanese and displaced Syrians" if the authorities did not reduce "tensions" on this issue.

Justice Minister Henri Khoury has been tasked with negotiating with Damascus the "immediate" repatriation of Syrian refugees and convicts. According to security sources, 33% of the prison population in Lebanon is made up of Syrians.

► Read also: The Lebanese authorities take a battery of measures against Syrian refugees

Return of internally displaced persons a national priority

Many Lebanese, including religious figures and politicians of all stripes, are convinced that the international community will do nothing to help Lebanon, hit by an unprecedented multifaceted crisis, to repatriate Syrian refugees. "We fear that this supposedly temporary presence will become permanent like that of the Palestinian refugees that Lebanon has been hosting for 75 years," a Christian MP told RFI.

In a casual conversation Tuesday with visitors, including RFI's correspondent, the patriarch of the Maronite Church, Bechara Rai, expressed concern that Christians, who are leaving Lebanon in large numbers, are being "replaced by Syrians." Pro-Syrian MP Jamil Sayyed warns against a "settlement project" for refugees. He denounced "the construction of schools" and other infrastructure specifically dedicated to the displaced thanks to international funding.

The question of the Syrian presence is not new. For years, Lebanon has been organizing "voluntary return" operations without the consent of the international community, which considers repatriations unsafe before a political solution to the Syrian crisis.

It seems, however, that Lebanon has decided to make the issue of the return of displaced persons a national priority for fear of bearing the brunt of the ongoing reconciliations between Syria and Saudi Arabia and between Riyadh and Tehran.

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