Roumieh Central Prison is the largest Lebanese prison and is located east of the capital, Beirut (Reuters)
Beirut -
The issue of deporting Syrians to their country is at the forefront of the political and legal debate in Lebanon, despite the echoes of the war from the raging southern front between Hezbollah and the Israeli occupation, as the past days recorded events that brought back to the forefront the Syrian refugee crisis, and its political and security approach.
Many people were preoccupied with the news of the attempt of 4 Syrian prisoners - including two brothers - to commit suicide by hanging themselves with blankets inside the largest central prison in Roumieh in Lebanon, in protest against the deportation of a prisoner (the brother of the two brothers) to Syria, by Lebanese General Security, after the expiry of his 10-year sentence on terrorism charges. Years.
On Tuesday, in the presence of ministers and ambassadors of European countries and international organizations, Lebanese General Security announced a road map to “regulate the legal status of displaced Syrians and the mechanism for their return.”
Deportation risks
While the Lebanese and Syrians share the tragedy of overcrowding and poor humanitarian and living conditions in prisons, the conditions of the Syrians, who constitute about a third of the prison population - according to Public Security estimates - appear more difficult as the risks of their deportation increase after the end of their sentence.
These prisoners who attempted suicide were informed that Lebanese General Security deported the brothers' brother to Syria after his sentence expired at the beginning of this March.
With heartbreak and sorrow, the mother of the young Syrian man who was deported - and she refuses to mention his name - narrates what happened immediately after he was released from prison after she had waited for him for years, while she was waiting for two of her sons who were also imprisoned on terrorism charges since 2016.
She expresses her fear for them after they attempted suicide and says, “My children wish to die instead of returning to Syria, despite their disastrous situation in prison after they left military service and fled from Homs to Lebanon in 2014.”
After his release from prison, her son called, excited for a long-term meeting, but he was transferred to General Security to settle his legal papers and stayed for hours, then he was surprised by the decision to deport him to Syria, according to his mother.
Her son informed her that he was going to Homs, and she remained afraid that he would be arrested in Syria. Then he contacted her from Syria and she was reassured, but contact with him was cut off again since last Saturday.
The mother added, "He told me that he was safe and that his phone would be without credit, but my heart was like fire for him after communication with him was lost, which prompted his two brothers to attempt suicide out of anger and fear for him."
Syrian refugees who have surreptitiously entered Lebanon and those against whom judicial rulings have been issued face the risk of deportation, and there are hundreds who have been forcibly deported, according to many cases and testimonies that have been documented in recent years.
He pressed and retreated
Commenting on the case he is following, the Director General of the Cedar Center for Legal Studies, lawyer Muhammad Sablouh, says that this prisoner is one of many whom General Security is deporting without studying the sensitivity of each file, because among those being deported are Syrian dissidents or dissidents. Regime army.
The lawyer points out that Public Security was retreating from carrying out deportations after human rights and media pressure.
Noting that Lebanon has signed the Convention Against Torture, Article 3 of which stipulates that “no country may expel a person or extradite him to another country if there are reasons to believe that he will be subjected to torture.”
He added to Al Jazeera Net that after every Syrian prisoner leaves prison, his file is transferred to Public Security, and he has between 3 weeks and two months remaining, before the Director of Public Security often signs the decision to deport him, except in very rare cases when the Commission informs him that a specific case cannot be deported. Because of the risks you face.
Sablouh believes that the high percentage of Syrian prisoners to more than 27% of the total number of prisoners in Lebanon, and their number is about 1,800 Syrian prisoners, does not justify their deportation upon the end of their sentences, especially after proving the risks they will face if they are deported.
Lisa Abu Khaled, spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera Net that the UNHCR is working with the authorities to ensure that individuals who need international protection are not deported.
It calls - in Lebanon - for people to be given the opportunity to express any concerns they may have regarding returning to their country of origin, and for their situation to be properly assessed.
Return convoy
During the conference launching the Ministry of Interior’s road map “regulating the legal status of displaced Syrians and the mechanism for their return,” at the headquarters of the General Directorate of Public Security, the acting Director of Public Security, Major General Elias Al-Bisari, announced the launch of a return convoy soon towards Syria, without specifying its date and the number of returnees.
Last year, more than once, the government announced a plan for the return of Syrians to their country, which General Security took over, and a few returnee convoy trips were carried out, but it failed because the Syrians did not accept it.
The government is basing its plans on Lebanon not signing the International Asylum Convention in 1951. Therefore, Lebanon grants Syrians the status of “displaced persons” and not “refugees,” which deprives them of their rights such as legal protection from deportation.
Lebanon suffers from conflicting numbers of Syrian refugees.
According to government estimates, there are about one and a half million Syrians in Lebanon, and according to General Security, there are more than two million and 80 thousand Syrians, while there are only about 795 thousand Syrians registered with the Commission.
The number of Syrian prisoners in various Lebanese prisons is about 1,800 (Al Jazeera)
In the latest road map announced by General Security on Tuesday, it talked about 3 categories of Syrian refugees:
Displaced people who fled the Syrian war and entered Lebanese territory legally or surreptitiously through smuggling routes.
Economically displaced people who entered Lebanon for reasons unrelated to the war, and are carrying out work legally or illegally.
Displaced people in transit, who enter Lebanon with the aim of moving to European Union countries through illegal immigration by sea.
Security linked decisions to deport Syrians to determining their legal status, and they are 5 cases as follows:
Those residing legally in accordance with Lebanese laws and regulations, whether before or after the war.
Displaced persons registered with UNHCR between 2011 and 2015 (since this year, UNHCR has stopped officially registering them by decision of the government), and they benefit from international protection until they return to their country.
Those entering secretly after April 24, 2019. This is a category to which the decision of the Supreme Defense Council applies, and they will be returned to their country after informing the Commission.
Displaced persons registered with UNHCR after 2015, and benefit from relief provisions, taking into account exceptional humanitarian cases.
Syrians who entered Lebanon legally and violated the residency and work system.
It was pointed out - during the conference - that between 55 and 60% of the size of the national economy is illegal due to the replacement of legitimate Lebanese institutions by illegal Syrian institutions, which means - according to observers - that the Syrian asylum file will remain vulnerable to explosion in Lebanon, whether internally or internally. In deportations.
Source: Al Jazeera