Syria is not safe for refugees forcibly deported from Lebanon

Syrian regime soldiers are deployed at more than one checkpoint along the border between Syria and Lebanon (Reuters)

A few hours before the dawn call to prayer, on the tenth of last Ramadan, the Lebanese army raided a residential building inhabited by Syrian refugees in the city of Jounieh, north of Beirut.

This was usual, says the Syrian refugee and resident of the building, Abu Ahmed (a pseudonym), as the Lebanese army often raids places where Syrian refugees gather in search of those who do not have legal papers allowing them to reside in Lebanon.

But this time, the army did not just put them in a prison, but it went beyond that.

“We suddenly found ourselves near the Syrian border after the Lebanese army vehicle crossed the Lebanese border and threw us between the two countries without anyone telling us where we were,” continues the thirty-year-old man, Abu Ahmed, saying that a group of about 30 people - two of whom are between 14 and 16 years old - are all carrying Legal asylum status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon. They were forced to walk to the first Syrian army checkpoint, which arrested them all, to begin their journey through the Syrian security branches, the end of which has not yet reached the end for some of them.

Since last April, the Lebanese authorities have launched a massive security campaign against Syrian refugees, threatening the security and lives of some of them, and exposing them to violations and forced deportation.

In this context, the Access Center for Human Rights documented 1,080 cases of arbitrary arrest carried out by the Lebanese authorities against Syrian refugees last year, of which 763 people were forcibly deported to Syria, where most of them faced arrest, fatal torture, kidnapping, forced conscription, and human trafficking.

Thus, documented cases of arbitrary detention against Syrian refugees in Lebanon increased by 4,220% compared to 2020, as that year witnessed only two cases of deportation, according to data from the Access Center.

In the Access Center report - published at the beginning of this year - testimonies from those deported by the Lebanese authorities to Syria indicated the possibility of coordination between the two countries to receive deported refugees on the Lebanese-Syrian border, between the Lebanese and Syrian armies, and between the Syrian army’s Fourth Division and the smuggling gangs that were returning Syrian refugees to Lebanon in exchange for a sum of money after the Syrian regime released them.

Abu Ahmed says that after two months he spent being subjected to various types of torture moving between several security branches in Damascus after the Fourth Division arrested him, he had to communicate with smuggling gangs to return to Lebanon, for fear that the Syrian regime would arrest him again if he tried to leave legally, and because he was... He must return to his family, which he supports alone.

Displaced or refugee?

The forced deportation practiced by the Lebanese authorities against Syrian refugees is based on a legal cover they invented, which considers them displaced persons without protection and the possibility of a long stay in Lebanon even if they are registered as refugees with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, according to what lawyer Amin Bashir explains.

This is despite the fact that the United Nations defines a displaced person as - unlike a refugee - he did not cross an international border in search of safety, but remained displaced within his homeland and under the protection of his country’s government, even if that government was the reason for his displacement.

A refugee - according to the United Nations - is every person who is outside his country of nationality, due to a well-justified fear of being persecuted, and who cannot, or does not want, due to fear, to seek the protection of his country. Therefore, the country in which he seeks refuge must protect him.

Bashir explains that the Lebanese authorities are using the excuse that they are deporting refugees on the grounds that they entered Lebanon illegally, which strips them of their refugee status, even though some of those deported by the Lebanese authorities were internationally registered as refugees who have the right to remain, and the UNHCR must protect them from forced return to their illegal country. Security.

For his part, Abu Ahmed confirms that he had the papers proving his official registration with the UNHCR in Lebanon when the Lebanese army deported him, and adds that the UNHCR did not provide him with the protection he needed when he contacted it to explain what happened to him.

The United Nations and the UNHCR in Lebanon did not respond to a request for comment or to add information in this regard until the moment the report was published.

Is asylum over?

With the political stalemate that the Syrian issue has been experiencing internationally for years, in addition to Syria regaining its seat in the Arab League last May, and the normalization of some Arab countries with the Syrian regime, the Lebanese government considered - without returning to a UN resolution - that the state of war that The need for Syrians to leave their country has ended, according to Bashir.

In this regard, the director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, Fadl Abdul Ghani, says that governments cannot assess the situation of refugees and determine when they can return to the countries from which they fled, and that this can only be done by human rights or international institutions.

Last February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that many Syrians fleeing the war would be subjected to violations of their rights upon their return to Syria, stressing the need for their return to be voluntary and safe.

The Commission noted that most of the violations facing those returning to Syria - including sexual violence, kidnapping, and arbitrary detention for long periods - are committed by the Syrian regime authorities.

Abdul-Ghani stresses that the asylum status of Syrians fleeing their country still exists, due to the continuation of the reasons that prompted them to seek asylum in the first place, and he adds that the international political stagnation that the Syrian issue is experiencing cannot in any way affect the legality of the asylum status.

Abdul-Ghani also asserts that considering Syria safe and returning refugees to it as a result constitutes a violation of their rights, and also makes them live in a state of constant fear.

The United Nations identifies 22 protection thresholds that must be achieved for the safe return of refugees to their countries, including a significant and permanent reduction in hostilities, the government providing guarantees that returnees will not be subjected to harassment, and ensuring the material, legal, and physical safety of returnees.

The Voices of Displaced Syrians Forum stated in a research conducted in 2022 that more than half of the protection thresholds set by the United Nations are not met in Syria for the return of refugees.

Other obstacles

When Abu Ahmed returned to Lebanon, he decided to renew his Lebanese residency after the UNHCR papers failed to protect him, but his efforts were unsuccessful.

The Lebanese sponsorship system requires hundreds of dollars (millions of Lebanese pounds) between a lawyer and a sponsor to make the status of Syrian refugees legal, according to what Abu Ahmed confirms, adding that his daily work in construction only provides him with a few hundred Lebanese pounds (tens of dollars), enough to pay for his family’s living costs. Just.

Lawyer Bashir confirms that the Lebanese government is obstructing and delaying the issuance of regular papers for the residency of Syrians - such as placing them in the sponsorship system or their residency as traders and investors - even though it has come to believe that Syrians residing in Lebanon need these papers instead of registering with the UNHCR.

He adds that this comes as a result of the work of political parties to justify Lebanon's economic crises with the presence of Syrian refugees, which led to the formation of a public opinion that rejects their presence.

According to government estimates, 1.5 million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon, 90% of whom live in extreme poverty.

While Lebanon is facing the worst social and economic crisis in decades, it hosts the largest number of refugees per capita in the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Back to where?

Abu Ahmed confirms that he wishes he could return to his homeland, but he wonders where he would return to given the poor economic and security conditions witnessed in various Syrian cities.

In this context, researcher and political analyst Sami Aqeel says that it may seem that the war in Syria has lessened its ferocity with the decrease in the frequency of bombing targeting civilians, but that does not make Syria, which is geographically divided between a number of administrations, safe, due to the turmoil of the situation and the absence of decent living conditions in the various regions. .

He stresses that the Lebanese authorities’ violations against Syrian refugees must be brought to international courts to hold them accountable in accordance with international law, after following up on the issue and documenting it locally.

But he confirms that the actual solution to Syrian refugee issues in all countries is the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2254, which calls on all parties in Syria to stop their attacks, leading to holding free and fair elections under the supervision of the United Nations that leads to a political transformation under Syrian leadership.

Therefore, the main obstacle to the return of Syrian refugees is the lack of a political solution to the Syrian issue, according to Aqeel.

Source: Al Jazeera