Amnesty International urges the Lebanese authorities to stop deporting the Syrian refugees

Lebanon – North-Press Agency

In a statement published on Tuesday, Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director Lynn Maalouf said: “We urge the Lebanese authorities to stop these deportations as a matter of urgency”.

This response came after receiving the organization an official letter stating that the Lebanese authorities had forcibly deported about 2,500 Syrian refugees to Syria over the past three months.

“As long as the independent monitoring bodies are not allowed to access into Syria, including the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, to assess the security situation for the safe return of refugees, there is no way to determine whether returnees would be at a real risk or at serious human rights violations,” Maalouf said.

she added: “Any attempts to forcibly send the refugees before securing the monitoring mechanism is a clear violation of Lebanon’s non-refoulment obligations”.

On May 13, the Lebanese General Security began implementing the decision of the Supreme Council of Defense to deport Syrian refugees who had “illegally” entered Lebanon between April 24, 2019, and August 9, 2019.

According to the Lebanese General Security and the Minister of Presidential Affairs statements sent in official correspondence to the Amnesty International, about 2,447 Syrian refugees have been deported to Syria.