Lebanon deports Syrian refugees arbitrarily – HRW
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have summarily deported thousands of Syrians, including unaccompanied children, back to Syria between April and May 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday.
The HRW said, in a detailed report, that Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living in constant fear that they could be picked up and sent back to “nightmarish conditions”, regardless of their refugee status.
Since 2011, Lebanon’s Syrian refugee population has grown to 2 million; the country itself has a population of about 5.6 million.
The HRW called on the Lebanese authorities to enable Syrians to regularize their status in the country, and called on donor governments supporting Lebanon’s military to urge Lebanese authorities to halt such deportations and ensure that provided funds do not contribute to or perpetuate rights violations.
While there are no official public statistics on the number of arrests or deportations, the HRW said, citing a humanitarian source that, since April, there have been over 100 raids, 2,200 arrests, and 1,800 deportations of Syrian refugees. Humanitarian workers said that the 2023 deportation wave is the most severe.
The LAF summary expulsion of Syrian nationals violates Lebanese law, which mandates that deportations must be carried out through a judicial authority or, in special situations, by the General Director of General Security’s decision after evaluating the individual circumstances
“Accounts of torture of returnees and their forced military conscription into a bloody war that has killed and displaced hundreds of thousands show that Syria is not safe for returns,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at the HRW said.
In addition, people who were arrested told the HRW they were subjected to ill-treatment following their arrest, including beatings, threats, degrading treatment, and sexual harassment.