Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Struggle, Fear, and Hope for Solutions

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Struggle, Fear, and Hope for Solutions

2024-04-18 15:39:14

The paths are narrow for a large number of Syrians who have lived in Lebanon for years and who live under the weight of fear and helplessness in the face of the acts of violence they witness and are sometimes forced to be expelled to Syria , especially following the escalation of violence. once morest them in several regions following the assassination of the head of the Party of Forces, Pascal Suleiman, on April 9, which coincided with a “political atmosphere of pressure” to find definitive solutions to their situation. It also affects attempts to reach Cyprus, which recently stopped considering Syrian asylum applications.

Samir was impatiently awaiting his brother’s call on Wednesday evening. He told her during the last phone call that he was fifteen minutes from the coast of Tripoli, trying to reassure his family regarding him and the other members who were with him, and that he was regarding to return in his country. Lebanon After the Cypriot Coast Guard repatriated them from a journey that began on Monday April 15 aboard a boat carrying 40 migrants and which was part of a convoy of eight boats carrying a large number of migrants, who were trying to leave Lebanon for Cyprus via the Mediterranean Sea.

The young man in his thirties, who has children and has lived in Jounieh since leaving Syria in 2014 because he was wanted there, told InfoMigrants: “People know us here (him and his brother, who has lived in Lebanon since 2006), but life is no longer unbearable. There are those who sympathize with us, but they are few in number. Compared to others, the area was full of checkpoints that stopped Syrians, assaulted them and took their cars or bikes, so we are not anymore. I left the houses. The day Pascal Suleiman was buried, people from the municipality entered my aunt’s house and broke everything, so she had to go to another area. Their acquaintances were waiting to find out what they might do. On the day of the crime (the murder of Pascal Suleiman), my brother went with my sister, her husband and one of our relatives to the neighboring town of Ghadir, and when they arrived there, a group of “security guards” Ghadir,” something resembling security measures, had set up a checkpoint. They hit them. A rib was broken in my sister’s husband’s chest, while our relative’s teeth were knocked out following hitting him in the head.

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Eid al-Fitr is “worse” than before, despite also being harsh

The young man continues regarding the recent wave of violence, which he sees as an extension of the changes initiated previously with regard to Syrians: “During the last Eid al-Fitr, there were raids and deportations of the army. They took 38 people from our region. regarding which we know nothing yet. This Eid al-Fitr is even worse. We now have a story. Pascal Suleiman was killed and we were victims of insults and insults. My mother is crying and my brother is crying. and we do not know what our fate will be here. I am thinking of going to Italy by sea. Beheira says: “If you lose your dignity, how is life possible? And what remains?

Samir says that this situation in Lebanon prompted his brother to take the sea route in exchange for 2,650 dollars (2,485 euros) to reach Cyprus, where he was accompanied by several other members of his family and relatives, but their desire to reach Cyprus was not fulfilled, pointing out that a deportation warrant had been issued in his brother’s name since 2019 and that following hiring a lawyer he learned that it was for security reasons , without giving additional details.

Thursday morning, Samir was reassured regarding his brother’s fate following waiting long hours for news. He learned that he and his family members registered with the United Nations would be released following being detained at a police station in Tripoli, while the family was unregistered. members would be deported to Syria.

Samir’s situation is the same as that of many Syrians currently in Lebanon who are suffering more than before due to the recent campaign of violence. The Center for Access to Human Rights notedLebanese lawyers And others, to the seriousness of this stage and the incitements, pressures, incidents of violence and aggression to which Syrians are exposed during this stage.

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“Every Syrian who flees the regime’s oppression is our brother. » A young Syrian from Idlib mourns his brother in Lebanon, who died of his injuries following being severely beaten.

In one of the most tragic incidents of violence resulting from the new wave of violence and its predecessor, Syrian refugee Ali Abdel Baqi, who had been residing in Lebanon for approximately 12 years with members of his family, was severely beaten. and severe torture inflicted by strangers.

Ali had left Chtaura for Beirut in search of work, according to the testimony of his brother Bassam, who lives in Idlib. Bassam spoke to Muhajirnews regarding the circumstances of his assassination, saying he did not return to Chtaura at all “during the last week of Ramadan” and that he received Ali’s first photo “showing his body full of bruises on December 28.” Ramadan”, which coincides with the day of the attack on the Lebanese official, April 8.

Bassam says: “The photo was sent by the Baabda police station. It was a very difficult time when my family was living in great fear and fear of leaving the house because of the recent situation. So we sent someone ‘one to take him home, but the police station refused to hand him over.

The next day, Bassam tried once more and managed to get his brother out. Ali was in a very bad state. My father took him to the nearest clinic, in Zahle, and they refused to treat him. Nations to take care of him, since they were registered there, so I promised them to come on Monday, but he… He died on Saturday April 13.

Bassam held the United Nations and Lebanese officials responsible for failing to act and helping his brother, and said that through their behavior they “participated in his assassination.” He denounced the police station’s inability to open an investigation to determine who beat his brother and caused his death.

The family was able to deposit Ali’s body at the Zahle morgue, before burying him in the presence of a very small number of people. The coroner declared that the cause of death was due to “bleeding in the chest and a cessation of kidney function following the beating”, according to Bassam, who added, despite his fears for his family, of the consequences of his words to the media. regarding this affair, that “these incidents must be brought to light so that they do not happen once more”. Every Syrian fleeing the regime’s oppression is our brother.

A photo of Ali Abdel Baqi was sent on Thursday April 18 by his brother Bassam, who obtained it at a police station in Lebanon, to the Migrant News team.

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Investigations are still ongoing into the murder of Pascal Suleiman

The Lebanese authorities are continuing their investigations to find out. Motives for the murder The Forces Party official, whose car was stolen in a town in Jbeil district, was later informed that his body had been found in Syria. However, among the accused were three Syrians arrested for car theft. in 2019 and 2023, in addition to the confessions of an accused from the Lebanese village of Hermel. The operation was carried out at the request of the leader of a car theft gang located in Syria.

It is as if a Lebanese had committed a crime, but that does not mean that all Lebanese have committed this crime.

Although the extent of the crime is not known and the investigation continues, Syrians in Lebanon are more than ever its direct victims, due to “the incitement once morest them, whether on the part of “individuals or influential people from certain parties or authorities,” according to Saad Eddin Chatila, executive director of the Cedar Center for Legal Studies, who added: “The commission of crimes by some Syrians should not be generalized to all Syrians . commit a crime, so we criminalize all Lebanese people.

He added that this incitement can affect “one sect more than others because of its fear of other sects or nationalities”, emphasizing the need not to fall into this fear.

Chatila emphasizes that although the incitement is not new and has intensified due to the deterioration of living conditions in Lebanon, the new wave is accompanied by “a general political climate which puts pressure on the Syrians, whether it is Lebanese political leaders who have changed their positions regarding the Syrian presence, or in terms of normalization of relations between the regime and Syria and the Arab countries, and what is happening in Cyprus, which requests European support and coordinates with Lebanon to return Syrians who try to access it by sea, must also be considered as an influencing factor in this regard.”

He also noted that “a distinction must be made between the Syrian resident and the refugee, and that the Syrian resident was previously welcomed, as he provided cheaper labor to Lebanon, but now the situation has changed “.

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Several factors contribute to decision to send Syrians back: UNHCR

As discussions intensify in Lebanon over a plan to return Syrians to Syria due to the new wave of incitement, the spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon said: Dalal-HarbThe Commission supports the right of Syrians to freely return to their country “whenever they wish”, but the decision to return is linked to several factors, namely security, housing and basic services, as well as the guarantee of means subsistence.

Lebanon hosts around 805,000 Syrian refugees registered with the United Nations and a similar number of unregistered refugees, according to an estimate by Lebanese authorities. United Nations agencies, human rights groups and Western governments confirm that Syria is not yet safe.

*Samir is a pseudonym for security reasons


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