2023-05-01 03:35:04
Source: call home
Writer: Raquel Ateeq
Raquel Ateeq wrote in Nidaa Al Watan:
More than a decade following the beginning of the Syrian displacement to Lebanon as a result of the crisis that erupted in Syria in 2011, the Lebanese state does not have complete “data” on the displaced and the reality of displacement on its territory, as there are no official statistics for everything related to the displaced Syrians. The state’s lack of “displacement data” is one of the most important factors of randomness in dealing with this file, and a fundamental loophole in resolving it. The issue of “data” has always been an attraction between the state and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as the state accuses it of not providing it with the “data” it has on the displaced. And in the last two meetings headed by Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, last Wednesday, to discuss the displacement file, it was decided to request the UNHCR, within a maximum period of one week, to provide the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities with all kinds of data for the displaced Syrians, provided that the status of the displaced is lost for every person who leaves the lands. Lebanese.
Despite the absence of a complete and comprehensive official “data” on the file of the Syrian displacement to Lebanon, it is possible to show the extent of the burden of displacement and its serious repercussions from the numbers and statistics of official Lebanese agencies or the reports of specialized private institutions. In addition to the consumption of energy, water and infrastructure, displacement contributed to the depletion of Lebanese financial resources through the policy of subsidizing several commodities and materials that were adopted in Lebanon before the crisis that erupted in late 2019, in addition to the support policy adopted by the Banque du Liban in recent years.
The displaced benefited, like the Lebanese, from subsidized items over the previous years, from bread to medicine and fuel. This is in addition to the fact that the displaced or the Syrians who entered Lebanon illegally do not contribute to the national economy, as they do not pay entry and exit fees to Lebanon or any other kind of fees and taxes, especially income tax. This is in addition to the fact that the “dollars” that the displaced receive from several organizations and associations do not pass through the state’s channels, nor are there statistics on Lebanon’s benefit from them, especially since a number of specialists note that these “dollars” are transferred to the Syrian interior and are not spent in Lebanon.
The number of displaced
In light of the conflicting numbers between the Lebanese side and the UNHCR, especially since the registration of the displaced has stopped since May 2015 at the request of the Lebanese government at the time, the reality of displacement is now determined by numbers, as follows:
– According to the official estimates of the Lebanese government, which is also used as a planning figure for local and international organizations, there are 1.5 million displaced Syrians in Lebanon.
– There are two million and 80 thousand displaced Syrians in Lebanon, according to what the Director General of General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, announced months ago.
– The number of those registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) until the end of last March is 805,326 Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon (187,844 families). Noting that the UNHCR continues to count the numbers of refugees registered before 2015.
The displaced constitute 30 percent of the country’s population, with a density of 650 people per square kilometer. (Lebanon’s speech at the sixth session of the “The Future of Syria and the Region” conference, in the Belgian capital – Brussels, in the year 2022).
The displaced are distributed among 1,000 of the 1,050 Lebanese towns.
– Most of the displaced in Lebanon are from or have been displaced from the Syrian countryside.
Map of the spread of registered displaced persons (until March 31, 2023, according to UNHCR)
Bekaa: 38.8 percent (312,754).
– North Lebanon: 27.9 percent (224,541).
– Beirut: 22.2 percent (178,651).
– Southern Lebanon: 11.1 percent (89,380).
The cost of displacement
The cost of the Syrian displacement to the Lebanese economy amounted to regarding $46.5 billion, according to estimates by the Ministry of Finance for the period between 2011 and 2018, in exchange for international support that did not exceed $8.7 billion.
– According to a study by the World Bank for the period between 2012-2014, there is a direct cost of the Syrian displacement on the Lebanese state of up to one billion dollars per year, and an indirect cost of up to three and a half billion dollars, i.e. 4.5 billion dollars as the total annual cost of the Syrian displacement on the treasury of the Lebanese state. .
economic consequences
Likewise, according to Lebanon’s speech mentioned in the Brussels conference, delivered by the Minister of Social Affairs in the caretaker government, Hector Al-Hajjar, displacement leads to drying up of foreign currency reserves, so that the displaced benefit from state-supported services, for example:
Energy sources such as electricity, fuel and water.
Medical services: hospitalization and medicine.
Foodstuffs: such as bread and others.
The energy consumption of the displaced represents an additional expenditure of the state amounting to $1 billion annually.
– In subsidized bread, it also represents an additional expenditure of an additional three billion dollars.
– The loss of many job opportunities for the Lebanese, as most of the displaced are engaged in competitive and illegal economic activity, without contributing to the payment of taxes.
security consequences
The number of thefts and crimes has increased, according to official statistics:
– 85 percent of crimes are committed by displaced persons.
– 40 percent of those arrested by the various security agencies are Syrians.
– A blatant return to the phenomenon of mafias: drugs, smuggling and human trafficking.
– The difficulty of maintaining social order, and the inability of the security services to control illegal immigration by sea.
– The army arrested, according to “Nidaa Al-Watan” information, 3,440 Syrians in 2022-2023: in 2022: 2,359 arrested. In 2023: 1081 arrested.
– The total number of Syrian detainees from January 2022 to April 2023: 3440.
– Reasons for arrest: crimes: drugs, terrorism, illegal immigration, illegal entry, theft, illegal residence, possession of weapons, people smuggling, goods smuggling, in addition to arresting wanted persons.
– Most of these Syrians were arrested by the army for entering Lebanon surreptitiously, with a total of 1,742 out of 3,440 arrested (1,140 in 2022 and 602 in 2023).
social consequences
– The demographic shift of the population: whenever two children are born, one of whom is Syrian.
– The delinquency of Syrian youth who grow up in poor social, economic and educational conditions.
Illegal child labor as a result of school dropout.
– Increasing cases of early marriage for girls, starting from the age of ten.
Trafficking in children and organs.
– Continuing conflicts between the Lebanese and the displaced.
environmental consequences
Excessive demand on health resources.
– The exacerbation of the solid waste crisis, in light of the high cost of treating it, which amounts to an additional $30 million per year.
– The problem of sewage, where stagnant water ends up polluting groundwater or the Mediterranean Sea.
– The great damage to the infrastructure as a result of the increase in its users.
displaced births
– Until the end of 2022, the births of 196,000 Syrians in Lebanon from displaced families were documented, according to the “Call of the Homeland” information, in addition to unknown births and the births of non-displaced Syrian residents.
The birth registration rate of the displaced did not exceed 17 percent until 2017, and this rate reached 36 percent in late 2022, out of 196,000 births.
– Registering the newborn as a displaced person does not mean acquiring the Syrian identity, which requires administrative procedures and transactions, leading to the official registration in the Foreigners Registry at the Personal Status Directorate of the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, and then conducting transactions with the Syrian side to complete the procedures for granting him a Syrian identity.
– Non-registration of births is considered the most dangerous in the issue of displacement, as any newborn among the displaced who is not registered as Syrian is considered, following a while, to be “unregistered,” which is considered a door to “settlement,” in addition to posing humanitarian risks to him in addition to the demographic risks to the country. In terms of security, the “Maktoum Al-Qidd” is denied the right to return to his country or to be resettled in a third country.
– According to the UNHCR, as confirmed by the “Call of the Homeland” information, that 80 percent of newborn Syrian children have a birth certificate from the mukhtar, and 53 percent of their births have been registered in the civil registry offices.
Non-displaced Syrians
According to reports by security agencies, regarding 37,000 Syrians entered Syria during the Eid al-Fitr period, and then returned to Lebanon following the end of the holidays, thus denying them the status of a displaced person.
Shy voluntary return
– The total number of returnees to Syria since the start of the voluntary return process, according to the General Security, is 540,000 Syrians.
– The number of displaced Syrians returning through the recent safe and voluntary return process organized by the General Directorate of Public Security, according to the “Call of the Homeland” information, reached 701 displaced people.
– While the Directorate continues to register those wishing to return through the regional Public Security centers, until the beginning of last February, only 100 displaced persons were registered.
– On the part of the UNHCR, according to the information of “Nidaa Al-Watan”, it was verified in the year 2023 until the end of last March that 3,261 Syrian refugees returned to Syria. Since 2016, UNHCR has verified nearly 83,500 cases of return from Lebanon to Syria. Noting that the reported figures are only those verified by UNHCR and do not reflect the full number of returnees.
International aid for the displaced
– The UNHCR is currently providing, according to the “Call of the Nation” information, to the most vulnerable refugee families, two million and 500 thousand Lebanese pounds per family.
The World Food Program provides one million and 100 thousand Lebanese pounds per person per family (with a maximum of 5 members per family).
– As a maximum, a family of 5 or more members may receive cash and food assistance worth 8 million Lebanese pounds per month.
– At the present time, cash assistance is provided in Lebanese pounds, not in US dollars as widely reported in the media, and discussions are taking place regarding dollarization in the future, according to the UNHCR.
– Western countries, UNHCR and UNICEF support the education of Syrian students in Lebanese schools.
– The total number of Syrian students registered with UNHCR for the academic year 2020-2021 reached 321,512 students.
– According to statistics, there is a Syrian child out of every three children in Lebanese schools.
The actual and full size of the various cash and in-kind assistance that the displaced receive through international institutions, non-governmental organizations and associations remains unknown or documented.
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