At first glance, it may seem that official Lebanon is immersed in a series of news and developments related to Israel’s war on it. On the other hand, it seems that all crises and unresolved issues have been neutralized for a moment, in favor of the war situation. But there, under the great concern of the public, the issue of Syrian refugees is still going on, taking the same pace down, whether it is in the official communication or in their situations. Who are undoubtedly left to their tragic fate, and who are left with only a few options, the easiest of which is to keep them in Assad’s prisons or to actively participate in the ongoing massacre his (forced coercion), and the most difficult of these lives at the mercy of the Israeli march in Lebanon, or under the busy skies of northern Syria that rain down on them from time to time on Russian missiles.
Refugee situation under fire
Since the beginning of the war, thousands of Syrian refugee families have been displaced in Lebanon after being forced to flee their homes in the south, the Bekaa, and the southern suburbs of Beirut, while many Syrians live in the streets, public places, and lots of parking in various cities in Lebanon, due to the lack of basic services for them and the difficulty of finding housing in Safe areas, to especially as a result of how the Lebanese authorities treated them as a secondary problem to the situation of the displaced people. Lebanon.
The spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Dalal Harb, said in an interview with Al-Modon, “Since October 2023, the Commission has identified more than 45,000 displaced refugees, giving in 34,000 since September 23 last year. estimated that at least around 340,000 Syrian refugees lived in the areas most affected by the hostilities. these are immediate needs – as well as health care, financial support, protective services, including child protection, gender-based violence (GBV) services, and psychosocial support.”
While UNHCR is working, with its humanitarian partners and the Lebanese authorities, to quickly find safe shelters for those who are homeless – noting that refugees suffer from difficulty finding shelter either because of high prices or refusal to get shelters, Harb does. Do not deny that “members of the UNHCR team – most of them Lebanese who have been displaced or are personally affected by the attack – live in situation and continue to provide support, doing their best to help people in need. ” Underscoring that “humanitarian needs are increasing rapidly – and we urgently need funding to respond adequately as we prepare for this worst-case scenario since September 23, we have greatly increased our humanitarian response, but our current resources are not enough. The Interagency Flash Appeal for Lebanon aims to raise $425.7 million to provide life-saving assistance to more than one million people estimated at $111 million.
From displacement to asylum
In mid-October, the number of Syrian refugees who had to flee from Lebanon to Syria reached about 254,000 people, according to the latest count by the Executive Office of the “Assad regime” in the Governorate of Damascus. From going to movement, this is how Israel’s war on Lebanon reversed the nature that had influenced the nature of the movement between Lebanon and Syria over the previous years, considering being one -directive (meaning that only Syrians sought refuge in Lebanon). When the movement of both sides happened, this nature and the political statements that accompanied it began to go back. This return, which many describe as “repatriation,” is not a voluntary choice, but a necessity, as these refugees have a more dangerous situation in Syria.
Arrest and recruitment
Since the end of September last year, the Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented cases of the arrest and disappearance of at least 17 people who returned from Lebanon since the end of September last year, including 5 cases in Idlib and 4 in Suwayda. According to the network’s report, returnees are subject to arrest at temporary checkpoints set up on the return routes to Syria or after being called to shelter centers under the procedure of “being management of their situation.” One example of this is the arrest of the young man, Shadi Al-Shartah, on October 7, at the Dabousieh border crossing in Homs Governorate, after his return from Lebanon. The to take a young man to an unknown destination, and he was not allowed to communicate with his family or lawyer. According to a report issued by the “Jusoor” Research Center, it is security persecution and forced coercion is the biggest fear for men returning to Syria, while they are forced to send their families to Syria and stay in Lebanon to face their fate under Israeli fire.
Despite the issuance of a general executive order of presidential amnesty last September that includes those who escaped from the military service before September 22, 2024, he does not trust the majority of Syrian youth in Lebanon, who have avoided military service, according to human rights reports, in implementing this. order, which states that they will be given a period of 4 months to settle the situation.
According to what human rights observers point out, the risks of refugees returning to controlled areas in Syria – from a political point of view – are manifested in two main trends: The first is the fear that worries Syrians, especially men, to return to the country due to government security persecution and blackmail to settle the conditions related to forced coercion. The second movement lies in the harm done to Syrians as a result of how the regime took advantage of the situation of displacement to present itself as a supporter of refugees, with the aim of benefiting from the support between -national that was sent to them. The United States announced that approximately $160 million has been allocated to support internally displaced persons in Lebanon and those returning to Syria, in an attempt by the regime to benefit from the aid. this to raise the profile and push towards international rehabilitation.
Just like Lebanon is in northern Syria
As for the refugees who have been forced to return to Syria, especially to the north of Syria, they face the possibility of daily bombardment, as barely a day passes without deaths or injuries as a result of airstrikes launched by Russian forces in opposition-controlled areas. For example, 10 Syrians were killed and at least 30 others were wounded in a Russian attack targeting a furniture manufacturing workshop near the city of Idlib last week. This bombing is not an exception, but it comes as part of an ongoing campaign for military escalation in northern Syria, where airstrikes and artillery shelling are concentrated in areas controlled by opposition groups. The Civil Defense warns that the military escalation in north-west Syria presents a new humanitarian disaster, calling on the international community, the United Nations and all human rights organizations to stand up “firmly” alongside civilians and humanitarian workers.
The war in Lebanon and the bombing in Syria left Syrian refugees stuck between two dangers from which they could not escape. Some refugees who decide to stay in Lebanon live in poor conditions, lacking food security and basic services. According to reports from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, around 80 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon suffer from food insecurity and 30 percent of them are at risk of displacement.
In fact, this difficult situation only shows how the international regional and international conflict and how the suffering of Syrian refugees is getting worse. Between Lebanon, which is no longer a safe haven, and Syria, which is still a scene of armed conflict, these refugees find themselves in a dilemma from which it is difficult to escape. On the other hand, the situation of movement again between Syria and Lebanon shows the crisis of the relationship between the two countries. The movement is no longer limited to Syrians, but the Lebanese themselves have begun to deal with a situation similar to what the Syrians suffered years ago. These new dynamics revealed the fragility of the borders between the two countries, and the fragility of the stability of security upon which all local and international political narratives depended.
2024-10-24 06:37:00
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