During the past year, the number of political statements asserting that the armed conflict in Syria has ended has increased, calling for Syrian refugees to submit to the “voluntary return” plan proposed by the Lebanese government by the end of 2022. This plan aims for the return of 15,000 refugees per month, with the absence of any official participation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and without any consideration to the United Nations’ or any international organization’s assessment of the reality of the situation in Syria. This political trend was accompanied by policies to pressure Syrian refugees to return to their home country, increasing their legal insecurity in Lebanon. Since April 2023, we have witnessed an escalation of arbitrary security crackdowns and raids on places of residence of Syrian refugees in multiple Lebanese regions, resulting in the arbitrary arrest and forced deportation of many refugees. In its report published on the 19th of May 2023, titled “Lebanon’s Violation of Human Rights Through the Forced Deportation of Refugees”, ACHR asserted that the Lebanese authorities arbitrarily arrested at least 808 refugees, with at least 336 detained refugees being forcibly deported.
In this context, Public Works Studio monitored and documented the systematic official policies, draft laws and inciting statements accompanying the aforementioned security crackdown. The result is a timeline that summarizes a series of notable events that took place during the period of June 2022 to October 2023. The events were thus categorized according to discriminatory practices against Syrian refugees carried out by:
- Government, Ministries or Parliament
- Local Authorities (Municipalities or Governors)
- Security Forces
- Lebanese Civilians
When we placed these events / practices in chronological order alongside the monthly reports of eviction threats received at PW’s Housing Monitor hotline, the significantly increasing number of reports made sense. Since the beginning of February 2023, the number of reports reached 145 calls, to be compared with 30, the typical average number of monthly reports. The numbers then fluctuated and reached a peak of 227 reports in April, and 143 in August.
It was evident that the predominant reason behind this surge in numbers was related to the incitement campaign carried out by official entities against Syrian refugees, which coincided with security raids and forced deportations conducted by security forces across the country. This was in addition to media campaigns that focused on demonizing Syrian refugees in Lebanon and attributing to them the responsibility for the economic collapse and crises affecting various sectors such as electricity, housing, water, waste management, and more.
Lebanese authorities, as part of this systematic and racist campaign, are encroaching upon the rights of Syrian refugees on a daily basis. This is specifically relevant in the Ministry of Interior’s decision dating 2 May 2023 and subsequent letters to various municipalities and other local authorities, which, under the pretext of conducting a census of Syrian refugees on Lebanese Territories, instructed local authorities to actively block Syrian refugees’ access to housing by denying them the permission to rent, unless they undergo a registration process before the municipality within which territorial scope they currently reside. The Ministry decision does not, however, provide any guidelines or guarantees that would ensure that said local authorities refrain from engaging in discriminatory practices, or from implementing measures that would lead to human rights violations, such as the further displacement and eviction of Syrian Refugees.
Additionally, the various municipal and governerate measures taken as a response to the aforementioned ministerial decision implement all sorts of discriminatory practices that actively limit Syrian refugees’ enjoyment of their right to housing, freedom of movement and right to work.
