Although Lebanon receives EU support to provide for Syrian refugees, they are increasingly being criminalized and deported. Less than a week after Commission President Von der Leyen’s visit in May, Lebanon issued new residence regulations that effectively block the pathways to legal residence. These new regulations were followed by deportations to Syria, which the EU does not consider safe for return. Instead of making support conditional on respect for the refugees’ human rights, the EU is turning a blind eye.
On 2 May, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced a one billion euro aid package for Lebanon. Since 2019, the small Mediterranean country has found itself in one of the worst economic crises of our time. This means that Lebanon is dependent on international support if it is to provide for all the refugees there. The majority of that support is intended to cater for the basic needs of Syrian refugees and other vulnerable groups in the country, with a quarter of the money going to the Lebanese army and security forces. There are an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees as compared to the 4.5 million Lebanese residents. This makes Lebanon the country with the highest number of refugees per inhabitant.
But Lebanon is not interested in providing basic necessities for Syrian refugees. There is a consensus across different political parties and social groups that Syrians must return to Syria – and sooner rather than later. The Beirut-based human rights organisation "Access Center for Human Rights" documented 763 deportations to Syria in 2023 alone, with a further 433 deported in just the first five months of 2024.
The European Union (EU) has a clear position regarding the Syrian regime: Diplomatic relations with Syria will not be resumed without a genuine political transition in line with United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 2254. In addition, the conditions for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of refugees are still not in place, stated the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borell at the annual donor conference for Syria at the end of May. The UN confirms this assessment: Back in 2018, the UNHCR stipulated criteria that must be met for UN-assisted voluntary return. These are currently not met: Returnees are at risk of serious and systematic human rights violations such as arrest, enforced disappearance and torture.
The EU must now decide whether it wants to stay the course and make its financial support for Syria's neighbouring countries conditional on the respect of human rights and customary international law – such as the principle of non-refoulement. Or whether it will follow the quite arbitrary course of some of its Member States, such as Cyprus, Greece and Italy, and advocate classifying individual Syrian regions as safe, thus forcing refugees to return to Syria against their better judgement. It is likely that the EU will pursue a two-track and contradictory course in the near future, in which it rhetorically sticks to its red lines regarding the Syrian regime while, at the same time, turning a blind eye when Lebanese security forces deport Syrian refugees.
The Lebanese transitional government – the formation of a regular government has been pending since 2022 – is getting down to business in this regard: Less than a week after the Commission President's visit, the Lebanese security authority "General Security" issued new regulations concerning residence permits for Syrians, further barring the pathways to a legal stay. Even before this, 84% of Syrians did not have a valid residence status. The Lebanese government had banned the registration of refugees by the UNHCR in 2015. Syrians have since been denied legal residence by issues such as lack of papers, fear of the Lebanese authorities, high fees, obstacles to entering the labour market and arbitrariness. It can be assumed that the new regulations will mean that the residence permits of the remaining 16% will not be extended.
The previous possibilities of obtaining a residence permit through a rental agreement or a guarantor have been suspended. Syrians are thus being forced into staying illegally. The official statement that the government only deports those who are in the country unlawfully is therefore pure window dressing. Since the new regulations were introduced, raids and mobile checkpoints have been carried out across the country, with businesses run by Syrians also shut down. Many Syrians no longer dare to leave the house and reduce their movements to a minimum. As a result, more rather than fewer Syrians will make the dangerous journey to Europe by sea. At least 50 boats from Lebanon reached Cyprus between January and mid-April, 40 more than in the same period last year.
The new regulations for residence permits send a clear signal to the country's own population. Parts of the Lebanese public saw the European billion as an attempt at bribery to keep Syrians in Lebanon and stop them from travelling on to Europe. However, many in Lebanon oppose this. Xenophobic resentment is widespread and violence against Syrians is becoming increasingly common. Most recently, the murder of politician Pascal Sleiman, allegedly by a Syrian criminal gang, led to violent attacks and threats against Syrians, who were to be subjected to collective punishment. Videos in which men with loudspeakers marched through predominantly Christian neighbourhoods and called on Syrian residents to leave their homes within 48 hours made the rounds on social media. Despite the hateful rhetoric against Syrians and the tense economic situation, only 2% of Syrians planned to return to Syria in 2023. A lot of them have nothing to return to and fear a far more dangerous situation that would put life and limb at risk there.
Interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati also sent a clear message to the EU: He repudiated the notion that he may be corruptible and indicated that the Lebanese side had made it a condition vis-à-vis the EU that the money was not to be used for Syrians in Lebanon but, rather, as an incentive to return. The new regulations and the subsequent forced evictions, arrests and deportations underline this attitude. The distinction is not without reason: The EU has already concluded migration agreements with other Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt, in which European aid payments have been explicitly or implicitly linked to so-called migration management. In Lebanon, von der Leyen is also "counting" on "good cooperation to prevent illegal migration and combat migrant smuggling".
The European Union and its Member States such as Germany have also financially supported the Lebanese army and security authorities, which have been shown to deport Syrians in violation of Lebanon's obligations under the Torture Convention and hand them over at the border to trafficking networks, which bring them back into the country. A lucrative business, also for members of the army, whose salary has shrunk to around 100 US dollars a month since the economic crisis.
The so-called "EU-Lebanon deal" is therefore problematic on several fronts. Von der Leyen's foreign policy manoeuvre contradicts the official European position on Syria by opening the door to the dangerous discourse of imagined "safe areas" in Syria. The actions of individual Member States, such as Cyprus as well as Germany, in supporting the Lebanese army are also problematic in view of the breaches of the law committed by the latter, not to mention the widespread corruption.
An agreement between the EU and Lebanon is not fundamentally wrong. However, the support urgently needed to care for refugees in Lebanon should be conditional on Lebanon's commitment to respect both international law and the human rights of refugees. This includes a ban on deportation and access to legal residence. In return, the EU should better support the Lebanese host community and take in more Syrian refugees through the UNHCR's resettlement programme. This offers the most vulnerable, for whom other migration routes are often closed, the opportunity to be legally flown out to the EU, thus saving them from the dangerous sea route. However, only 2,800 Syrians were admitted to the EU in this way in 2023. Such an agreement would benefit both the Lebanese host community and the Syrian refugees.
This article first appeared in an abridged version at taz.de.
It was first published in German on www.boell.de.
