Lebanon has reactivated its Syrian refugee repatriation program on Wednesday, after a break of almost three years due to the pandemic. A first escorted caravan of buses and trucks, with 750 people, reached the Ersal border this morning. On the other side, in the Syrian province of Homs, a checkpoint of ambulances and other means of transport awaited them to return them to their towns and cities, after an absence of almost a decade, in most cases.
The repatriation is not without controversy and some humanitarian organizations denounce coercion in Lebanon and possible retaliation in Syria. The General Security, the responsible Lebanese body, defends its Voluntary and Safe Return Plan and ensures that facilitating it is “a national obligation.” Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that it “neither promotes nor collaborates” with the plan and that it is limited to being present at the border and providing information to those who require it.
In recent months, the Lebanese government has established seventeen centers on its territory to expedite the return to their country of Syrians who wish to do so. Yesterday’s caravan came from three of these centers, one of them in the Bekaa Valley.
First thing in the morning, the atmosphere at customs was not exactly festive, according to the testimony of reporters present. Although, with few exceptions, the weapons have been silenced in Syria, it remains a police state, deprived of the necessary means for its reconstruction. But if the panorama on the other side of the border is not very encouraging, the one that is left behind, in Lebanon, has not stopped deteriorating, for three years.
Between mattresses, generators, water tanks, chickens and even the occasional goat, one of these returnees confesses that “God has made the choice easier.” Another, Jalil al Qadi, father of six children, confesses that he returns to his village -Jarjir, near Damascus- “to be able to send them to school and support them, because here it has become impossible.”
The Lebanese authorities deny that the returnees’ lives are in danger in their country. Syria is interested in his return and is the first to veto those it considers “enemies” of the regime. Thus, of the 2,400 names scheduled for today, only 1,700 obtained the green light from Damascus and, finally, only 750 have been presented. In the coming days, it is expected to add 6,000 more voluntary returns.
It is still a drop in water, in a number of Syrian refugees estimated at at least 825,000. Although the UN stopped registering names, at the request of Beirut, in 2015. For three and a half years, Lebanon has considered Syria a relatively safe country and has deported 6,000 of the Syrians who have crossed illegally since then. Some do it with the sole objective of buying a clandestine ticket to Europe from the Lebanese mafias.
Likewise, the collapse of the Lebanese economy has increased suspicion towards the refugees, who have a minimum covered in UNHCR camps. While the 90% depreciation of the Lebanese pound discourages foreigners.
However, even in the current circumstances, Lebanon, with just 6.6 million inhabitants, can be considered one of the most hospitable countries in the world, since it hosts nearly one and a half million refugees. Proportionally, more than any other country, including 400,000 Palestinians who have it even harder to one day return to their land.
Turkey is watching the Lebanese model carefully, since the 3.5 million Syrian refugees have become the opposition’s electoral pennant. For Alevis, they are Sunnis, for secular Sunnis, Islamists. For both, people willing to work below the meager minimum wage.
Between 2018 and 2019, around 21,000 Syrians returned to their country through this procedure. “These are safe regions free of terrorism,” says the Damascus government, interested in projecting an image of normality and accusing Western organizations of hindering repatriations “for political interests.”
The operation was announced two weeks ago by the president of Lebanon, Michel Aun, who wants to leave something like a legacy before concluding his long political career – his term ends on Monday. Thus, this Thursday, the maritime delimitation agreement with Israel will be signed, which should allow both countries to peacefully exploit their respective gas fields.
