Lebanese Interior Ministry, General Security Take Steps to Resolve Syrian Refugee Crisis

Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the interior ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP)
Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the interior ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP)
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Lebanese Interior Ministry, General Security Take Steps to Resolve Syrian Refugee Crisis

Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the interior ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP)
Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the interior ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP)

Lebanese officials can no longer afford to lightly deal with the Syrian refugee file, especially amid rising popular and political pressure to deal with the crisis.

The Interior Ministry and General Security announced immediate practical steps to resolve the crisis that started in 2011 with the eruption of the conflict in neighboring Syria.

The refugee file was brought back to the spotlight after a Syrian gang was accused of kidnapping and killing Pascal Sleiman, Jbeil coordinator of the Lebanese Forces. Syrians are also behind a spike in crime in Lebanon.

The situation has prompted some partisan forces in some regions to take action against the refugees, such as expelling them from villages and towns and expelling Syrian students from Lebanese schools.

43% of the population

According to acting General Security chief Elias al-Baysari, some 2.1 million Syrian refugees are in Lebanon or around 43 percent of Lebanon’s population.

In December, the General Security directorate received figures from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) showing that it has registered 1.486 million refugees, without specifying when they were registered or when they entered Lebanon.

Sources from the General Security told Asharq Al-Awsat that the UNHCR was asked to hand in new data related to the date of entry of the refugees, specifically if they had entered after 2015, which was when the Lebanese government had decided that it would no longer register more refugees.

New measures

The sources said the General Security was ready to deport 2,000 to 3,000 unregistered Syrians a day if the political authorities take a decision over the issue.

Measures have been adopted in recent weeks to organize this file and push for the refugees’ return to their homes, they added.

Among these measures are refusal to accept bank statements and draft new lease agreements that are needed to renew residency permits, and shutting stores that are creating unfair competition with Lebanese businesses.

Geagea calls for deporting violators

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Friday that 40 to 45 percent of Syrian refugees are living in Lebanon illegally, warning that the Syrian crisis probably needs another 13 years to be resolved.

Speaking at a press conference, he added that during that time, the number of Syrians in Lebanon could rise to 4 million and equal the number of Lebanese people.

He said the General Security was the main party to blame for the crisis, then the Internal Security Forces and army.

The crisis must be resolved according to the 1962 law that stipulates that people without residency permits must be deported. Such a move is administrative and decided by the General Security, without resorting to the judiciary, he explained.

This also negates the need for a political decision to implement the law, he went on to say.

An official source refuted Geagea’s claims, saying the law on entering and residing in Lebanon does not include the law that he mentioned.

The law also does not cover Lebanese legal texts on the direct deportation of any Arab or foreign national who violates residency regulations in Lebanon, it added.

It explained that the law referred to by Geagea calls for prosecuting the violator and awaiting a legal ruling on their deportation.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the source said the General Security requested information from the UNHCR about who entered Lebanon before or after 2015 to determine who needs protection and who can be returned home.

Interior Ministry

It suggested that lawmakers must propose laws and amend others so that the process of returning the refugees home can be sped up, instead of making security agencies shoulder political responsibilities.

The Interior Ministry had in September issued a number of decrees to regulate the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and tasked municipalities and provinces to tally their numbers in their areas of jurisdiction. It also called for extra scrutiny in observing where they reside and work.

It compiled a report every 15 days with its findings in an attempt to crack down on violations.

Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi recently called on municipal chiefs and governors to strictly implement these regulations.

Security sources said that at the moment, efforts are being made to organize the presence of the refugees and compile a clear database.

Protecting Lebanon and averting strife are the Interior Ministry and security agencies’ top priorities, they told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“We will not allow any fifth column to undermine the security of the country and its citizens,” they vowed.

Syrians poured into Lebanon in 2011 through legal and illegal means, making it hard for authorities to keep track of them and tally their actual numbers.

Lebanon has been in the throes of a severe economic crisis since 2019 that has curtailed the people’s purchasing power and plunged more than half of the population in poverty.

The refugees are now perceived as competing with the Lebanese people for basic and essential goods, such as bread and fuel, as well as job opportunities, creating deep resentment and tensions. The situation came to a head with Sleiman’s killing earlier this month.



Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

A day after declaring their intention to capture large swathes of the crowded enclave, Israeli force pushed into the city on Gaza's southern edge which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war, reported Reuters.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

Rafah "is gone, it is being wiped out," a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, told Reuters via a chat app.

"They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property," said the man who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.

After a strike killed several people in Khan Younis, Adel Abu Fakher was checking the damage to his tent.

"Is anything left for us? There’s nothing left for us. We’re being killed while asleep," he said.

The assault to capture Rafah is a major escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.

GAZANS FEAR PERMANENT DEPOPULATION

Israel has not spelled out its longterm aims for the security zone its troops are now seizing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu said troops were taking an area he called the "Morag Axis", a reference to an abandoned former Israeli settlement once located between Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the adjacent main southern city Khan Younis.

Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.

They fear that Israel's intention is to depopulate those areas indefinitely, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people permanently homeless in one of the poorest and most crowded territories on earth. The security zone includes some of Gaza's last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure.

Since the first phase of the ceasefire expired at the start of March with no agreement to prolong it, Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods reaching Gaza's 2.3 million residents, recreating what international organizations describe as a humanitarian catastrophe after weeks of relative calm.

Israel's stated goal since the start of the war has been the destruction of the Hamas group which ran Gaza for nearly two decades and led the attack on Israeli communities in October 2023 that precipitated the war.

But with no effort made to establish an alternative administration, Hamas-led police returned to the streets during the ceasefire. Fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages which Israel says must be handed over to extend the truce; Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that ends the war.

Israeli leaders say they have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, with hundreds of people demonstrating in north Gaza's Beit Lahiya on Wednesday opposing the war and demanding Hamas quit power. Hamas calls the protesters collaborators and says Israel is behind them.

The war began with a Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 with gunmen killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.

Rafah residents said most of the local population had followed Israel's order to leave, as Israeli strikes toppled buildings there. But a strike on the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most movement between the two cities.

Movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombardment, said residents.

"Others stayed because they don't know where to go, or got fed up of being displaced several times. We are afraid they might be killed or at best detained," said Basem, a resident of Rafah who declined to give a second name.

Markets have emptied and prices for basic necessities have soared under Israel's total blockade of food, medicine and fuel.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but has nominal authority over hospitals in Gaza, said Gaza's entire healthcare system was at risk of collapse.