Lebanon Seeks to Deport Half of Syrian Refugees to their Homeland

In this Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
In this Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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Lebanon Seeks to Deport Half of Syrian Refugees to their Homeland

In this Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
In this Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanon’s General Security Directorate decided to prepare its own detailed information about the Syrian refugees residing in Lebanon after complaints that the UNHCR has disregarded demands to submit the data about the displaced to Lebanese authorities.
The General Security wants all Syrian refugees living on Lebanese soil to submit their documents at specific centers of the Directorate detailing their entry and current status.
Sources at the Directorate told Asharq Al-Awsat that the UNHCR "was given enough time" to expand Lebanon’s access to more information about Syrian refugees, noting that the UN agency has failed to cooperate.
“We have decided to gather the information ourselves”, said the sources on condition of anonymity. Syrian refugees are expected to present their documents at specified centers of the directorate expanding over various Lebanese regions, they said.
“All this data will be put together at a center in the Damour area. Syrian refugees entering Lebanon before 2015 and those who do not possess work permits or legal residency documents will be deported”, added the sources.
They said more than half the Syrian refugees could be deported after these measures are put in place.
In December, the General Security received, after months of delay, data from the UNHCR listing the names of 486 thousand refugees without detailing their entry dates or registration info. Lebanon requested the agency to provide detailed lists in order to determine their legal status.
About the UNHCR’s rejection to present Lebanese authorities with the required data, the UN agency’s spokeswoman Lisa Abou Khaled, said that discussions are underway regarding the matter, affirming that a meeting has indeed been held with the General Security to discuss the Lebanese government’s request about refugees.
“The UNHCR is here to support Lebanon, while simultaneously meeting its international obligations in the field of data protection and international refugee law,” she told the daily.
She explained that processing personal data is an integral part of the UNHCR’s mission of providing international protection and humanitarian assistance to forcibly displaced persons.
Since 2011, Syrian refugees have randomly flocked into Lebanon through legal and other illegal crossings making it extremely difficult for authorities to have realistic data about their presence.
Lebanon, which has been mired in a crushing economic crisis since late 2019, says it hosts around two million Syrians, the world's highest number of refugees per capita, with almost 785,000 registered with the United Nations.



Israel’s Spy Chief Gives Details about Exploding Pager Operation against Hezbollah

A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images)
A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Israel’s Spy Chief Gives Details about Exploding Pager Operation against Hezbollah

A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images)
A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images)

The head of Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence agency on Tuesday called the exploding pagers and walkie talkies operation against Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria a “turning point of the war,” which gave Israel momentum to deal a heavy blow to Hezbollah.

The devices used by hundreds of Hezbollah members exploded almost simultaneously in two waves on Sept. 17 and 18. The attack killed at least 12 people — including two young children — and wounded thousands more.

Mossad chief David Barnea spoke while accepting an award for the operation from a Tel Aviv think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies.

Barnea said the first 500 pagers outfitted with explosives arrived in Lebanon just a few weeks before the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, but that officials involved in the operation decided to wait to detonate them until more pagers had arrived and were in use.

He said the operation involving the walkie talkies with explosives started more than a decade ago, while the pager operation began in 2022.