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Lebanon Planning to Return Syrian Refugees Home without Int’l Guarantees

A view shows an informal camp for Syrian refugees in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley June 28, 2022. (Reuters)
A view shows an informal camp for Syrian refugees in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley June 28, 2022. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Planning to Return Syrian Refugees Home without Int’l Guarantees

A view shows an informal camp for Syrian refugees in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley June 28, 2022. (Reuters)
A view shows an informal camp for Syrian refugees in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley June 28, 2022. (Reuters)

Lebanon is again trying to return Syrian refugees on its territories back to their war-torn country.

Caretaker Minister of the Displaced Issam Sharafeddine revealed that intense talks are underway with Syria to ensure the “safe and dignified” return of refugees to their home.

The plan enjoys the support of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and his political team, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Christian leaders, including head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea.

The plan however, lacks international guarantees that would ensure that the Syrians are protected and enjoy social support once they go back home.

Sharafeddine has discussed the return of refugees with Aoun.

The Syrian state, he revealed, has been receptive of the Lebanese efforts and is ready to provide shelter and the necessary infrastructure and make sure the refugees return to their villages and towns.

Should the plan go ahead, the minister is hoping that some 15,000 refugees would leave Lebanon each month.

The plan is in line with a legal study carried out by Dr. Paul Morcos, president of the JUSTICIA legal firm. The study is based on Lebanese laws and an understanding signed between Lebanon and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It also adheres to international treaties signed by Lebanon.

Sharafeddine said international organizations were still reviewing the refugee plan.

He revealed that he had discussed it with UNHCR representative in Lebanon, Ayaki Ito.

“We agreed on some points, while others require more revision,” said the minister.

The representative expressed concern over the fate of opponents of the Syrian regime. The minister suggested that the opponents would sign a declaration that they would not discuss military affairs in Syria or the Commission could deport them to another country.

Morcos told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Lebanese people are unanimous in supporting the return of Syrian refugees to their homes.

Lebanon cannot support the burden of the 1.8 million Syrians it is harboring, he added.

He cited a UNHCR memo that says countries have the legal right to expel people it believes no longer need international protection and that their countries of origin have a duty in repatriating them.

Their return must be humane and dignified and their rights must be fully respected, he added.

Morcos said the Lebanese plan takes into account refugee concerns that they may be forcefully returned home. He added that his study legally obligates Lebanese authorities to grant any refugee enough time to object against their deportation and provide the justifications for it.

Former Minister of the Displaced Maeen al-Merehbi criticized the new deportation plan, saying it was “doomed to fail.”

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he noted that Syrians from the Homs countryside, al-Qusayr, al-Qalamoun and other areas bordering Lebanon are barred from returning home.

Refugees from those regions are under constant pressure to sell their properties as part of the forced displacement and demographic change in those areas.

“The best way to facilitate the return of Syrians to their country starts with putting an end to oppression practiced by Bashar Assad’s gangs against the returning refugees,” he stressed.

He cited how returning refugees are often victims of abduction, terrorized, killed and those eligible, are forced to enlist in the military.

The return of refugees is constantly tied to a political solution in Syria that is beyond reach.

Merehbi recalled a past Russian initiative to return the displaced, which he said turned out to be a “media ploy to garner Arab and international support to rebuild Syria, when in fact the Russians were the real partners in the displacement of the Syrian people.”

He criticized caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati for joining the plan to return the refugees home, saying he is “handing over the victims to the butcher and will be responsible for the lives that will be lost once they go back.”

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Arab World

Sudan Civil War Overwhelms Border Town in Neighbor Chad as Refugees Find Little Help

A Sudanese army soldier walks toward a truck-mounted gun left behind by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Salha, south of Omdurman, a day after recapturing it from the RSF, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
A Sudanese army soldier walks toward a truck-mounted gun left behind by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Salha, south of Omdurman, a day after recapturing it from the RSF, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
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Sudan Civil War Overwhelms Border Town in Neighbor Chad as Refugees Find Little Help

A Sudanese army soldier walks toward a truck-mounted gun left behind by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Salha, south of Omdurman, a day after recapturing it from the RSF, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
A Sudanese army soldier walks toward a truck-mounted gun left behind by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Salha, south of Omdurman, a day after recapturing it from the RSF, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)

Fatima Omas Abdullah wakes up every morning with aches and pains from sleeping on bare ground for almost two years. She did not expect Sudan's civil war to displace her for so long into neighboring Chad.

“There is nothing here,” she said, crying and shaking the straw door of her makeshift home. Since April 2023, she has been in the Adre transit camp a few hundred meters from the Sudanese border, along with almost a quarter-million others fleeing the fighting, The Associated Press said.

Now the US- backed aid system that kept hundreds of thousands like Abdullah alive on the edge of one of the world’s most devastating wars is fraying. Under the Trump administration, key foreign aid has been slashed and funding withdrawn from United Nations programs that feed, treat and shelter refugees.

In 2024, the US contributed $39.3 million to the emergency response in Chad. So far this year, it has contributed about $6.8 million, the UN says. Overall, only 13% of the requested money to support refugees in Chad this year has come in from all donors, according to UN data.

In Adre, humanitarian services were already limited as refugees are meant to move to more established camps deeper inside Chad.

Many Sudanese, however, choose to stay. Some are heartened by the military’s recent successes against rival paramilitary forces in the capital, Khartoum. They have swelled the population of this remote, arid community that was never meant to hold so many. Prices have shot up. Competition over water is growing.

Adre isn’t alone. As the fighting inside Sudan’s remote Darfur region shifts, the stream of refugees has created a new, more isolated transit camp called Tine. Since late April, 46,000 people have arrived.

With the aid cuts, there is even less to offer them there.

235,000 Sudanese in a border town Adre has become a fragile frontline for an estimated 235,000 Sudanese. They are among the 1.2 million who have fled into eastern Chad.

Before the civil war, Adre was a town of about 40,000. As Sudanese began to arrive, sympathetic residents with longtime cross-border ties offered them land.

Now there is a sea of markets and shelters, along with signs of Sudanese intending to stay. Some refugees are constructing multi-story buildings.

Sudanese-run businesses form one of Adre’s largest markets. Locals and refugees barter in Sudanese pounds for everything from produce to watches.

“There is respect between the communities,” said resident Asadiq Hamid Abdullah, who runs a donkey cart. “But everyone is complaining that the food is more expensive.”

Chad is one of the world’s poorest countries, with almost 50% of the population living below the poverty line.

Locals say the price of water has quadrupled since the start of Sudan’s civil war as demand rises. Sudanese women told The Associated Press that fights had broken out at the few water pumps for them, installed by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

Even food aid could run out shortly. The UN World Food Program says funding to support Sudanese refugees in Adre is guaranteed only until July, as the US aid cuts force a 30% reduction in staff worldwide. The UN refugee agency has seen 30% of its funding cut for this area, eastern Chad.

Samia Ahmed, who cradled her 3-year-old and was pregnant with her second child, said she has found work cleaning and doing laundry because the WFP rations don’t last the month.

“I see a gloomy future,” she said.

Sudanese try to fill aid gaps Sudanese are trying to fill gaps in aid, running private schools and their own humanitarian area with a health clinic and women’s center.

Local and UN authorities, however, are increasing the pressure on them to leave Adre. There are too many people here, they say.

“A vast city,” said Hamit Hadjer Abdullai with Chad’s National Commission for the Reception and Reintegration of Refugees.

He said crime was increasing. Police warn of the Colombians, a Sudanese gang. Locals said it operates with impunity, though Abdullai claimed that seven leaders have been jailed.

“People must move,” said Benoit Kayembe Mukendi, the UN refugee agency’s local representative. “For security reasons and for their protection.”

As the Chadian population begins to demand their land back, Mukendi warned of a bigger security issue ahead.

But most Sudanese won’t go. The AP spoke to dozens who said they had been relocated to camps and returned to Adre to be closer to their homeland and the transit camp's economic opportunities.

There are risks. Zohal Abdullah Hamad was relocated but returned to run a coffee stand. One day, a nearby argument escalated and gunfire broke out. Hamad was shot in the gut.

“I became cold. I was immobile,” she said, crying as she recalled the pain. She said she has closed her business.

The latest Sudanese arrivals to Adre have no chance to establish themselves. On the order of local authorities, they are moved immediately to other camps. The UN said it is transporting 2,000 of them a day.

In Tine, arriving Sudanese find nothing The new and rapidly growing camp of Tine, around 180 kilometers (111 miles) north of Adre, has seen 46,000 refugees arrive since late April from Northern Darfur.

Their sheer numbers caused a UN refugee representative to gasp.

Thousands jostle for meager portions of food distributed by community kitchens. They sleep on the ground in the open desert, shaded by branches and strips of fabric. They bring witness accounts of attacks in Zamzam and El-Fasher: rape, robbery, relatives shot before their eyes.

With the US aid cuts, the UN and partners cannot respond as before, when people began to pour into Adre after the start of the war, UN representative Jean Paul Habamungu Samvura said.

“If we have another Adre here ... it will be a nightmare.”