Lebanon, the impossible mission of repatriating Syrian refugees, who number over two million, almost half of the entire Lebanese population

ROME – (AsiaNews) – Syrian refugees in Lebanon have been living in fear of being deported for weeks. “The honeymoon is over” says Mahmoud, worried about having to regularize his documents, in a few days, in the General Security offices and who does not hide the fear of being arbitrarily expelled from the country. In an attempt to control the presence and movement of Syrian war refugees – over two million and almost half of the total population of 4.5 million Lebanese – the Ministry of the Interior has recently ordered a census in the approximately 4,000 centers of reception that host them. “Camps” ranging from a few tents to actual canvas cities, such as Ersal in the Békaa, where there are around 80,000 Syrians out of a local population of 20,000.

The rejection of the Syrians and the religious balance. At the same time, taking advantage of the diplomatic thaw between Syria and the Arab world, a recently created ministerial commission is called to enter into an official dialogue with the Syrian regime. And which will aim to finalize the repatriation of this huge population of displaced persons whose weight is becoming unsustainable and which Syria itself, for a variety of reasons, “does not want”. This effort to control the Syrian presence is accompanied by a political and media campaign that underlines its economic, demographic and security significance. In addition to the danger they represent, in the event of naturalization, for the confessional balance between Christians and Muslims, knowing full well that the displaced Syrians are 90% Sunni, and yet constantly increasing, given their very high fertility rate (about 220,000 new born since 2011).

The return to Syria perceived as a risk. In any case, Syrian refugees themselves resist returning to Syria, obsessed with the idea that they might be arrested or forced into military service by a regime they consider authoritarian. They denounce the practice of “enforced disappearances”: “Even today, over 110,000 people have disappeared in Syria, most of them at the hands of the Assad regime”, assures Jean-Pierre Filiu, professor at the Sciences-Po university in France. In any case, the general situation is evolving and Lebanon lives in a situation of uncertainty about the final developments.

Xenophobia lights up. The awareness, albeit belated, of the Lebanese authorities is accompanied in the media by a campaign of xenophobia, and it is not known which of the two preceded the other. What is certain is that public opinion is feeling increasingly frustrated by the increase in crimes and crimes committed by Syrians (one third of the prison population is of Syrian nationality). And even the aid they receive from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and a large group of foreign NGOs makes them appear “privileged” compared to the poor Lebanese class, frustrated by the illegal competition they face on the market for Work.

The fear that winds its way among Christians. At the same time there is a sense of terror, especially in Christian circles, at the idea that this human tide could include many men who have done military service, transforming themselves into an armed force in the pay of any “plan” of substitution or annexation. When the civil war broke out in 2011 and the crackdown on the Syrian Spring began, Lebanon opened its doors to refugees from war zones without restrictions, unlike Turkey and Jordan.

The integration of Syrians propitiated by the UN and the EU. The prospect of seeing Syrians integrated into the Lebanese population is fueled by UN guidelines and by the European Union which, to avert waves of migration from Lebanon, are actively working also through cash aid and subsidies, to improve the living conditions of the displaced. However, all this has triggered a war between the poor in Lebanon. Regardless of the different positions on the matter, it is obvious that the repatriation of this human mass poses innumerable political and logistical problems. After having frozen relations with the Syrian regime for a long time, like other Arab nations, Lebanon is now forced to revise this position. An inevitable passage, even if Damascus itself is accused of not wanting the return of displaced people due to the shortage of food and essential products, the sanctions and the US Caesar Act which deprives the country of the funds necessary for post-war reconstruction.

* Fady Noun – Asianews