Lebanon arrested over 2,000 Syria refugees, deported 1,800 since April

Lebanese authorities have arrested over 2,000 Syrian refugees and deported 1,800 since April this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported.

In the newly-released report by HRW, it stated that, despite there being “no official public statistics on the number of arrests or deportations” of Syrians from Lebanon, a humanitarian source informed it that “since April 2023, there have been over 100 raids, 2,200 arrests and 1,800 deportations of Syrian refugees”.

Detention and deportation by Lebanese authorities is also reportedly an abusive experience, with the report citing six Syrians it interviewed who said that they faced “abusive treatment during their deportation with beatings, threats, sexual harassment and degrading treatment, including being blindfolded, slapped and forced to stand for hours.”

Upon deportation, Syrian returnees are often subject to arrest, detention and torture under the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad, and the men are sometimes forced to join the Syrian military.

WATCH: Syrian refugees in Lebanon are in ‘a dangerous situation’, the UN says

Despite that fact, Lebanon – which hosts around 1.5 million refugees – and its caretaker government have insisted that Syria is now safe due to the decline in conflict within the country, and have been set on rounding up Syrians across Lebanon.

While the Syrians who crossed into Lebanon irregularly and have not had their refugee status recognised are immediately arrested – along with unaccompanied minors – the Syrians who are in the country legally and with a refugee status are reportedly also arrested and prepared for deportation on the most minor excuse or justification.

“Syrians in Lebanon are living in constant fear that they could be picked up and sent back to nightmarish conditions, regardless of their refugee status”, HRW researcher, Ramzi Kaiss, was quoted as saying.

According to the report, “Humanitarian workers have stated that the wave of deportations in 2023 is the most severe”. It called for Lebanese authorities to “allow Syrians to regularise their status in the country”, and also insisted that donor countries that provide humanitarian aid “should ensure that funding does not contribute to rights violations.”

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