International human rights groups condemn Turkey and Lebanon’s pressure on Syrian refugees
International rights groups fear that the repatriation program for Syrian refugees from Lebanon may not be as voluntary as has been said, at a time of growing concern about the pattern of coercive policy already in place in Turkey, where 3.6 million Syrians have fled their country.
Amnesty International said it understood that the imminent repatriation of refugees from Lebanon to Syria would be done through the same mechanism as Turkey deporting refugees to northern Syria.
This year, host countries Turkey and Lebanon have stepped up pressure on refugees to leave.
As Lebanon’s parliament on Monday failed for the fourth consecutive time to elect a new president amid deep divisions that raise fears of a vacuum in the presidency, President Michel Aoun, whose term expires on 31 October, said the country’s General Security will facilitate the voluntary return of Syrian refugees, resuming his role since 2018 in returning some 400,000 people who fled violence following the 2011 protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
On Wednesday, the first batch of Syrian refugees returning from Lebanon are expected to leave for home under a new plan, but only a few refugees in the run-down camps in the central Bekaa Valley are willing to register.
The Lebanese General Security Service discussed with the authorities in Damascus whether any arrest warrants had been issued against these individuals, before transporting them across the border.
UNHCR did not support this process, but its representatives were available to receive the refugees’ questions, and this time they may play the same role.
“How are we going to go to war?”.
“Syria is not safe to return,” said Diana Semaan, Syria researcher at the International Organization for Human Rights. The organization concluded that those who returned previously faced rights violations including detention, torture, rape and enforced disappearance.
Refugees who wished to return were unlikely to have accurate information on security and the availability of services in their towns.
Manal’s hometown, in Syria’s far eastern province of Deir Ezzor, is as divided among warring factions as most of the country.
Islamist militants have been launching hit-and-run attacks there, while U.S.-backed Kurds control some areas and government-allied armed groups control others.
Manal lost her two sons in an airstrike there several years ago. “She fled to Lebanon with her two daughters, earning just over $2 a day in the firewood-sorting trade to sell to stoves.”
“It’s better to live in humiliation than to lose more people in my life,” she told Reuters. I am not ready to lose my daughters to war.”
In Turkey: They became terrified of just getting out
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch accused the authorities in Turkey on Monday of arbitrarily detaining and deporting hundreds of Syrian refugees this year, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which states that asylum seekers should not be forced to return to a country where they would face persecution.
The organization said Turkish authorities arrested Syrians in the streets, homes and workplaces, beat them, forced them to sign documents stating they wanted to return voluntarily and forced them to enter Syria at gunpoint.
Some were from government-held areas but were pushed into opposition-held areas where clashes broke out this month.
The Turkish Interior Ministry declined to respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Savash Unlu, director of the Turkish Migration Authority, told Human Rights Watch that their claims were “baseless” and that Turkey was complying with international migration law.
Nadia Hardeman, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters that Syrian refugees in Turkey are now “terrified of going out.” Men in particular say the fear of passing through checkpoints reminds them of Syria”.
Mohannad, a 30-year-old Syrian living in Turkey, was detained for several days after being caught in a province other than the one where he was registered for protection status.
After threatening to deport him to government-controlled areas in Syria, where he is wanted, authorities threw him and dozens of other Syrians in a scrap yard hours away from their homes.
He now avoids public transport to avoid being detained again.
