Coordinator of the Syrian Opposition Coalition’s (SOC), Department of Refugee Affairs, Salim Idris, called on the Lebanese authorities to avoid the mechanisms of abuse and coercion with the Syrian refugees who risk their lives in order to reach Europe by not handing them over to the Assad regime from whom they fled.
Idris said that crossing the borders towards Syria from Lebanon is undoubtedly easier than crossing the seas to reach Europe, adding that the lack of hope in Syria prompts the Syrian refugees in Lebanon to risk their lives and cross the seas. He stressed that forcibly returning refugees to the country they fled means returning them to the “Assad regime’s slaughterhouses”.
The Associated Press on Wednesday reported that the Lebanese authorities had detained dozens of Syrian refugees to deport them to Syria after they were rescued from a shipwreck on a trip to Europe on New Year’s Eve.
The Associated Press said that a team from the Lebanese Navy and the UN peacekeeping mission rescued 230 refugees who were on an illegal immigration boat on their way to Europe.
The Lebanese army reportedly transported 200 survivors in trucks and dropped them off on the Syrian side of an unofficial border crossing in Wadi Khaled, a remote area in northeastern Lebanon, according to some survivors and human rights monitors.
The Lebanese government’s plan, which it developed during the past year, aims to return 15,000 Syrian refugees in coordination with the Assad regime. The Lebanese Ministry of Displaced asked the United Nations to reduce and cut aid to some refugee camps as a means of pressure to accept the return program.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
