Salim Idris, the Coordinator of the Office of Refugee Affairs in the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), has sounded the alarm over the serious mistreatment of Syrian refugees by the Lebanese government. Idris warned that deporting refugees who fled from the brutality of the Assad regime to areas controlled by that regime would effectively mean sending them to prisons and detention centers.
According to Idris, the Lebanese government is violating international law and carrying out illegal deportations under pressure from the allies of the Assad regime in Lebanon, including militias and political parties. He stressed that the refugees are victims of the regime, just like Lebanese parties who have been humiliated by the Syrian army in the past.
Idris urged those seeking revenge to take action against the regime’s allies in the Lebanese government rather than targeting refugees. He added that the Lebanese government must immediately halt the deportations.
Amnesty International has called the deportations a “clear violation” of international law under the principle of “non-refoulement”, which prohibits states from forcibly returning anyone to a country where they are likely to face persecution. The organization has documented at least four cases of Syrians being arrested after their deportation from Lebanon.
The Access Center for Human Rights has also documented the detention of at least two deported Syrians by the Assad regime’s Fourth Division. The United Nations Commission of Inquiry has similarly stated that Syria “remains an unsafe place to return to” due to continued detentions and human rights abuses by the Assad regime’s security forces.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
