A billboard seein Zouk in the Jbeil governorate on Feb. 28, 2024. (Credit: PHB/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — NGO World House of Lebanon and various official institutions have launched a media campaign using billboards across the country and an ad on MTV Lebanon that calls for people to “undo the damage of the Syrian displaced."
But what exactly is the campaign asking people to do? Who is behind it and how are they promoting their claims?
Lebanon currently has 784,884 registered Syrian refugees with UNHCR as of end of December 2023. The official estimate remains around 1.5 million including those not registered with UNHCR.
Lebanese politicians of all stripes regularly call for the immediate repatriation of Syrian refugees, whom they blame for Lebanon's economic crisis. They assert that the current conditions in Syria allow for such a return, while the UN and other rights groups warn that this is not the case.
Who?
The NGO behind the campaign, World House of Lebanon, claims on its website to “promote the spirit of cooperation and union" among Lebanese residing in the country and abroad.
Its founder and president, Betty Hindi, spoke about the campaign on MTV's It's Time show a month ago, claiming the billboards and TV ads were designed to "demand the application of laws," as part of a broader mission to "register all Syrians."
"We went from advertisement campaigns to serious work," she told the channel.
It's not clear why the NGO, which claims its purpose is to promote coordination with the diaspora, is working on such a campaign. Neither the organization nor Hindi could be reached by L'Orient Today for comments.
As noted on the billboards along roads and highways, and as stated by Hindi in her televised appearance, the campaign was done in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture, the Lebanese Economic Organizations (an association of Lebanese employers), and MTV Lebanon.
What does the campaign look like?
“Lebanon’s population is split into two halves: The first half is made up of Syrian refugees, and the second half is of Lebanese wanting to migrate,” says the campaign's MTV Lebanon TV spot.
The ad also shows a young child, speaking with a Syrian accent, saying that although he is from Syria, he was born and raised in Lebanon to Syrian parents and has been told that he “will become Lebanese in a few years." Then a second boy responds with, “No my brother, we are from Syria and we should return to it so we can rebuild it.”
In 2020, a bill was proposed that would — if passed into law — prevent all stateless people born after 2011 in Lebanon (the year that marks the start of the Syrian crisis) from petitioning to obtain Lebanese citizenship, as it is normally allowed by Lebanese law.
The law was proposed by MP Ghassan Atallah (Free Patriotic Movement/Koura), who told L’Orient Today that the law's purpose is to close a loophole through which children of Syrian parents may obtain Lebanese citizenship.
The Lebanese Constitution preamble states there should be no “settlement of non-Lebanese in Lebanon.”
The campaign insists that the people of Lebanon should, in light of the fact that Syrian refugees constitute over 40 percent of the Lebanese population, "unite and act responsibly to rectify the situation urgently before it is too late," implying that the presence of Syrian refugees in the country poses an inherent threat.
The ad explains that although Syria had gone through “a bloody war,” the situation is not “different,” and calls on Syrians in the diaspora to return to Syria and "rebuild the country.”
The ad closes with the words: “UNDO THE DAMAGE.”
The risks of returns and deportations
In a September 2021 report, Amnesty International documented a "catalog of horrific violations committed by Syrian intelligence officers against 66 Syrian refugee returnees, including 13 children. The majority of the children had returned from Lebanon, including two who were deported."
Syrian intelligence officers "subjected women, children and men returning to Syria to unlawful or arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, including rape and sexual violence, and enforced disappearance. These violations were a direct consequence of their perceived affiliation with Syria’s political opposition, simply because of their refugee status."
A civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, spiraling into a devastating conflict involving foreign armies, militias, and jihadists. More than half a million people have been killed and millions more displaced.
Several initiatives have been put in place by Lebanon to pressure Syrians to leave, including the General Security's "voluntary return" campaigns, in which Syrians in Lebanon could apply to return to Syria. The names of the applicants were then sent to Damascus where the lists were either approved or rejected, and bus trips were organized from all Lebanese regions to cross the border.
These "voluntary return" campaigns were organized between 2018 and 2019, but were stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent border closures.
In October 2022, Lebanese authorities tried reviving this project. Around 500 people returned to Syria — at a time when the Lebanese government was hoping to see the return of 15,000 Syrians a month.
A new campaign was announced in January, but no concrete actions have been taken to facilitate it.
Back in January, and in response to this announcement, the UNHCR, contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, stated that it "respects the fundamental right of refugees to return freely and voluntarily to their country of origin at a time of their choosing, in accordance with the international principles of voluntary return in safety and dignity, and non-refoulement."
At the same time, Sahar Mandour, Lebanon researcher at Amnesty International, interviewed by OLJ, said"it is well established that Syrian refugees in Lebanon are not in a position to make a free and informed decision about their return, due to restrictive Syrian government policies on movement and residence, rampant discrimination, lack of access to essential services, as well as the absence of objective and up-to-date information on the current human rights situation in Syria."
What does the Chamber of Commerce of Beirut want, as a partner of the campaign?
Mohammad Choukeir, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Beirut told L’Orient Today that the Chamber decided to be part of the campaign in the interest of the economy. "Our economic system is a free economy system, meaning that Lebanon is open to anyone that wants to come and invest in the country.”
Choukeir claimed that “most Syrians in Lebanon have illegal institutions where they don’t pay taxes or pay the mandatory municipality fees and those are the ones we are targeting with our campaign, we don’t want to target those living legally.”
L'Orient Today tried to contact the Minister of Economy and Trade and the International Labor Organization for figures relating to the number of companies owned by Syrians in Lebanon, but neither were available to comment.
Choukeir said the Chamber of Commerce was hoping the campaign would result in unregistered companies either becoming legal or closing down. The Chamber also hopes to see those seeking jobs in Lebanon using the "correct legal documents to do so."
“From an economic perspective, we see the threats are too big to keep being ignored. We are threatened by the presence of Syrians on more than one front, but in this campaign with World House of Lebanon we wanted to focus on the abuse the economy is facing at the hands of Syrians."
According to Choukheir, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Syrians are to blame for burdening the country's infrastructure — which has been in disarray since the Civil War — and threatening public institutions, which have suffered from decades of systemic corruption.
"Lebanon can’t take this added pressure anymore,” Choukeir said.
Misleading footage
In addition to the campaign's controversial intentions, the images used in the TV spots and billboards have also been considered misleading, according to a fact-check conducted by L’Orient Today.
The campaign showcases children in tents, smiling at the camera, claiming that those children are in camps across Lebanon, however after conducting a reverse image search on several of the images used, it was evident that most of the photos are of Syrians displaced inside Syria over the last few years.
The Phenomena advertisement agency that designed the campaign responded last week to accusations by media outlet Megaphone News of having used "misleading and fake photos."
"To mitigate potential risks, we've crafted a symbolic advertisement that reflects the nightmare reality we face on a daily basis. This campaign serves as a direct message to the relevant responsible parties, urging immediate action to address the Syrian displacement crisis in Lebanon before it's too late," Phenomena explained in a post on Instagram.