FPM supporters at a demonstration in downtown Beirut in front of the ESCWA building, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, on May 9, 2024. (Credit: João Sousa)
Hundreds of people turned out to a Free Patriotic Movement (FPM)-organized demonstration in Beirut on Thursday to call for the return of "displaced Syrians" to their country.
The rally took place at Gibran Khalil Gibran Square in downtown Beirut a week after the European Union (EU) announced a billion-euro aid package for Lebanon. These funds, which will be gradually released over the coming three years, are to be allocated to a whole range of actors responsible for managing the presence of refugees from neighboring Syria. In March, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) put the number of registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon at 779,645. However, it should be noted that the UN agency stopped registering Syrian refugees in Lebanon in May 2015, at the request of the Lebanese authorities.
The FPM, led by Gebran Bassil, has been increasingly outspoken about the presence of Syrians in Lebanon since the murder of Lebanese Forces official Pascal Sleiman, who, according to the Lebanese Army, was killed by a gang of Syrian criminals in April. Approximately 500 people gathered on Thursday, waving Lebanese and FPM party flags and chanting slogans, such as "Lebanon to the Lebanese, not to another people," "Lebanon is not for sale" and "I am Lebanese on my land, I don't want another people."
'We push them to stay here'
"Syrian immigration represents a danger for our country, which is why we are calling for the repatriation of those who are in the country illegally," Roland Kassis, a mukhtar (civil registrar) from the Sin el-Fil district and an FPM supporter, told our journalist Wael Taleb at the protest. "I always say that if we repatriate all the Syrians, there won't be any functioning bakeries or garbage collection. But those who don't have their papers in order must leave," Kassis added.
Abir, a young woman from the capital's southern suburbs who identifies herself as a Hezbollah supporter, said, "We're here to oppose the Syrian presence in Lebanon, not the Syrians themselves. No country would grant them the facilities that Lebanon has offered them."
Symbolic checks — representing, according to the demonstrators, the share that each Lebanese would have received if the EU donation had been dedicated to them — were also distributed at the protest.
"What's happening is that we're pushing them [the Syrians] not to leave Lebanon instead of helping them in their own country," Joseph, a native of Zgharta, said. This encourages them to stay here and ask for money, which affects us negatively."
Also Thursday, UNHCR confirmed a reduction announced last week in its expenditure on covering medical care for Syrian refugees identified on its registers, starting in June.
