Trucks bringing refugees from Lebanon to Syria, May 14, 2024. (Credit: SANA/AFP)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has backtracked. Following the outcry caused by the missive that UNHCR representative in Lebanon, Ivo Freijsen, addressed to the Interior Ministry, in which he criticized “inhumane measures” taken against Syrians in Lebanon, the UNHCR finally retracted. It expressed in a statement its willingness “to preserve the partnership” with Beirut aiming to “support Lebanon” in this crisis.
In his missive, Freijsen reminded caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi of Lebanon’s obligation to “respect the international conventions to which it is a signatory,” most notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. He implied that any eviction must first be decided by the court and not by governors or municipalities upon the ministry’s orders.
Freijsen also objected to the municipalities’ role in enforcing the Interior Ministry’s decisions to check the papers of Syrian residents, to close down shops and businesses run by illegal migrants and refugees, and to requisition unlicensed motorcycles as part of the ministry’s security crackdown. Due to these remarks, the diplomat has been accused of meddling in Lebanon’s internal affairs, notably by Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea, a fierce critic of the cabinet.
The cabinet’s response was swift. Caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib summoned the UNHCR representative on Monday morning and called on him and the UN agency not to interfere in sovereignty-related matters.
He also gave the UNHCR until the end of this month to hand over to the Lebanese authorities the list of Syrian beneficiaries with the UNHCR, calling on him to honor the MoU the agency signed with the General Security Directorate in 2003.
In a statement issued after the meeting, Bou Habib asked Freijsen to withdraw the missive addressed to Mawlawi, saying it was now considered “null and void.”
The Foreign Affairs Ministry added that “if the UNHCR does not comply” with these requests, the existing cooperative relation between the two sides would be reassessed.
‘Persona non grata?’
The 2003 MoU was signed amid a controversy over the influx of Iraqi refugees to Lebanon following the US invasion of Iraq and of Sudanese nationals who had fled armed conflict in their country. It confirms that Lebanon is not a land of asylum and that anyone registered as a refugee with the UNHCR must leave the country after one year. They should either return to their country or emigrate to another country, the MoU added.
According to legal experts, including Legal Agenda Executive Director Nizar Saghiyeh, the MoU has become obsolete as it does not apply to the two million Syrian nationals residing in Lebanon.
“At the time, only 3,000 people were concerned,” he said. “Today, we are faced with a situation that is greater by far.” This opinion is rejected by the cabinet and most political parties that describe it as a “legal precedent.”
The UNHCR office in Beirut told L’Orient-Le Jour it had withdrawn the letter sent to Mawlawi at Bou Habib’s request. In a statement, however, the UNHCR justified the letter’s content, stressing that it only complied with “its standard practice and assuming its responsibilities towards vulnerable groups in Lebanon, including refugees.”
It said it has “proposed a meeting” with the Lebanese parties concerned, to defuse the conflict and soften the tone used in the letter. UNHCR reiterated that it remains a partner committed to supporting Lebanon and finding constructive solutions, and pledged to “carry on with its efforts to increase its assistance” to the country.
The caretaker cabinet is already boasting about this victory, especially after the promises UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made to caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday on the sidelines of the Manama summit.
In a statement to the An-Nahar newspaper, Mikati said that Guterres pledged to communicate with the UNHCR to cooperate with Lebanon on Syrian migrants and refugees.
A senior source in the cabinet told L’Orient-Le Jour that Mikati warned the UNHCR, through Bou Habib, that if the agency does not comply with the cabinet’s requests, Freijsen will be considered “persona non grata” on Lebanese soil.
Collective responsibility
At a time when the authorities blame the international community for this crisis, observers said it is a shared responsibility, as Beirut did not act for many years even though there were several plans to settle the issue efficiently.
“The international community’s position is not sustainable in the long term,” said Michael Young, editor of Diwan. “It was a bit easy to tell Lebanon that it must comply with international conventions, in a country where there used to be a fragile community balance. This no longer exists today,” added the analyst.
He criticized this laissez-faire attitude as the “politics of non-politics,” adding that “the West has let the situation drag on.”
Additionally, the West has not proposed any solutions to this crisis but has relied on the provision of relatively generous aid to keep migrants and refugees in place. In early May, the European Union announced one billion euros in aid over four years to help Lebanon cope with this crisis.
Young added that Lebanon did no better. “As a result, we’re in the presence of a total, confusing vagueness,” he said, insinuating that the Lebanese authorities have failed to classify the different categories of refugees and perceive the situation more clearly.
Indeed, these authorities — who requested that the UNHCR stop registering new arrivals of Syrians from 2015 onwards (officially to prevent them from benefiting from UN aid) — are now criticizing the UN agency for withholding the data collected before 2015.
“It’s easy to denounce violations of sovereignty,” said Young. “But they must have the means to enforce that sovereignty.”
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translated by Joelle El Khoury.