The former boss of General Security Abbas Ibrahim (r) and his caretaker successor, General Elias Bayssari (l). (Credit: OLJ achive photo/Nabil Ismail)
BEIRUT – Lebanon's acting General Security director Elias Bayssari accused the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday of purposely sending data regarding the number of Syrian migrants without registration dates.
"We got the data from the UNHCR after more than one problem between us, but it doesn't include registration dates, which is very important for accessing each file," Bayssari told Lebanese television channel MTV, from Brussels.
Reflecting on the absence of registration dates, he said that the UNHCR has "its own objectives" and that this was not done in "good faith."
In an interview with L'Orient Today, a UNHCR representative in Lebanon said that they received a new request from Lebanese authorities to access "additional data," after those already handed over and that they're handling it "very seriously."
The UN organization was not immediately available to comment on specifically the question of the registration dates.
Some Lebanese politicians have blamed Syrians for their country's worsening troubles, and pressure often mounts ahead of an annual conference on Syria held in Brussels, with a ministerial meeting set for May 27.
"It is time for the international community to recognize the burdens of displacement and the danger to Lebanon," Bayssari added on Thursday.
He stressed that his presence in Brussels is to "prepare the ground for the Lebanese approach to the migrants file" ahead of the conference.
He added that during his meetings in Brussels, he "presented the Europeans with a solution from Lebanon's point of view.
"We were able to promote Lebanon's point of view," he said. "We considered Lebanon a transit point not a country of displacement and settlement in all the agreements we signed with UNHCR."
During last weekend, an outcry arose when Ivo Freijsen sent a letter to the caretaker interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi. In his letter, the UN diplomat expressed his opposition to a series of “inhumane measures” taken by the authorities to crack down on Syrians living illegally in Lebanon. The UNHCR later withdrew the letter at caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib’s request.
Commenting on the letter, Bayssari said on Thursday the issue was raised in Brussels, adding that he believes the letter was a mistake "in form and content" and that the "subsequent withdrawal of this letter is an acknowledgment of the error."