The outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, presiding over a parliamentary session held on May 28, 2024, in the Grand Sérail. (Photo taken from the Grand Serail Twitter account)
BEIRUT — Outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government had reached an agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) "on all the points put forward by Lebanon," during a parliamentary session held on Tuesday with Syrian refugees at the top of the agenda.
In remarks opening the meeting, Mikati said that in particular, UNHCR had agreed to hand over all its data on displaced Syrians within Lebanon to the Lebanese authorities.
At the EU conference entitled "Supporting the future of Syria and the region," Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib presented "for the first time," Mikati said, "a clear and precise plan for managing the issue of displaced Syrians in Lebanon."
According to the prime minister, Bou Habib called for the separation of refugee issues from "political considerations," and for work to be done to find "safe areas in Syria to allow them to return."
Lebanon has been engaged in discussions with Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt, who are also hosting Syrian refugees — albeit at a lower capacity than Lebanon, where there are an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, making Lebanon the country with the highest per-capita ratio of refugees in the world.
"We agreed on a unified plan to contact the Syrian side and support Syria's rapid recovery," Mikati told Parliament. "Lebanon insisted during the [Brussels] conference on the need to encourage Syrians to return home."
According to a document detailing Lebanon's plan, Syrians entering Lebanon illegally and not registered with the UNHCR will be expelled.
"General Security and UNHCR will coordinate to ensure that no Syrian expelled to Syria is at risk of prosecution on his or her return," the document reads, in response to concerns raised by human rights organizations, citing the arrest, force conscription and forced disappearances of Syrians once they cross the border into Syria.
The text, drafted in English and viewed by L'Orient-Le Jour, was presented during a closed-door meeting in Brussels on Monday and asking UNHCR to provide the Lebanese authorities with information on Syrian refugees registered with the UN, in order to, so the text claims, "organize the Syrian presence in Lebanon."
The UNHCR is been asked to re-assess and identify Syrian refugees in distinction from economic migrants and includes combating human trafficking and smuggling, and strengthening border control and management.
Syrians who entered Lebanon legally before 2011 and whose residency or work permits have expired are required to file a new application, and any registered Syrian who leaves Lebanon "illegally by sea or by land to Syrian will not be allowed to return to Lebanon and will lose his or her refugee status with the UNHCR."
The government also approved forming a committee led by the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister to coordinate with Syrian authorities regarding Syrian refugees, with committee members to be named in the next cabinet meeting.
