The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, complained on Tuesday to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres about the way the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon.
Geagea sent a letter to Guterres during a meeting between the former and the latter's new representative in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, according to local media outlets.
"Lebanese sovereignty and identity are today threatened in their core ... as a result of several factors ... one of which ... is the issue of the massive, acute and unorganized Syrian migration to our country for more than thirteen years in a continuous and increasing manner, so that the ratio of Syrian refugees to Lebanese has reached between 40 and 45 percent," read the letter.
There are an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, the largest per capita ratio of refugees in any country in the world.
The Lebanese Forces has been increasingly calling for the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland especially following the murder of Lebanese Forces (LF) official Pascal Sleiman in April, for which Syrians were implicated by the Lebanese army.
Earlier this month, the LF and the Free Patriotic Movement called private and public schools and technical institutes to refrain from enrolling Syrians illegally residing in Lebanon.
According to Geagea, the UNHCR "takes all measures aimed at integrating Syrian refugees into Lebanese society, but does not work to try to resettle them in third countries or facilitate their return to their homes, specifically to safe areas that now exceed more than 90 percent of Syrian territory."
Geagea also said that the UNHCR refrains from "recognizing that Lebanon is not a country of asylum but only a transit country."
He added that the UNHCR "grants Syrian refugees asylum cards and housing certificates, bypassing the Lebanese state's exclusive authority in this regard."
Geagea asked Guterres to instruct the UNHCR to "stop all the practices described above immediately and without delay."
"The UNHCR crowned its list of flagrant violations of Lebanese sovereignty with a letter [sent by the Director] of the UNHCR Regional Office in Beirut to the Lebanese Minister of Interior [in May] expressing his "dismay" at the significant increase in the number of administrative measures the ministry is taking against Syrian refugees throughout Lebanon," the letter continued.
The UNHCR later withdrew the letter at caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib’s request.
Geagea said that despite the withdrawal of the letter, the "public exposure of its content before its retraction" led to consequences as the letter "incites Syrians to rebel against the decisions of the public authority in Lebanon and prevent it from exercising its constitutional functions ... and incites racial tensions between the Lebanese and Syrian people."
Moreover, he called on Guterres to instruct the UNHCR Regional Office in Beirut to "comply with the provisions of the UNHCR Charter and the provisions of the Lebanese laws" and to "abide by the content of the memorandum of understanding [between the agency and the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security signed in 2003], especially in terms of considering the asylum cards issued by the agency until 2015 as invalid."
In addition, Geagea asked Guterres to instruct the UNHCR to "hand over to the Lebanese General Security all the data and information it has documented on Syrians entering Lebanon."
"All this under the threat of pursuing the legal measures available against the UNHCR in Lebanon, which may amount to asking the Lebanese national judiciary to close its offices in Beirut and suspend its work in Lebanon," the letter concludes.