Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on Sept. 13, 2021. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT— Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi has said that the solution to Syrian refugee issue in Lebanon "is linked to the integrated solution to the Syrian crisis, whether inside Syria or in its relations with the United States of America and all Western countries." The caretaker minister added that Lebanon "cannot wait for this integrated solution to begin implementing the measures that … would restore things, even if only partially … to normal."
His comments came in an interview published on Friday by the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. The interview took place in Paris.
"There is a lot to be said about the consequences of the massive Syrian displacement into Lebanon, such as borders running out of control, the economic burden of the displacement, pressures on infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and security, and most importantly, demographic change in some areas," Mawlawi said in the interview.
He also claimed that "32 percent of the prisoners in Lebanon are Syrians."
A senior source at the Internal Security Forces previously told L'Orient Today that Syrian nationals account for "around 30 percent" of the total prisoners in Lebanon.
The interior minister also told Asharq al-Awsat that "only 600,000 Syrians have a legal residency," adding that, following "difficult negotiations," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has provided General Security with incomplete data lists that include 1.486 million people.
In May, Lebanon's acting General Security director, Elias Bayssari, accused UNHCR of purposely providing data on the number of Syrian migrants without including their registration dates, which he said is vital for processing each case. Bayssari claimed UNHCR has "its own objectives" and did not act in "good faith" by omitting the registration details. In response, a UNHCR representative in Lebanon stated the U.N. body had received a new request from the Lebanese authorities for "additional data" beyond what had already been provided, and said that it was handling the request very seriously.
Mawlawi said that General Security has begun taking steps to call on Syrian refugees to register at centers set up across the country. The goal is to obtain a comprehensive database to verify the eligibility and reasons for their presence in Lebanon. General Security aims to complete this task within "13 months," Mawlawi said. As part of this effort, the agency is establishing two large "Mega Centers," respectively in Damour, south of Beirut, and Haret Sakhr, north of Beirut, to receive and process Syrian refugees.
The Syrian refugee issue regained prominence in Lebanese domestic politics after the European Union announced a €1 billion aid package for Lebanon in early May — a move many political figures in Lebanon claimed was aimed at combated illegal immigration to Europe, with some describing it as a “bribe” to keep Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
The EU's announcement was made against a backdrop of renewed hostility to Syrian migrants and refugees in Lebanon, following the killing in April of Lebanese Forces official Pascal Sleiman by what the Lebanese Army described as a gang of Syrian nationals. Since then, the Lebanese authorities have launched a series of measures to restrict the presence of Syrians in the country and to open up the possibility of deporting illegal migrants.
The caretaker interior minister also criticized "Western countries for the way they deal with the issue of the displacement of Syrians due to their fear of their migration from Lebanon to Europe." He said that his message to the international officials he meets with is that Lebanon "is not a country for sale and cannot be tempted with aid aimed at keeping Syrians or settling them in Lebanon."
The “integrated” solution to this issue “is linked to the integrated solution to the Syrian crisis, whether inside Syria or in its relations with the United States of America and all Western countries," Mawlawi added. However, "Lebanon cannot wait for this integrated solution to begin implementing the measures … which would restore things, even if only partially, if little by little, to normal."
Security plan
Meanwhile, Mawlawi expressed to Asharq al-Awsat his satisfaction with the results of the security plan that his ministry approved and began implementing in April 2023.
In his view, the plan had several goals: "preventing violations, prosecuting wanted persons, enforcing the law on all Lebanese lands, providing a sense of security for citizens in Beirut and all of Lebanon, and raising the morale of the security forces so that they can fully carry out their tasks."
However, the implementation of the security plan led by the ISF sparked controversy when it saw the establishment of checkpoints across the capital and the confiscation of large number so f motorcycles and other vehicles being driven illegally on Lebanon's roads. On May 18, individuals who had their motorcycles confiscated protested the measures by burning tires and blocking roads in front of the Mraijeh Police Station.
“We stand with the state and we are all for implementing a security plan, however we believe that the current plan has some gaps,” Maen Khalil, head of the Ghobeiry municipality, told L’Orient Today at the time.
“The Nafaa [vehicle registration center] is still closed, almost two years later, for citizens in Lebanon who want to obtain a license to drive their motorcycle, so when the current security plan is implemented, the state should take into account that this person who is driving a motorcycle without a license is not trying to break the law,” Khalil explained.
The Nafaa is one of Beirut's vehicle registration centers. It had been fully closed for several months due to a corruption scandal that led to the arrest of numerous employees, but although it theoretically reopened in September 2023, it has since been operating with a very limited capacity, and there are lengthy delays and backlogs when it comes to processing vehicle and driver registration paperwork.
Many people complained that their unregistered vehicles and motorcycles were confiscated by the police as part of the security plan, only to be met with further complications and exorbitant fines when attempting to retrieve them at the Nafaa.
Mawlawi, however, said that the plan has achieved a "clear" success, leading to "a very significant decrease in the crime rate and even a cessation of the crimes that were occurring in Beirut," as he told Asharq al-Awsat.