المرصد السوري لحقوق الانسان
The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Despite Russia’s continuous efforts in the file of the Syrian refugees to bring them back home, media numbers about the return of refugees to Syria from the neighboring countries in 2019 are very exaggerated

While Russia is seeking to work on the file of returning the Syrian refugees to regime forces’-controlled areas by various means, like showing stability within the controlled areas of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian territory, the process of returning of the refugees is not as much as the Russians aspire to, where all the talks about the return of Syrians in large numbers during the 2019 whether from neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey or from European countries to the “bosom of the homeland;” are hugely exaggerated figures, where the process of returning is limited to those who are in a very bad situation abroad and had no other choice and preferred to return, in addition to the compulsory return of many Syrians as happened in Lebanon and Turkey, where the Syrian Observatory published on the 2nd of September 2019 that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that several Syrian families are stuck at al-Qa’a border post on the Lebanese-Syrian border, as the Lebanese Security there refuse to allow them to cross into the Syrian territory for various reasons, where these families who are stuck there decided to return voluntarily to Syria due to the lack of jobs and the recent Lebanese policy towards the Syrians, while several families were allowed to cross after paying money, but others are still staying out in the open waiting the “the check-out procedures to be finished” according to what the Lebanese Security there claim, and the Syrian Observatory published about 2 months ago that the humanitarian tragedy of Syrian refugees continues on the Lebanese territory, where after they were displaced by the Syrian war machine; they paid huge amounts of money and went on a perilous journey to Lebanon, thinking that they may have the safe life they lost throughout the years in the Syrian war, so they started working in various fields to earn a living there, however, the Lebanese authorities have been clamping down on the refugees in a blatant and flagrant violation of the human rights for more than a month, under the pretext of “entering in an illegal manner”, where they continue to close the Syrian shops and pursuit the Syrian workers who are working in factories and laboratories In different professions, and not only to narrow down on them, where the major humanitarian crime is the taking place through the deportations of Syrians from the Lebanese territory in gruesome and barbaric ways towards the Lebanese-Syrian border, to be received there by the regime forces, where most of those being deported are either of those who oppose Bashar al-Assad’s regime, or who had defected from it, which threatens the lives of these people when handing them over to the regime forces, thus, the Lebanese authorities are key partner in any threat to their lives, which has not been confined to the forced deportation of the Syrians despite the actions and stand up campaigns by the Lebanese citizens, amid the usual international silence on the Syrian tragedy, where the pictures and videos have gone viral on social media showing the Lebanese public security abusing Syrians, insulting, and beating them.

The Syrian Observatory published on the 16th of June 2019 that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the Lebanese authorities continue to deport the Syrian refugees who entered Lebanon illegally after paying thousands of dollars to smugglers, where more than 10 citizens were deported during the last 72 hours towards the Syrian border; and they were handed over to the regime forces located there, and sources of the Syrian Observatory reported that the majority of those who have been deported are wanted for the mandatory and reserve service in regime’s army, and among them there were defected people amid fears for their lives, and this comes in the light of international silence towards the new humanitarian catastrophe against the Syrian citizens, and the Syrian Observatory published on the 13th of June 2019 the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that Arabs and Lebanese activists, jurists, academics, citizens carried out a vigil on Wednesday in the park of (Samir Qsir) in the Lebanese capital Beirut, under the title “Against Hate Speech” towards the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, where they raised yellow banners during the vigil that read” “no to racism, racism is terrorism, against the hate speech”, and this comes after the decisions of the Lebanese general security to deport Syrian refugees who had entered Lebanese territory, where it the resolution says that “the person will be deport and handed over to the Syrian authorities and a notification will be issued to prevent the person’s entry” for a period of up to 10 years, and the Syrian Observatory published on the 12th of June 2019 that the Syrian Observatory learned that the Lebanese public Security issued a new resolutions regarding the entry of the Syrian refugees into the Lebanese territory in illegal way, where the resolution states “the person will be deport and handed over to the Syrian authorities and a notification will be issued to prevent the person’s entry” for a period of up to 10 years, while the Office of the United Nations issued a statement entitled “information for the Syrians in Lebanon,” stating that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) learned that the Lebanese authorities had recently decided to deport every Syrian who illegally entered Lebanon after the 24th of April 2019 and handing them over to the relevant Syrian immigration service”

However, reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that the statement of the Office of the High Commissioner is only a fictitious reassurance for the Syrians, where a large number of refugees who entered in an illegal way have been deported by the Lebanese public security, amid fears for their lives due to the presence of large number of members defected of the regime of soldiers, officers, and workers in other sectors, as well as oppositionists of the Assad’s regime, where regime’s intelligence thirstily waiting for them to return and put them in their jails and liquidate them, after they were forced out of their areas in Syria and risked their lives crossing the border after paying thousands of dollars to the network of smugglers; hoping to have a dignified life away from the war in Syria, while these Lebanese resolutions come with an opposite wave in Egypt regarding the Syrian refugees, where the social media sites are trending with the hashtag “the Syrians enlighten Egypt,” which expresses their welcome for the presence of Syrians within their territory.
