Syrian refugees deported from Lebanon say they suffered abuses by security forces on both sides of the border, including beatings by Lebanese authorities and forced conscription into the Syrian army. Some have died in detention or disappeared.

Their experiences raise concerns about the fate awaiting the 276,000 people who have fled Lebanon to Syria since the intensification of Israel’s airstrikes on the country last month, 70% of whom are Syrians, according to UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency.

Israel’s attacks have killed more than 2,300 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, and displaced an estimated 1.2 million – most since late September.

Prior to the current escalation, Lebanon was hosting an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, who now face an impossible decision: return to Syria and face potential arrest, conscription, and abuse; or remain in Lebanon and risk death or injury from Israeli bombardment while suffering the humanitarian fallout of the expanding war.

The risks of returning to Syria have been made clear in recent years, as Lebanese authorities ramped up removals of Syrian refugees. The military forced at least 13,700 people over the border into Syria in deportation or pushback operations in 2023, according to UNHCR.

The campaign marked “a dramatic increase compared to approximately 1,500 cases in 2022”, according to Lisa Abou Khaled, a Beirut-based spokesperson for the agency.

This year so far, the military has removed at least 4,800 Syrians in pushback operations, Abou Khaled said.

Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security, an intelligence agency responsible for monitoring foreign residents, deported an additional 1,300 Syrians in 2023 and 900 this year so far, according to UNHCR.

“We never imagined that one day we would find ourselves in the same danger we fled from.”

Out of 760 deportations documented last year by the Syrian human rights group Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR), around 120 people have not been heard from since.

Over the last three months, the Syrian Investigative Journalism Unit (SIRAJ) and The New Humanitarian secured rare interviews with recent deportees who remain trapped in Syria, as well as relatives of deportees who died or went missing after being handed over to Syrian authorities. They described sudden, violent raids by Lebanese police and intelligence officials, mass deportations by truck, long marches across the barren border zone between the two countries, and prolonged, arbitrary detention by Syrian authorities.

“We thought we would be living under better security conditions in Lebanon,” one forced recruit in the Syrian army told SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian in July, three months after being deported from Lebanon.

“We never imagined that one day we would find ourselves in the same danger we fled from,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Syrian authorities have arrested 23 refugees who returned from Lebanon to Syria fleeing Israeli airstrikes since 23 September, according to Fadel Abdulghany, executive director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR). Three have been released, while the rest were conscripted into the Syrian army, he said.

“This pattern of arrests highlights the Syrian regime’s continued targeting of returning refugees, exacerbating their already precarious circumstances as they attempt to escape conflict zones,” Abdulghany told SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian.

He added that he expects Syrian authorities under President Bashar al-Assad to continue arresting returnees.

“The arrests, the disappearances, the conscriptions will continue for months,” Abdulghany said. “He is beyond any accountability. He can do whatever he wants to those who have opposed him and returned to Syria.”

Beaten and insulted

Around half of Lebanon’s 1.5 million Syrian refugees hold UN refugee status. Many have lived and worked in Lebanon for years, despite growing xenophobia, discrimination, and limited employment options.

UNHCR has documented more than 98,000 voluntary returns to Syria by refugees since 2016, including more than 8,000 this year, not including those displaced by Israeli bombings, Abou Khaled said.

However, the agency warned in July that conditions in Syria are too unsafe to encourage large-scale voluntary returns. Surveys conducted by UNHCR among Syrian refugees in several countries documented widespread fear of detention, forced conscription, and a lack of safety and security.

These fates are often what awaits those deported from Lebanon.

“Most deportees are in the age of compulsory and reserve military service,” said Mohammed Hasan, executive director of ACHR. “We’ve observed a pattern where deportees who pass the security check are given two-week notice to join military service, while those who don’t pass simply get arrested or disappear.”

In one raid in April, a Lebanese army patrol in the coastal city of Jounieh rounded up several Syrian refugees, including a 30-year-old man named Kareem. SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian spoke to his brother Ziad in July.

“Many of them were severely beaten and insulted during the raids, and they were not allowed to take their personal belongings, as was the case with my brother,” Ziad said.

Most of the Syrian refugees in this article are being referred to by their first names, or their names are being withheld, to protect their identities.

Kareem had fled his hometown of Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, in late 2013, following an infamous chemical attack in the area. He had worked as a baker in Lebanon and lived with his wife and two children, who were not caught in the raid.

The soldiers placed Kareem and his neighbours onto white buses with army plates, along with dozens of other refugees detained earlier. They totalled around 40, including women and children.

The buses deposited the deportees in the neutral zone between the Lebanese and Syrian sides of the Masnaa border crossing on the Beirut-Damascus highway. They were forced to walk several kilometres to the Syrian checkpoint, controlled by the Syrian 4th Armoured Division, Ziad said.

“Deportees in the age of compulsory and reserve military service are often assigned to new units, such as the 4th Division, and are subsequently deployed to front lines,” said Hasan, adding that the division is led by Major General Maher al-Assad, the younger brother of the Syrian president. Maher is wanted in France on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“My brother was able to call his wife on the same night they were deported, saying that they were detained by the 4th Division and would be transferred to the military police in the Qaboun area to join military service,” Ziad said.

After that call, Kareem’s phone was confiscated. “We have not heard from him since that night,” he said.

“UNHCR fully recognizes the impact of hosting large numbers of refugees on Lebanon, especially given the country’s numerous challenges,” Abou Khaled said. “We continue, however, to advocate for the respect of principles of international law and to ensure that refugees in Lebanon are protected from refoulement.”

Signs of torture

Ahmad Adnan Shamsi al-Haydar, 19, was also deported to Syria in April. He had fled escalating violence in his hometown of Al-Bukamal, in eastern Syria, in 2022 and found construction work in Lebanon.

“Ahmad was detained by the 4th Division of the Syrian regime’s forces without any legal arrest warrant,” a relative told SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian in July. “He was not given the opportunity to contact his family or a lawyer, and his whereabouts were unknown for two months.”

“We documented several cases of defected soldiers who were tortured to death after their deportation.”

In late June, a Syrian military official contacted the family, saying Ahmad had died of a heart attack while detained by the Military Intelligence Directorate. The relative said Ahmad had been in good health when he was arrested, and his family believe he died as a result of torture.

“We were asked to collect his body from the military hospital in Deir Ezzor,” the relative said. “When we received the body, we observed clear signs of torture and mistreatment. We were later told that Ahmad had been arrested due to a case of mistaken identity, and that he was not the person originally wanted by the authorities.”

Syrian military defectors, activists, journalists, and anyone perceived to oppose al-Assad’s rule are likely to face torture after being deported to Syria, Hasan said.

“We documented several cases of defected soldiers who were tortured to death after their deportation,” he said.

Syria’s Interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment about al-Haydar’s death.

Wanted for military service

Also handed over to the 4th Armoured Division were two Syrian brothers who were deported from Lebanon in April 2023. SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian contacted one of the brothers in July, while he was trapped in military service.

“Lebanese army intelligence raided the places where Syrians lived… [and] arrested about 23 Syrians from their homes,” he recounted. “We were detained for hours. Then the Lebanese army intelligence left us all inside Syrian territory near the checkpoint of the 4th Division at the Masnaa crossing.”

A security check revealed that the two brothers, along with five other deportees, were wanted for compulsory service or were flagged for other security issues. They were sent to the Military Security Branch 248 in Damascus, where they were investigated for nine days, before being handed over to military police, and then assigned to separate military units for service.

“We are still in reserve military service,” the deportee said. “The security conditions are very bad, and I cannot go into more details.”

While Lebanon and Syria are thought to be collaborating on the deportations, ACHR does not believe the motivation is to address a shortage of conscripts in Syria. Rather, the group believes the Syrian army is permitting the deportations to raise funds from deportees seeking to flee back across the porous border into Lebanon.

“We observed that the 4th Division is coordinating with the human trafficking gangs and smugglers to extort money from deportees to allow them to escape Syria through irregular routes,” Hasan said.

“The 4th Division has an economic office whose mission is to collect money and finance the division,” said Jihad Yazigi, editor of the online economic bulletin The Syria Report. The division collects funds from people passing through various checkpoints, especially along roads between different areas of control, he said.

Financial concerns also motivate Lebanon’s role in the deportations, according to Hasan. Lebanon accelerated removals of refugees last year “as a strategic tool to pressure the international community for increased aid”, he told SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian.

Lebanon has struggled with an economic and political crisis for years, with poverty tripling over the past decade.

European governments are concerned about mass migration to their countries if Lebanon cannot care for its large refugee population, Abdulghany said.

In May, the EU pledged a billion-euro aid package to Lebanon to be distributed over several years. Part of the package will be spent on facilitating “voluntary returns” to Syria.

The EU’s humanitarian aid arm, ECHO, did not respond to requests for comment about its response to Lebanon’s deportation campaign or the risk of EU funds being used to forcibly return refugees to Syria.

Neither Syria’s interior ministry nor Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security responded to questions about their alleged roles in deporting Syrian refugees.

Lasting scars

Most deportees survive the process and are released into Syria, but some with lasting trauma.

One woman who was deported in April 2023 said Lebanese authorities came to her door at 9:30am and rounded up any Syrians they could find in their town square in Jbeil district. She and her two stepdaughters were forced onto trucks and taken to a military compound in the city of Aley, where there were around 200 other Syrians awaiting interrogation.

“One of the officers, who was from intelligence, took my handbag, searched it, found registration papers from UNHCR, tore them up, and started cursing us and the UN, accusing us of coming here to beg in Lebanon,” she told ACHR. SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian reviewed a transcript of her account.

“He also found makeup in my bag and told me that after the investigation, I should come to him and entertain him at his office,” she said, adding that she felt the officer was sexually harassing her.

That afternoon, the Syrians were forced back onto the trucks to be taken to the Syrian border. “The men were all tied with plastic ties,” she said.

After walking across the neutral zone at the Masnaa crossing for more than an hour, they were detained by a Syrian border guard unit for six days before being released and making their way to Damascus.

Once they arrived, the woman immediately contacted her husband and asked him to arrange for them to be smuggled back to Lebanon. “We could never stay there,” she said.

Even though she made it back to Lebanon with her stepdaughters, the experience had a prolonged impact. “Throughout this period, our children lived in a state of fear and terror, and they even experienced involuntary urination for more than a month,” the woman said. “They constantly woke up at night due to nightmares.”

With additional reporting by Urwah Iftikhar. Edited by Eric Reidy and Andrew Gully.

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But the situation in Qushtab camp, which includes more than two thousand Syrian families, is completely different, as they do not receive sufficient aid from countries and international organizations concerned with helping refugees.

The post Syrians in Iraq are under the threat of Covid-19 and “sub-zero” financial conditions appeared first on SIRAJ.

In May 2016, the Egyptian Authorities received information about 300 people trying to flee in a fishing boat in illegal immigration from Alexandria en-route to Europe. The security forces raided the site and arrested everyone, including Gamal Tayseer’s family, a Syrian national.

Tayseer and his family tried to flee in an endeavor to find a cure for his eyes, after his left eye became almost blind when he failed to undergo the Cataracts surgery in Egypt, while the UNHCR didn’t respond to his calls as he told the reporters.

It is worth mentioning that Tayseer has suffered from Cataracts as he grieved over his son Amr who was killed in Syria.

Aside from the story of Tayseer’s left eye which was almost blind, the reporters met 12 Syrian refugees in Egypt, who suffered from chronic health problems, but failed to get access to medical treatment after they had attempted to reach the UNHCR, while the services of the Egyptian Ministry of Health were limited to the primary consultations only, according to the cooperation protocol with the UNHCR.

This press inquiry reveals that over the past seven months, the poor health care provided to the Syrian refugees in Egypt, by the UNHCR and its partners, has exacerbated their health problems and made them suffer from permanent disabilities. Moreover, some risk their lives and flee in crammed death boats in pursuit of medical treatment in European countries.

What made things worse is that the UNHCR has donated 4.5 million dollars, equivalent to 68 million Egyptian pounds, during the period 2014-2018, to the Egyptian Ministry of Health in the form of medical support for 19 hospitals and medical centers, to improve the medical services provided to the Syrians. 

Nevertheless, during the preparation of this report, we found out that 12 of these centers are located in distant places, away from the refugees’ concentration area and that they are hard to reach.

Furthermore, the inquiry has shed more light on the poor coordination between the UNHCR and the administration of the contracting hospitals, in treating the emergent and critical cases of the Syrian refugees, as the patients are expelled out of the hospital within 48 hours, unless the UNHCR responds to cover the costs of their medical treatment.

In its report issued in February 2019, the UNHCR stated that “More than 80% of the refugees in Egypt lead a miserable life.”

The WHO Constitution requires governments to strive to create the conditions in which people can be as healthy as possible.

The first paragraph of the Article 25 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services.”

Whereas Article 18 of the Egyptian Constitution criminalizes denying any form of medical treatment to any human in emergency or life-threatening situations.

“In general, the refugees in Egypt face difficulties to get access to health and food services and financial support,” according to Tayseer al-Najjar, the head of the General Authority of the Syrian Community in Egypt. Moreover, he went to the UNHCR more than once to offer his assistance and cooperation but the UNHCR’s officials refused to meet him.

The number of Syrian refugees in Egypt is around 500.000, of whom 130.000 are registered in the UNHCR. In this respect, the UNHCR asserted that it provided 175.000 medical consultations in 2018. In 2019, the number decreased to 150.000 consultations in the field of primary health care.

An Unfortunate Trip

Jamal Tayseer (60 years) was an antique dealer and was making a decent income. But after the war broke out and the siege of his town Reef Dimashq, he fled to Egypt in late 2011, where he registered himself in the UNHCR and his wife received financial aid of 455 Egyptian pounds ($40) per month. But six months later the aid was cut off without any reason.

In 2015, Jamal’s eyes developed cataracts as a result of his grief over his son’s death. He tried to reach the Commissioner to be sent to any hospital affiliated to the UNHCR, but the Commissioner neither responded to his calls nor allowed him to enter its headquarters.

He went to a public hospital in Cairo downtown, where he had his eyes checked. After the initial examination, the doctor told him he needed urgent cataract surgery so as not to develop any complications that may lead to blindness.

“I agreed to undergo the surgery,” says Tayseer, “and they scheduled one surgery to be performed on one of my eyes every week, when I went on the scheduled time, they told me “You are a Syrian national, we cannot perform the surgery,” even though this government hospital performs this type of surgery to the Syrians and refugees as stipulated in Article 18 of the Egyptian Constitution that criminalizes denying any form of medical treatment to any human in an emergency or life-threatening situations.”

“More than 80% of the refugees in Egypt lead a miserable life.”

“Every citizen is entitled to health and to comprehensive health care with quality criteria. The state guarantees to maintain and support public health facilities that provide health services to the people, and work on enhancing their efficiency and their fair geographical distribution. The state commits to allocate a percentage of government expenditure that is no less than 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to health. The percentage will gradually increase to reach global rates. The state commits to the establishment of a comprehensive health care system for all Egyptians covering all diseases. The contribution of citizens to its subscriptions or their exemption therefrom is based on their income rates. Denying any form of medical treatment to any human in emergency or life-threatening situations is a crime. The state commits to improving the conditions of physicians, nursing staff, and health sector workers, and achieving equity for them. All health facilities and health-related products, materials, and health-related means of advertisement are subject to state oversight. The state encourages the participation of the private and public sectors in providing health care services as per the law.” According to the Egyptian Law.

Tayseer managed to save from his earnings part of the costs of the first operation, which amounted to 4800 Egyptian pounds, equivalent to 600 US dollars at the time, and borrowed the rest of the money, so that a private doctor near his residence in the 6th district, 6th of October City, would perform the surgery. He underwent the first surgery and his right eye was cured and back to normal, yet his left eye’s condition worsened and became almost totally blind.

Failing to undergo the operation on his left eye, Jamal decided to flee with his family by boat illegally to Europe. He met two people-smugglers (Nizar and Osama) and arranged everything, but the Egyptian security had been on the alert to frustrate their attempt and detained them for 20 days.

In July 2016, Jamal’s family attempted to flee again but the boat sank and they were sent back to Egypt.

Unanswered Distress Call

For four months, Abu-Sharif al-Najjar has repeatedly tried to contact the UNHCR, to schedule an interview, to demand two surgical operations for his 22-year-old nephew, Sharif, without any response.

Sharif al-Najjar’s hand was injured in the suburbs of Damascus in May 2013 by a rocket-propelled grenade. He was then taken to a field hospital near Damascus, doctors tried to save Sharif’s hand from amputation, but the shrapnel cut the ligaments and nerves, which forced doctors to amputate his hand. Subsequently, the scar was infected and caused skin deformation, so his parents took him to a doctor, who supervised his treatment, but his hand now looks like a triangle.

Despite this amputation, Sharif was required to serve in the Syrian military. He became a deserter, so he fled to Egypt, along with his family in October 2013, to begin another trip of suffering with the UNHCR.

Sharif’s family tried to contact the Commission to attach a prosthetic limb for their son several times by phone, but got no response. Moreover, they were not allowed to enter the UNHCR headquarters.

“Sharif is suffering from hand deformation and needs to get a removable artificial limb,” says Dr. Alaa Musa, an employee of the Egyptian Ministry of Health who has reviewed the case. “He also needs a surgical intervention to treat the deformities and plastic surgery at the location of the injury, so that it does not cause nervous breakdown or psychological harm.”

Abu-Sharif went to the UNHCR office at Zamalek district in central Cairo on the morning of November 4, 2019, to review the case of his nephew Sharif, as well as to apply for a renewal of residence. He entered after a four-month attempt to get an interview date, during which he repeatedly called the Commission through the hotline, which costs 1.5 Egyptian pounds per call. The meeting lasted for more than two hours.

“The staff didn’t care about my problem, didn’t hear my complaint, and they did renew my stay for 6 months, four of which have already gone by while trying to arrange a meeting,” he says, and as for the treatment of his nephew, the answer was “We don’t have this kind of treatment.”

Poor Coordination Between UNHCR and Hospitals

“Syrians should have their own hospital, so that they don’t face what my mother faced when she had an acute heart attack,” said Mahmoud Idris, recounting his mother’s suffering on a treatment journey.

The governmental hospital refused to receive Mahmoud’s mother because she is Syrian. They told him that they had nothing to do with UNHCR, although the Ministry of Health and UNHCR agreed that emergencies should be provided with 48 hours of free treatment, but he did not find that in the hospital.

Amina had a pelvic fracture 6 years ago in Syria while running with her family to escape the bombardment on Salah al-Din area in Aleppo governorate. Her children asked the Commission to provide treatment for her while issuing asylum papers. They were referred to Mahmoud hospital, which did not offer this kind of treatment. When they asked the Commission to refer them to a specialized hospital, they refused, according to her children.

In 2015, she suffered from a clot in the right ventricle, and was subsequently transferred again to a specialized hospital.

Her children tried to contact the UNHCR to get treatment for their mother, but they refused on the pretext that they were not authorized to treat such an illness. This forced them to pay 5 thousand pounds (340 dollars) per night to get her medical help.

In July 2019, Ameena suffered a complicated heart attack, and was transferred to a heart-care unit at a university hospital, because the UNHCR-contracted hospitals do not support heart surgery, according to the UNHCR Manual of December 2019, which has limited the healthcare provided to maternal and child health care, as well as primary health care (examinations) and acute and chronic disease consultations.

The operation cost about 9200 Egyptian pounds ($600) and Ameena suffered from “rapid heartbeat” or “tachycardia” after it. Her son went to a hospital not contracted with the Commission, but if refugee patients arrive, they notify the UNHCR.

The hospital doctor suggested to Ameena’s children that she could receive her treatment at home, by purchasing an oxygen cylinder and some medical equipment to continuously monitor the condition from home, after they received nursing training.

Tayseer Al-Najjar explains that the criteria adopted by the UNHCR for the selection of refugees for medical service may be theoretically correct, but in practice they are wrong, indicating that in rare cases the Commission pays part of the cost of the hospital examination, about 50 to 70 percent, while the remaining 30 percent is paid by the patient, which is equivalent to any private doctor’s fees. This way, a refugee does not benefit from the service.

Medical Suffering!

“The Commission has sent its staff four times to assess my case, and each time I’m told, “You deserve aid”, but it’s all empty talk… where’s my right?” ask Abu-Haitham, a refugee in Egypt who suffers from severe asthma, and degeneration of the joints of his feet.

Abu-Haitham entered a health center in Cairo on Tuesday, May 26, 2015, for medical examinations after he felt pain in the joints of his knees and acute asthma.

The health center is a center allocated by the Ministry of Health to receive refugees and does not need a referral from the UNHCR.

The doctor conducted an initial checkup of Abu-Haitham that showed he had excessive osteoarthritis in his feet joints, and severe asthma in his chest, which developed into a lung problem.

The doctor prescribed medicine for him, and he got it free of charge from the center’s pharmacy. After taking the medicine, his feet started to swell, resulting in bone erosion, to a point where he needed to undergo surgery to install artificial joints to allow normal movement.

Abu-Haitham suffers from five diseases (asthma, osteoarthritis, prostate enlargement, high blood pressure, and diabetes), and says he did not receive any help from the Refugee Agency, although its employees examined his condition four times at his home. The reviews acknowledged his right to disburse aid, but his reality remained unchanged.

In 2015, the Assad regime’s forces arrested Abu-Haitham and his son, took them to the “Palestine Branch” in Damascus, where they remained in detention for 20 days, after which the father was released and the son remained for 11 months, during which he was tortured.

Abu-Haitham’s sadness was not only for his son, but also for his daughter, Amani, who suffers from brain atrophy, a thyroid gland problem and malfunction of the limbs and feet.

Amani became totally handicapped and unable to move, in addition to being severely depressed because of the delay of her treatment, which the UNHCR refused to pay for, as they do not carry out such operations for refugees, according to the Health Services Guide.

The Commission referred her to Caritas for “psychiatric” treatment only, and she was offered a monthly treatment worth 450 EGP, equivalent to $30, but she has not improved because her mental illness is related to her health status, according to the psychiatrist renowned doctor at the government psychiatric hospital.

Amani needs surgical interventions to treat brain atrophy, in addition to the removal of part of the thyroid gland, and an operation to correct the hands and feet, so that they return to their normal state, so that she can continue her life like their sisters, according to Dr. Alaa Musa.

The head of the General ِAgency of the Syrian Community in Egypt says, “UNHCR does not conduct social research, through which they can get to know the living conditions of the applicant and his income, whether he or she receives regular or irregular assistance, or whether he is in debt, or perhaps they conduct incomplete research”, indicating that he who presents himself well can benefit from the services of the UNHCR.

A Placebo

When “Caritas Egypt” organization, which is the medical partner of the UNHCR, referred the Syrian refugee Mahmoud Al Qady and his son Omar to a hospital in Alexandria, that is on the list of hospitals contracted with the organization, the father was relieved, thinking that his son will receive medical care, after visiting the organization’s headquarters several times. However, when he went to the hospital, he found long queues of patients without receiving the minimum healthcare.

Mahmoud and his family fled from Reef Dimashq to Egypt through Sudan, and he now resides in El-Mandara district in Alexandria governorate. His son’s struggle with the “Duchenne muscular dystrophy” (a genetic disorder that affects all the body’s muscles) has exacerbated. His father lost hope in receiving medical treatment at the expense of the UNHCR, having visited the international organization’s headquarters many times since he arrived in Egypt in March 2016 without any response.

“During the journey of seeking refuge, Omar has lost the iron shoe that helped him move after being attacked by bandits en route to Egypt through the desert, as they seized their money and belongings,” says Mahmoud, Omar’s father.

They went to a hospital that prescribed some restoratives for Omar and recommended he would undergo physiotherapy. However, the employees in “Caritas Egypt” told the father they do not cover physiotherapy as they have no contracts with specialized hospitals.

The reporters of this press inquiry referred back to the doctors who followed Omar’s case, who said that “restoratives were useless because he needed to undergo physiotherapy; otherwise, his health situation would deteriorate to that point which poses severe threats to his life in case he undergoes an urgent surgery in his extremities to reduce muscular dystrophy, followed by physiotherapy. 

The child’s father tried to medically treat his son in the US on the expenses of the UNHCR or other organizations, but he has been waiting for a response for three years now.

Article no. 24 of the Convention on the rights of the child stipulates that: “States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services.”

The reporters of this inquiry contacted “Save The Children International,” as the organization responsible for providing children with a safe environment and because it is among the UNHCR’s partners in Egypt, to ask about Omar’s health situation and the reason why he did not receive medical treatment.

Their reply was: “After referring to the health programs at Save The Children International, we would like to confirm that Omar’s father has never contacted us before to ask for any health services. And the child’s father has been contacted and informed about the health services we provide.”

Supporting Refugees Outside their Areas of Residence

The Ministry of Health, in coordination with the UNHCR, has identified 19 public hospitals and health centers to provide services for refugees. Eight establishments of them offer primary health care services, while the other eleven hospitals are located in remote areas away from the concentration locations of the refugees.

On September 12th, 2018, the UNHCR noted that these hospitals provide primary healthcare for refugees, after receiving in-kind aid worth 4.5 million dollars in the form of medical devices and equipment, on several batches.

Furthermore, the UNHCR published a video highlighting that a range of hospitals and health centers receive refugees in coordination with the UNHCR and its partner medical associations.

However, the memorandum of understanding, MoU, signed by the UNHCR and the Egyptian Ministry of Health, has overlooked the emergency cases and surgical operations and focused only on primary healthcare.

The most striking thing in choosing the locations of the 19 hospitals and health centers was that 11 of them are remotely located away from the refugees’ concentration areas.

The statements of the UNHCR official spokesman in Egypt and a report published by the Arab Reform Initiative pointed out the areas of distribution of Syrian refugees and refugees from other nationalities as well. By comparing the refugees’ areas of distribution stated by the UNHCR spokesman and the report, with the UNHCR supported hospitals areas, the inquiry reporters concluded that refugees’ concentration areas are distributed among the 6th of October City, 10th of Ramadan City, El Obour City, Damietta, Mansoura, Hurghada, Suez, Ismailiya and Alexandria.

On the other hand, the supported hospitals are distributed in New Cairo, a medical center in the first settlement, Nasr City, Eastern Cairo district, a medical center in the 7th district, El Omraniya, a medical center in El Talbia, a medical center in Kafr Nassar, in addition to the Mental Health Secretariat hospitals, the mental health hospital in Abbassiya, Helwan Mental Health hospital in Cairo, and Maamoura Mental Health hospital in Alexandria.

The Map of the Refugees Medical Treatment in Egypt

Sharif’s father says that “the UNHCR does not respond to calls quickly, neither in emergency cases nor in ordinary cases, and thus patients may risk their lives due to red tape if they do not have enough money.”

In January 2019, the inquiry’s reporters contacted the UNHCR via email, asking questions about refugees’ help mechanisms, the reasons for the lack of coordination with hospitals, and the selection process of supported medical centers, but they did not receive any response.

This Investigation has been achieved with the support and supervision of “Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism – SIRAJ” in cooperation with “Daraj Media” and under the supervision of our colleague Ahmed Haj Hamdo.

The post Delayed Access to Medical Care… a New Chapter in the Syrians’ Agony in Egypt! appeared first on SIRAJ.

In Idlib’s countryside, elderly residents of informal camps are deprived of primary healthcare services, usually offered by makeshift hospitals, and quarantine facilities, which camp areas lack. The situation corresponds to increasing concerns over the outbreak since the first positive case was announced on 10 July 2020 by the Minister of Health of the Syrian Interim Government, who constantly posts updated case figures. In areas held by the Syrian regime, cases are also on the rise, amounting to 417, according to the Ministry of Health. Furthermore, cases throughout Syria are being tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO), which reports new confirmed cases, as well. 

The United Nations (UN), for its part, warned against a healthcare catastrophe if the pandemic continues to spread significantly in north Syria, given the failing healthcare system, shortage for ventilators, and other supplies necessary for combating COVID-19. Moreover, the UN designated $385 millions to cover additional 2020 needs, as to cope with the pandemic in the full range of Syria.

Nonetheless, it appears that the UN warnings are in no way close to being heeded.

Suffering from diabetes and hypertension, Badriyah is fretting over contracting coronavirus, saying that she is regularly feverish due to the extremely hot weather. This had her obsessed, particularly with the surge in confirmed cases.  

Like most of the elderly in the informal camps, Badriyah complains about the absence of healthcare facilities, while test centres are tens of kilometres away from the camp where she lives. The situation is made further complicated by extreme poverty and the people’s inability to reach these centres to conduct the necessary texts or purchase preventative needs.

Camps off preventative formworks

One-third of Idlib’s population lives in tents, urging Cristian Reynders, Doctors without Borders (MSF) field coordinator for northwest Syria, to say that indeed, most recommendations for protecting people against the virus and slowing down its spread simply cannot be implemented in Idlib. He, furthermore, raised an ethical question, that probably will remain unanswered: “People are also asked to practice good hygiene measures and wash their hands frequently. But how can you practice good hygiene when you live surrounded by mud?”

Sharing Reynders’ thoughts on the matter, Ahmad al-Dabis, UOSSM Syria Program director,  told the reporter that: “Preventative measures cannot be maintained in the camps, for they are extremely crowded. Moreover, the personal hygiene-related preventative rules cannot be kept due to lacking water, sanitation and joint bathrooms, which do not adhere to requirements. This applies to villages and cities alike, for there are group housing places that cannot be controlled, not to mention that thousands of families are coerced to share one or two rooms with one or more families.”

UOSSM is a non-government union for relief and healthcare organizations, registered in Turkey, UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.

Displaced from southern rural Idlib, Abu Ahmad (64) lives in an informal camp near the Turkish border. He does not show the slightest interest in our COVID-19-related questions after the first positive case was reported in north Syria. He is, rather, busy counting the money he made today for working on a nearby farm. “We do not care about Corona any more. Even without it, we were barely having enough food. Anyways, we are almost dead,” he said. “How could we keep preventative rules? Is it with masks, sanitizers and detergents that cost a fortune, or with dirty shared bathrooms? Or should we do it with water that we do not really have?” 

On his turn, Yakoub Murad, a Syrian doctor based in the Turkish city of Reyhanlı, explained that to boost the immune system, older people need to eat various types of healthy food, maintain psychological stability, and keep away from stress and anxiety. Even upon contracting the virus, they have to uphold the same measures. However, none of these requirements can be met in the camps, for living conditions are pretty challenging there, at the villages also, including that mad rise in prices and lacking emotional stability caused by military operations and constant displacement.  

 Nursing homes in the clutches of fear

Mustafa al-Nasser (63), originally a resident of Damascus, has been living in Dar al-Salama Nursing Home in Azaz City, northern rural Aleppo,  for three years, after he lost his family, wife and three children in the military combat in 2012. “I am scared that the disease might spread here as well. I quit going outside altogether. I no longer shake hands, and I frequently wash my hands.  I am not sure when the disease will disappear, but I always wonder, what would happen to me if I caught the virus? What if I needed healthcare?” he said. 

Founded in 2013, the nursing home was a mere tent, with a capacity to accommodate nine persons. In early 2018, however, the nursing home was moved to a four-room-building, with utilities. Today, the home can host 18 to 25 persons, along with six staffers.

Ziad Najar, the nursing home director, stressed that the management was keen on adopting preventative measures against COVID-19, including disinfecting the building, distributing masks, washing clothes on a regular basis and preventing elderly from mixing with strangers. A number of the inmates are mentally-disordered, who cannot be controlled in terms of hygiene and social distancing, while tightness of space continues to give them a hard time, he added.

The nursing home does not receive stable funding from any entity, Najar reported, and it is completely dependent on personal donations, adding that the home is today deficient and burdened with debts. Asking the director about potential COVID-19 positive cases, he said: “Inmates are transferred to the nearby International Blue Crescent Hospital once suspected of contracting the virus. But still, we are not sure how we will manage if cases continue to increase.”

 In north Syria, places such as first-class nursing homes do not exist. Rather, there are big and modestly furnished houses, occupied by elderly and persons with disabilities, which are operated through personal donations only, spreading in Salqin, Azaz, and al-Dana, among other areas. In the strip between rural Aleppo and Idlib, where four million persons at least live, quarantine facilities are either lacking or are not properly equipped to accommodate elederly, who might contract the virus. 

Fear and concern necessitate unity

Difficulties suffered by elederly and nursing homes in north Syria almost match those endured by old people in the northeastern parts of the country,  particularly in al-Hasaka and Raqqa, where the Women’s Committee of the Autonomous Administration supervises nursing homes. 

In Rmelan, far east of Syria, officials, running the Viyan (Emarah) Elderly Women Nursing Home, are also facing COVID-19 severe repercussions and its ever increasing threat, amidst shortage for supplies and medicaid. 

Opened in March 2016, the nursing home has the capacity to accommodate 10 women only, and it is run by four women staffers, who take turns around the clock. 

“Even staffers must adhere to certain daily measures. They have to change their clothes upon entering the nursing home, for instance. They also have to keep their hands sanitized and masks on all the time. Furthermore, they are on a diet, drinking lots of liquids and eating fruits, to boost their immune system in case an outbreak occurs,” Najah, a supervisor at the nursing home, said. 

 Family visits are also conditioned by a set of preventative measures, which the home adopts to protect the eledrly women, including social distancing, wearing masks, disinfecting hands and keeping a safe distance as a basis to prevent the transmission of the virus. 

“A major difficulty that we constantly face is that eledrely women have their families in mind all the time. One woman, for example, asks her son to come and see her regularly; another asks her daughter to do so; a third would miss having her sisters around. We, thus, ask family members to visit the elederly women at their request. When the latter meet their relatives, the emotions we get to feel cannot simply be put into words,” Najah added. 

insufficient awareness and prevention 

Addressing responsive action in the area, Dr. Ahmad al-Dabis pointed out to the awareness campaigns launched by UOSSM, which target locals in the suburbs of Aleppo and Idlib, adding that masks, disinfectants, sinitizers, and gloves were distributed at the camps, particularly to the most vulnerable groups, including elderly and people suffering from chronic diseases, such as  diabetes, cancer, asthma and  hepatitis. The population is massive and the demand is overwhelming, al-Dabis said, stressing that UOSSM’s response covers very little of the humanitarian needs of four million civilians in the area. 

Suffering thus at the camps, some hundred thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) decided to abandon the tents and head back to their destroyed homes, mostly located near fronts or war lines, one of whom was Abu Muhammad. The sixty-something man went back to his home in Taftanaz city, rural Idlib. Having returned, Abu Muhammad told the reporter that he is not scared of the disease anymore, for he washes frequently to perform prayers.  At the same time, he noted that no leaflets were distributed, nor prevention-aimed awareness campaigns were launched to address the disease, adding that he performs group prayers everyday because the pandemic has not spread in the city yet. Furthermore, staying in his city, despite the danger and the bombing, is better than being displaced at the camps, where preventive measures and healthcare services are nonexistent, he said, especially that at a certain point he was coerced to share the same room with 13 other people when he was still at the camp. 

Interviewed in Taftanz city too, Basheer al-Khatib, seventy-something, said that he tries to keep a distance from people with flue, refrains from showing up at public gathering places and tight spaces were people tend to assemble, stressing that no prevention-awareness campaigns are addressing the disease, despite the large population density. Masks or disinfectants were not distributed, as well. 

Almost in all the cities in north Syria, bazzars, popular markets opened on specific days of the week, were still being held when the report was being prepared, and no decisions were passed as to officially prevent such gatherings. 

The Early Warning Alert and Response Network (EWARN), a local healthcare group operating in north Syria, posted counsel and guidance to help edlerly protect themselves from contracting COVID-19, including washing hands, avoiding large-scale gatherings and staying away from people showing symptoms of any illnesses. 

Moreover, the EWARN stressed that diabetic people must ont skip their medications and that they should closely monitor their blood glucose, adding that people should immediately seek medical assistance upon coughing, having a fever or shortness of breath, pointing that asthma patients must keep inhalers close by. Cancer patients, the group advised, must also seek medical assistance upon coughing, having a fever or shortness of breath, accentuating that keeping these measures is a necessity, for no vaccine or treatment has been developed to counter COVID-19 so far. 

Healthcare facilities out of service

In northwest Syria, namely Idlib and rural Aleppo, medical supplies are very few, for healthcare sectors were systematically targeted by Russia and the Syrian regime in early 2020. The military campaigns rendered about 70% of the healthcare facilities out of service, estimated at 75 makeshift medical posts, either dispensaries or hospitals, that were inoperable partially or completely. Additionally, a number of facilities were turned unserviceable when controlled by the regime’s forces.  

This situation, UOSSM reported, led to the collapse of the already over stretched  healthcare system. There are 200 intensive care beds, and only 100 ventilators for more than four million people, which are extremely insufficient to accommodate Covid-19 patients, especially since these modest numbers of beds and ventilators are already in use, accommodating cancer, trauma, and wounded patients, as well as those with cardiac and liver diseases.  

The Ministry of Health of the Syrian Interim Government, for its part,  stated that since it first started to conduct Covid-19 tests last March, about three thousand people were examined, as they were suspected of being infected with the virus, adding that most of the tests were carried out at a single testing center and using the only device available.  Confirmed cases in the target areas amounted to 12, when the investigation was being conducted on 18 July.

Alarming scenarios

On 7 May 2020, a predictive report, obtained by the reporter, prepared by the Health Information Unit (HIS) of the Health Directorates in northwest Syria, in cooperation with a number of Syrian and international experts, showed that either of the three following scenarios lies ahead of the area.

The first scenario expects that in the eighth week into the outbreak, positive cases will jump to 16,384, while 2,458 cases will need hospitalization. The severe cases, however, that require admittance into intensive care and ventilators will be 819.

In the eighth week, the second scenario expects, positive cases will mount to 185,364, including 9,268 requiring intensive care and ventilators.

As for the third scenario, it focuses on the status of the population most in need, namely the newly displaced and elderly, whose number amounts to 1.2 million. This scenario expects that in the sixth week, the number of cases will reach 240,000 in the camps alone, 12,000 of which will require intensive care and ventilators. 

Given these alarming predictions and the scarce resources of the healthcare sector, elderly will be in a battle with the pandemic, unprotected and uncared for, particularly those living in the camps. 

During the latest military campaign, which Russian and regime forces embarked on in early 2020, about one million Syrians from Hama, Idlib and Aleppo suburbs were displaced to separate areas of northwest Syria, bringing the total number of displaced people there to 1.4 million, according to statistics issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in May 2020. These people reside either in uninhabitable homes or in official or otherwise unofficial camps, most of which lack all life’s essentials, thus, turning them into the most vulnerable group to contract Covid-19, since the random environment and absence of hygiene measures, drinking and household water, and disinfectants make the area an ideal incubator for the the virus to spread, as reported by the HIS of health directorates in Idlib. 

In a tweet, Mark Cutts,  the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator, warned against a modest response to the predicted health disaster, which he attributed to the reduced number of authorized crossings for the crossborder response into northwest Syria, decided by the Security Council in its recent meeting on the means of delivering humanitarian aid to north Syria. 

The warning was also echoed by Dr. Muhammad al-Issa, the health official of SAMS office in Turkey (the Syrian American Medical Society), who said that the pre-Covid-19 health status  was already critical and that people with chronic diseases were not fully provided with needed healthcare services. If the pandemic spreads, some healthcare facilities might turn inoperable, unable to provide primary services necessary to combat the outbreak, which places north Syria before a new healthcare dilemma.  

Regarding SAMS precautionary measures, al-Issa added that it has conducted (online) training, preparing many medical staffers to cope with COVID-19, and set up three quarantine facilities, in addition to the logistic support it provided to healthcare facilities as to help them affront all outbreak forms, explaining that the healthcare sector in Syria ranks as low as the second place out of five, the thing that keeps it out of  international top ratings. 

Given that situation, while UN and non-government organizations fail to answer the needs reported above, Badriyah will continue to be caged by fear, and hundreds of thousands of old people will be having an unfair battle against a fatal pandemic that might bring them to their demise.

The Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ)

Accounts addressing northeast Syria were obtained by colleague Rusheen Habo, based in al-Qamishli. 

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In Lebanon, the presence of Syrian refugees has been part of the discourse of public influential figures. As investigative journalists, we were prompted to analyze this discourse. Over the course of 10 months of work, we have documented, filtered and analyzed thousands of Tweets to identify supporters of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and those who oppose taking them in.

During the period of our reporting, Lebanon witnessed numerous campaigns and advocacy calls, among which were those triumphing the Syrian cause, or advocating the conditions of refugees in Lebanon. For example, hundreds of Syrian and Lebanese activists have tweeted in the last two years under the hashtag  #عرسال_تستغيث in an attempt to send a distress message about the horrid living conditions refugees endure in camps.

This data-driven story revealed that more than half of the tweets included in the analysis sample rejected Syrian refugees. Male rejection was more pronounced than women, with 95% of male tweets rejecting refugees, compared to 5% of tweets by women

Influential Figures

Our team of journalists and technical team at InfoTimes collaborated with a team of editors from the Syrian Investigative Journalism Unit (SIRAJ) to study and analyze the tweets of a group of Lebanese public figures from February 2011 to September 2019, where 101 individuals were selected according to their public presence and activity on Twitter, as well as their influence on the Lebanese street.

The data collection process from the social networking platform Twitter was done using algorithms specially designed for this process.Following the collection of Tweets by the figures under study, they were divided into three sectors according to their professions. The first included 41 figures working as journalists, opinion writers, and rights activists. The second sector comprised of 36 politicians, party members, government officials and statesmen. The last sector included 24 celebrities, mainly singers and actors.

Following the software algorithms, we examined and filtered approximately 238,000 tweets to extract tweets related to the subject of the Syrian asylum in Lebanon. A total of 1,454 tweets were written by 68 Lebanese of the total figures monitored in the search process.

Then we sorted the tweets and classified them into three main groups: group 1 has positive tweets – tweets that contained sympathy and support for the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Group 2 has negative tweets – tweets that included opposition, repatriation and hatred for the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and called for their return to their country. Group 3 was the neutral tweets – those tweets that did not contain words of sympathy and support nor words of hatred and hostility.

Flagrant Hatred

The analysis of tweets showed a conflicting view of the refugees, as 30% of the Lebanese figures supported the refugees, while 51% rejected them, which explains the emergence of voices calling for the return of Syrian refugees, describing the as “displaced”.

These percentages illustrate the officials’ position concerning Syrian refugees, and the apparent division of the Lebanese public on this matter. There was no apparent conflict of opinion or change of attitudes by any of the figures being researched. Even if sympathy emerged among one or two people who oppose the Syrian asylum in Lebanon, it was a manifestation of some humanity, but it does not rise to be a visible change in the general attitude of this character. Nevertheless, 19% of the public figures’ Tweets were neutral.

The analysis revealed high rejection of refugees,  where the list of negative Tweets amounted to 114. Some of these public figures are from the axis supporting the Syrian regime and some from the anti-Syrian axis, such as figures from the “Marada”, figures from the Future Movement, figures from the Lebanese Forces Party, figures from the current “Azm”, in addition to figures from The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), government officials, and MPs in the Lebanese parliament.

But the most prominent and obvious role in the rejection of refugees and prominent support for the Syrian regime, was played by the Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, leader of President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, who often called for the need to return the “displaced” Syrians to their country.

Sympathy and Support

On the other hand, there were those who supported the Syrian refugees and positively dealt with their situation, such as figures from the Progressive Socialist Party in Lebanon, figures from the Future Movement, media personnel  and human rights activist Nabil Halabi, Lebanese journalist Tony Boulos and journalist Rima Maktabi, celebrity Fadel Shaker, media personnel Dalal Moawad, and others.

Lebanese women were present in dealing with the situation of Syrian refugees on Twitter, and they had smaller portion of negative Tweets. Only 5% of 736 Tweets by women were negative. Women accounted for nearly a third of positive posts. Lebanese journalist Rima Maktabi was at the forefront of the most supportive of Syrian refugees throughout her Tweets for eight years.

Hatred in a Historical Context

In the search for the reasons that have created the rejection of Syrian presence in Lebanon, even before the Syrian protests and the outbreak of military actions, a historical factor related to the political relations between the two countries emerges, namely the length of the Syrian army’s presence in Lebanon during the period of the Lebanese civil war until 2005. This role was manifested in the exercise of absolute rule in Lebanon and the imposition of “trusteeship”, domination, and control. This presence was associated with abuses, repression and oppressive practices that restricted public freedom. This created a general aversion in Lebanon towards any Syrian, whose presence was described as an occupation.

In line with this sentiment towards the Syrian people in Lebanon, another factor related to the economic situation in Lebanon is highlighted. Some say that the Syrian workers in Lebanon reduce the job opportunities of the Lebanese and adds to the unemployment crisis, as pointed out by the Lebanese Minister of Labor Sajaan Azz in the London Arab newspaper, who said that “about one million Syrians compete with the Lebanese labor without controls, and that is a heavy burden on the Lebanese economy and on the opportunities available to the Lebanese labor force. “

The Battles Move from Twitter to the Ground

The hate speech that emerged through the tweets of some politicians and public figures against Syrian refugees in Lebanon, was not words written on social media, but translated into reality in many situations, where the levels of attack and harassment of refugees by local municipalities in some areas, as well as state agencies and authorities, were heightened, according to human rights defenders.

In an April 2018 Human Rights Watch report, it was stated that at least 13 municipalities in Lebanon had forcibly evicted at least 3,664 Syrian refugees from their homes and expelled them from municipalities, and that evictions by municipalities were discriminatory and illegal. The report also said that another 42,000 are at the same risk because of their “nationality or religion”.

Human Rights Watch reported that this operation resulted in refugees losing their income and property, and disrupted their children’s education, including those who had been absent from school for months and others who had completely stopped attending school.

But how can social media and Twitter’s rhetoric affect the fate of the nearly one million Syrians living in this country? Through this question and through data obtained after analyzing the Tweets, we wanted to talk to people on the Lebanese street to know more about their opinion on the issue of Syrian asylum in Lebanon. Opinions were divided between supporters of the idea of returning refugees to their country, and those who support their presence in Lebanon, but under certain conditions.

“The Syrian displacement crisis in Lebanon has turned into a social crisis with significant economic and other implications, and this requires the cooperation of several parties to find a solution, such as Syria and the United Nations,” said Elias Melki, secretary of the Lebanese Forces political formation body.

As such, Melki puts forward his party’s proposal to establish camps in the Syrian territories that are not affiliated with the Syrian regime or the opposition, but fall under international auspices until the political solution in Syria matures. He also stresses the need for the Syrian regime to cooperate to return the refugees to their land, “if it is keen to do so.”

Elian Saad, a young woman affiliated with the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said “I encourage the return of displaced Syrians to safe areas in Syria for many reasons”.

On the security front, Saad sees Syrian asylum as a danger, especially in the camps that she considers “hotbeds of the terrorist cell”. She also encourages the cooperation of international organizations with the Syrian regime for the return of displaced persons, especially since many areas have become safe.

On the other hand, Sobhi Amhaz, a Lebanese journalist, objects to the term “safe return”, considering that the return must be voluntary in accordance with all international conventions, because the concept of safety is relative.”It is not enough that the region be safe, [it is different] for Syrian opposition activists, for example,” he says.

Amhaz believes that “there are Lebanese cultural legacies that consider anyone who is a foreigner to be an outsider to the Lebanese fabric.”

He also misconstrues the idea of “increasing unemployment due to Syrian asylum in Lebanon,” stressing the absence of clear policies in the Lebanese labor market before 2011, so there is no responsibility on the Syrians. On the contrary, he believes that the Lebanese state benefits from donations and money that is pumped into its treasury, which it receives in return for receiving refugees.

Mohammed Hassan, founder of the Access Center for Human Rights, commented on the results of the analysis, saying: “The aggression against foreigners is not new behavior, before the Syrian asylum in Lebanon, there was enslavement of foreign workers, especially Domestic workers who come to Lebanon in very difficult conditions from their home countries”, through the offices that bring in domestic workers, which falls under domestic law.

He added that the recent increasing hostility towards Syrian refugees was represented by speeches through social media and Lebanese media, which is the main reason for the increasing tension between the Lebanese and Syrian societies.

Hassan summarized the most prominent violations caused by hate speeches from Lebanese politicians and official media that violate local and international laws. This includes the decisions of the Lebanese municipalities to prevent the movement of refugees and forced them to work forced labor and pay monthly contributions for municipal services already funded by the government, as well as decisions of deportation “legalized” by the Lebanese General Security at Beirut airport, which violates the Convention under Article II, Article III of the Convention against Torture, And the Lebanese Constitution.

Report by: Mohammad Waked, Ammar Al-Khasawneh

Researchers: Abdul Rahman Al-Khader, Ahmad Rahal, Manar Abu Hassoun

Translation: Aya Nader

Edited by: Mohamed Zidan, Mohamed Bassiki

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Inside the maternity ward of the public “Dugum” hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey, the Syrian refugee Nour Shabaan, aged 17, lies in a bed for pregnant women, getting ready to give birth to her baby.

The parents are overjoyed at the coming baby, perhaps it will make them forget the bitterness of displacement and moving away from their homeland since they settled in the Turkish town of Gaziantep 3 years ago fleeing the horrors of the Syrian war.

Nour delivers the baby, and things go smoothly but then the hospital refuses to give the baby to the parents on the pretext that the mother’s refugee ID has a wrong age, because she was married under the legal age of marriage (18 years). The hospital decided to keep the baby, and refer the mother to trial at once.

When Nour delivered the baby, she was 17 years old. When she got married, she was 16. In both cases, she was violating the Family Law provisions on marriage, that bans the marriage of girls under 18. This violation is described by the law as “a crime of sexual exploitation”, punishable by prison terms ranging between 8 and 15 years, according to Articles 103-105 of the Turkish Penal Code.

Although the law banning marriage of children in Turkey applies also to other foreigners living in the country, including Syrian refugees, the lack of knowledge about it, and lack of awareness about the consequences of early marriage (beside the lack of NGOs and societal oversight) led to the spread of these early marriages among the Syrian community.

The World Health Organisation estimates that there are 16 million girls around the world between 15 and 19 years old, and one million girls under 15, who give birth each year.

According to World Bank statistics for 2017, the rate of pregnancy of girls between 15 and 19 years old in Syria is around 39 cases in each 1,000 girl.

Nour is one of a great number of Syrian refugees who live in Turkey as refugees and who got married under 18 either on Turkish soil or in Syria, and then entered Turkey refugees after their marriage or having given birth in hospitals under the legal age of marriage.

According to Haydar Houri, a specialist lawyer, without being aware of the consequences of underage marriage, the fathers of the girls encourage their marriage to older men (over 18) and become legally accountable after managing the marriage. This issue is spreading throughout Turkey.

The law classifies a minor as anyone under the age of 18, according to Ghazwan Qoronful, head of the Syrian Lawyers Collective in Turkey (a group of Syrian lawyers who provide legal aid to refugees in courts of law). He adds that under the Syrian Personal Status Law, Article 85, a minor does not reach the age of eligibility until they reach 18.

According to law number 5395, covering children in Turkey, a minor is considered to be anyone below the age of 18, added Qoronful.

While early marriage is defined as the marriage of a person under the age of 18 year, according to Qoronful “This marriage in the eyes of the Turkish law is not marriage. It is categorized as sexual assault against a minor.”

The consequences of this “assault” is usually to refer such cases (usually captured at hospitals during delivery or when a girl is discovered as pregnant and her age turns out to be under 18) to the public prosecution office, that in turn moves the case on to the courts. The husband and girl’s parent are arrested. Sometimes, the girl herself is arrested, and they all are turned over to the court, according to Qoronful.

DNA test for the child

Gaziantep’s hospital decided to let Nour go, after she recovered from the delivery. The baby stayed at the hospital. The hospital ordered a DNA test to confirm his identity as to whether he’s indeed her son, and the mother found herself in another pitfall.

Nour confessed to the investigator that she forged her age and real name. She said, “for this case, I used the help of a Syrian lawyer to oversee the test procedures, and for taking a blood sample from the baby for the test. The lawyer wasn’t able to help, however. So I hired a Turkish lawyer. Now, I am waiting for the results, to see if they will allow me to take the baby home. They allow me to see him, however. I go see him every 3 days, because the hospital is away from where I live. It is a long distance that I cannot commute through daily.”

Nour’s baby came to the world 2 months and 5 days before I interviewed her on 25 January 2019. Since then, nothing has changed. She is still waiting for the DNA test’s results, and is waiting for the baby to come home. But she’s “optimistic”, and waits for the day the baby will return to her.

In case he doesn’t return, she said, the lawyer told her he will file a case against the hospital. This is what gives her hope and keeps her going.

“I know a girl who had been through this before me. She delivered her baby 7 months ago, and the tests results showed up few days back”, said Nour, “So now she can take the baby from the hospital.”

The test done through the Ministry of Health’s budget was a relief for the mother, since she didn’t have to pay for it. The lawyer’s fees, however, reached 7,000 Turkish Liras ($1200). The family had to go into debt because they didn’t have even one single Lira to start with, according to Nour.

A love story

Nour regrets forging her name and age. But her motive for this was being afraid of having her real age discovered, because she did this in order to marry her cousin (20 years old), after a love story, she claims. She lives with her in-laws now, while her parents and siblings live in Adana, southern Turkey.

“I am sad because my child is not with me, but what can I do. God willing, in a few days he will return to me. They care for the babies at hospital. Every time I go visit I see he’s clean and well-fed”, Nour said, “I couldn’t breastfeed him because right after delivering the baby I had to go to court each day, and I wasn’t able at that time to go visit the hospital as well to breastfeed him.”

“At the hospital, they said that my boy looks like me. But they need a legal proof. I feel so sad because I couldn’t breastfeed him. I begged the hospital to let me do that, but each time they deny my request.”

At the court

Marwa Alyoussef is 17 years old. She has been married to her cousin, who works as a tailor, for two years now, since she was 15 years old. Her story is not so different from Nour’s, but she endured different kinds of suffering that were reflected on her life in Turkey as the country she fled to from Syria.

Marwa who came from the famous al-Midan neighborhood, Damascus, didn’t notarize her marriage (that was conducted in Syria) at the Turkish authorities. Therefore, she lacks reliable documentation about her social status in Turkish governmental records. She had a baby from her marriage. The baby is now one year old.

Marwa said, “I delivered the baby at the Bagajlar public hospital in Istanbul. I wasn’t interrogated or asked any questions during the delivery. However, one year after the delivery, the police came and asked me to go visit the station. I went, and they held an investigation for me. They reviewed my documentation, and gave me a date to go visit the court, 4 months later.”

When Marwa entered the courtroom at Karakoy, Istanbul, after referral from the police, she found a translator, a psychiatrist, a judge, and a public writer. She said, “They asked me so many questions about my personal life. Questions like, ‘do you regret your marriage? Do you love your husband? Did someone coerce you into getting married? Do you currently have a job?’. These were important questions for them because they do not allow married women my age to work outside the household. They also asked me to refrain from pregnancy for 3 years.”

Until now, Marwa doesn’t know what she did wrong, because “marriage at that young age is so widespread in Syria, not only within my family. I married before I come to Turkey. I have papers to prove it. There is nothing wrong with me getting married”, Marwa said.

According to her, she knows about “so many marriages of girls at 12 and 13 years old. I mean once the girl reaches puberty she would get married, nothing is wrong with that”.

“I have many friends with the same issue. They can face imprisonment. They went to court many times, because they get a ruling of being innocent from accusations against them. They also paid lots of money, reaching 20,000 Liras ($3660) in some cases, and as low as 5,000 Liras ($915) in other cases, as fees for lawyers, commute, and other costs related to the court.”

Meanwhile, she also fears the repercussions on her husband if the authorities discover their early marriage and how they had a baby while they were both minors, under the age of marriage. She waits for the next court hearing in late April 2019.

She said, “I am afraid that they might take my husband. I love him so much. In case the court decides to put him in prison, we might go back to Syria, although he was summoned there for military conscription.”

Marriage in Turkey

• Marriage in Turkey is civil marriage. Turkish family law organizes marriage, and its provisions do not rely on religions [sic].
• Age of marriage: 18 years old.
• Exceptions from the age limit:
  • Persons at 17, with the consent of parents.
  • Persons at 16, after consent from the judge at family court.
  • People with special needs who are 18 or older, can get married after consent from the family court’s judge, based on medical reports about their capacity to get married.
• No polygamy in Turkey.
• Any marriage concluded outside municipalities’ marriage offices is not legal.

Source for the infographics: Syrian lawyer Haydar Houri

A widespread phenomenon

The phenomenon of early marriage among minor Syrian girls in Turkey, and in other countries of destination for Syrian refugees, is like a snowball that keeps rolling and getting bigger. It persists in the absence of awareness about the risks and dangers, and in spite of the grave psychological problems it produces for the family (parents and children alike). This phenomenon has become well known from the media focus directed at it, in order to help spread awareness about it, and to try and find a solution that might help control this phenomenon.

In an investigation report by ‘Al-Arabi Al-Jadid’ entitled “Underage mothers in Turkey” on 15 March 2018, it was pointed out that the reception at one hospital, during the first five months of last year, had visits from 115 pregnant children. Police were not notified about them. They included 39 Syrians, and the rest were Turkish. Among the 115 cases, 38 were minors under 15 years old.

This is what led the Turkish authorities to open two separate investigations. The first is related to public servants accused of negligence. The second is related to the exploitation of children.

Public Prosecution managed to investigate the cases of 20 of the accused, and to conduct investigations related to 50 minors, in the presence of a psychiatrist. Investigations had shown that all pregnant minors live in neighborhoods and municipalities of Istanbul with high population concentration of people who moved there from Eastern and South Eastern Turkey.

In the same context, in Sweden, the country that received around 110 thousand Syrian refugees, representing the second biggest migrant group in the country,132 minor refugees were married to adults according to UNHCR’s statistics until 2016, although the numbers didn’t specify their gender. This has led the Swedish Tax Authority to strengthen the rules of evaluating and registering child-marriage cases, even if other authorities allowed such marriages.

In Germany, which hosts 699,000 Syrians, representing the third biggest migrant group in the country, the Federal Statistics Office in 2018, and the Federal Ministry of Homeland Security, estimated that 1,475 minors registered as married, including 361 girls under 14. This led the Ministry of Justice to introduce a bill, by which the German government will not recognize marriages documented through foreign marriage certificates, in case one of the couple is under 18.

Birth, but under conditions

When Israa Muhammad (15 years) decided to go to the public hospital in Kilis, Turkey to give birth to her first child, the hospital denied her entry. She decided to go to a private hospital, but she didn’t make it through the door there either.

“The doctor shouted at me, saying you are young, and the child is small”, said Israa, “I cannot take responsibility in case one of you dies, which is very probable.”

She added, “At that time, I was in great pain, giving birth, and the baby was almost fully born. We didn’t know where to go, but God put in our way a legal midwife, who agreed to do the operation. She said she will do it on condition that she will not be held responsible if something happened to me or the baby. We could only accept, because we didn’t have any other options.”

Dr. Sawat Irchahin, the head gynecologist at Medical Park in Istanbul, said, “Early marriage has a negative influence on the health of mother and child. Symptoms appear early in the pregnancy, with nonstop vomiting, anemia, as well as the possibility of miscarriage and early births. This is because of female hormones at this early age, or because the uterus is not ready yet for pregnancy. This leads to spasms that might lead to hemorrhage, and thus early births happen. The young girl can also suffer high blood pressure, leading to kidney failure, internal hemorrhage, spams, and the need for cesarean operations become more likely.”

The doctor confirmed that early pregnancy “increases the likelihood of suffering bone deformations in the pelvic area and the spine. It can also negatively affect the embryo’s health. The embryo can suffocate inside the mother because of a likely severe shortage in the blood circulation feeding him.”

Early birth can also lead to a shortage in the respiratory functions, because the embryo can be born without fully formed lungs. The child can suffer problems in the digestive system, and a delay in physical and mental growth. The child can also suffer brain paralysis or hearing impairments, according to Dr. Irchahin.

Getting pregnant once again

The pain and suffering Israa had been through didn’t stop her from getting pregnant one more time. She didn’t think about how her early marriage would  be discovered when she went to the hospital to give birth to her second child. At the time, she was 16 years old.

“When I was pregnant with my second child, I went to the Kamil public hospital,” said Israa. “There, they had to receive me, because the baby’s head had already emerged. They quickly put me in the delivery room. After the baby was born, they registered my personal data, and soon enough the police came to interrogate me. They kept me at the hospital for 12 days.”

During that period, her daughter was inside an incubator in the hospital. The mother went through investigations and interrogations. They took her fingerprints, and in the end allowed her to leave the hospital with her baby girl.

She said, “I felt I was a prisoner released. I told myself I will not get pregnant again until I am 20.”

How the prosecution proceeds

• The case starts during child birth, or during consulting the doctors while monitoring births in public hospitals and clinics.
• Police are notified by the doctor, because failing to inform the police is considered a crime.
• The Supreme Criminal Court in Turkey manages these cases, because the penalty is over 5 years of imprisonment.
• Penalties, based on the judge’s discretion can reach 10 years in prison, according to the Turkish Penal Code.
• The case starts without the need for someone filing it.
• The case is referred to prosecution, that demands verdicts against the husband and the minor’s parent.

 Source: Haydar Houri, Syrian lawyer.

The Social-media’s market

Some groups and pages specialized in matters related to women and girls on social media provide a forum for discussions about child marriage and refugee affairs in host communities in general. Some of these pages also provide information for arranging marriages.

A woman for example would say she needs a wife for her son or another relative, with specific demands, like her age, height, where she lives, etc, and proposals start coming her way.

This investigator witnessed several cases, where she contacted the people in question, but it is hard to expose their real names because the topic is sensitive. Samar (not her real name) says she got married at 14, and delivered her first baby at 15, at a private hospital in Istanbul. She didn’t go to a public hospital fearing the procedures. But she had to go to public healthcare facilities to vaccinate the child.

There, officials initiated an investigation into her about her marriage and when it happened. The police also interrogated her the next day.

Her father was arrested, and police searched for her husband, who is on the run until now, according to her post.

Social expert Adel Hanif Ughlu, who worked in 2012-2013 on documenting 11 child marriage cases of girls, including 9 cases ending in kidney failure, says, “Syrian families hide this affairs very well. Even those who have Turkish nationality have their daughters married while still minors, even though they know this is a crime under Turkish laws.”

Official statistics and numbers

* 405,521 Syrian children have been born in Turkey in up to November 2018.

Source: Minister of Interior, Süleyman Soylu, 22 February 2019.

* Urfa province in southern Turkey is among the provinces with highest occurrences of Syrian births.

* 400 Syrian children are born in Turkey each day.

* Urfa’s share of that number is 50 to 55 per day.

Source: Head of Migration Research Center, Muhammad Murad Erdogan, 25 October 2018.

* Over half a million Syrian children are born in Turkey and who are under 4 years, do not possess any nationality (stateless).

* Current number of those registered as deserving temporary protection is 3.5 million.

* The number of stateless newborns and children under 4 in Turkey is 535,826.

Source: Turkish Migration and Refuge Authority, and the Ombudsman office, 25 August 2018.

Endless psychological problems

Early marriage doesn’t leave its mark on the girl’s physical health only, but it also leads to deep psychological crises that become hard to get through with the passage of time, for the girl and for her children. Psychiatrist Omnia Turk says that this early marriage “denies the girl the kindness of her parents, and her right to choose a husband herself. It also means denying her living her full childhood. The girl doesn’t understand married life, or the responsibility on her shoulders, leading to huge pressures in some cases. Also, she suffers problems in her sexual life, because she doesn’t understand married or sexual life. This leads to breakdowns between the couple, and the inability to adjust with the problems of marriage.”

Another aspect negatively affecting the children, is that they do not understand that the mother herself is a minor, and “that leads to unsound and unwise decisions, because the minor doesn’t care for giving her children education. She didn’t acquire the ability to discipline or raise the children, let alone being denied herself the right to education, which negatively influences her and the children.”

She added, “When she grows up, the minor discovers that she married the wrong person, or not the person she wants to continue her life with. She discovers that she was used as if she was an object for sale.”

Early marriage in religion

Marriage cannot happen unless the couple are on equal terms. In Sharia, this equality is required. Here, Dr. Muhammad Nadir, a lecturer at Karabük University, Turkey, says, “If the girl marries a person who is not equal to her, without her consent, the marriage is considered null and void, according to most Ulama (experts in religious law).”

According to Dr. Nadir, “The couple being on an equal footing is an inherent right for the woman. She cannot be coerced into forfeiting that right. It is a condition for marriage, and marriage of minors is void of this quality. Sharia might grant the minor a separate/independent financial capacity, overseen by her parent, in her interest. Her money cannot be spent except in her interest. Interest in marriage is even more important than finances, because honor is more important than money.”

Solutions to the phenomenon

Faced with this reality and in the absence of sufficient solutions for the problematic phenomenon of early marriage in Turkey among the Syrians, and regardless of if that marriage was conducted in Syria or Turkey, the future of such marriages is vague. Against the strict Turkish Law, Nour and Marwa will keep waiting for the results of their prosecution, anxiously waiting for the influence on their future and lives. Here, the Syrian lawyer Haydar Houri recommends to avoid marriage before 18. This marriage, according to him, is problematic, because, “There are many cases of prosecution in Turkey.”

When the minor girl is discovered as being married, one of two methods is used. Either to refer her to a shelter for minors, or return her to her family home, and make the family promise not to send her ever again to the husband.

Houri, on the other hand, recommends that any person married to a minor girl in Turkey, should try to document his marriage in one way or another in Syria, to avoid penalty. This is because once the marriage is documented by Syrian Sharia courts, this documentation can be used in the prosecution to avoid penalizing the husband, because the act is a crime in his country.

*This investigation was conducted under supervision of the Syrian Investigative Reporting Unit – SIRAJ, within the context of “Syria In Depth” project, conducted in cooperation with the Guardian Foundation, with support from IMS. 

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Syrian refugees deported from Lebanon say they suffered abuses by security forces on both sides of the border, including beatings by Lebanese authorities and forced conscription into the Syrian army. Some have died in detention or disappeared.

Their experiences raise concerns about the fate awaiting the 276,000 people who have fled Lebanon to Syria since the intensification of Israel’s airstrikes on the country last month, 70% of whom are Syrians, according to UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency.

Israel’s attacks have killed more than 2,300 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, and displaced an estimated 1.2 million – most since late September.

Prior to the current escalation, Lebanon was hosting an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, who now face an impossible decision: return to Syria and face potential arrest, conscription, and abuse; or remain in Lebanon and risk death or injury from Israeli bombardment while suffering the humanitarian fallout of the expanding war.

The risks of returning to Syria have been made clear in recent years, as Lebanese authorities ramped up removals of Syrian refugees. The military forced at least 13,700 people over the border into Syria in deportation or pushback operations in 2023, according to UNHCR.

The campaign marked “a dramatic increase compared to approximately 1,500 cases in 2022”, according to Lisa Abou Khaled, a Beirut-based spokesperson for the agency.

This year so far, the military has removed at least 4,800 Syrians in pushback operations, Abou Khaled said.

Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security, an intelligence agency responsible for monitoring foreign residents, deported an additional 1,300 Syrians in 2023 and 900 this year so far, according to UNHCR.

“We never imagined that one day we would find ourselves in the same danger we fled from.”

Out of 760 deportations documented last year by the Syrian human rights group Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR), around 120 people have not been heard from since.

Over the last three months, the Syrian Investigative Journalism Unit (SIRAJ) and The New Humanitarian secured rare interviews with recent deportees who remain trapped in Syria, as well as relatives of deportees who died or went missing after being handed over to Syrian authorities. They described sudden, violent raids by Lebanese police and intelligence officials, mass deportations by truck, long marches across the barren border zone between the two countries, and prolonged, arbitrary detention by Syrian authorities.

“We thought we would be living under better security conditions in Lebanon,” one forced recruit in the Syrian army told SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian in July, three months after being deported from Lebanon.

“We never imagined that one day we would find ourselves in the same danger we fled from,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Syrian authorities have arrested 23 refugees who returned from Lebanon to Syria fleeing Israeli airstrikes since 23 September, according to Fadel Abdulghany, executive director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR). Three have been released, while the rest were conscripted into the Syrian army, he said.

“This pattern of arrests highlights the Syrian regime’s continued targeting of returning refugees, exacerbating their already precarious circumstances as they attempt to escape conflict zones,” Abdulghany told SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian.

He added that he expects Syrian authorities under President Bashar al-Assad to continue arresting returnees.

“The arrests, the disappearances, the conscriptions will continue for months,” Abdulghany said. “He is beyond any accountability. He can do whatever he wants to those who have opposed him and returned to Syria.”

Beaten and insulted

Around half of Lebanon’s 1.5 million Syrian refugees hold UN refugee status. Many have lived and worked in Lebanon for years, despite growing xenophobia, discrimination, and limited employment options.

UNHCR has documented more than 98,000 voluntary returns to Syria by refugees since 2016, including more than 8,000 this year, not including those displaced by Israeli bombings, Abou Khaled said.

However, the agency warned in July that conditions in Syria are too unsafe to encourage large-scale voluntary returns. Surveys conducted by UNHCR among Syrian refugees in several countries documented widespread fear of detention, forced conscription, and a lack of safety and security.

These fates are often what awaits those deported from Lebanon.

“Most deportees are in the age of compulsory and reserve military service,” said Mohammed Hasan, executive director of ACHR. “We’ve observed a pattern where deportees who pass the security check are given two-week notice to join military service, while those who don’t pass simply get arrested or disappear.”

In one raid in April, a Lebanese army patrol in the coastal city of Jounieh rounded up several Syrian refugees, including a 30-year-old man named Kareem. SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian spoke to his brother Ziad in July.

“Many of them were severely beaten and insulted during the raids, and they were not allowed to take their personal belongings, as was the case with my brother,” Ziad said.

Most of the Syrian refugees in this article are being referred to by their first names, or their names are being withheld, to protect their identities.

Kareem had fled his hometown of Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, in late 2013, following an infamous chemical attack in the area. He had worked as a baker in Lebanon and lived with his wife and two children, who were not caught in the raid.

The soldiers placed Kareem and his neighbours onto white buses with army plates, along with dozens of other refugees detained earlier. They totalled around 40, including women and children.

The buses deposited the deportees in the neutral zone between the Lebanese and Syrian sides of the Masnaa border crossing on the Beirut-Damascus highway. They were forced to walk several kilometres to the Syrian checkpoint, controlled by the Syrian 4th Armoured Division, Ziad said.

“Deportees in the age of compulsory and reserve military service are often assigned to new units, such as the 4th Division, and are subsequently deployed to front lines,” said Hasan, adding that the division is led by Major General Maher al-Assad, the younger brother of the Syrian president. Maher is wanted in France on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“My brother was able to call his wife on the same night they were deported, saying that they were detained by the 4th Division and would be transferred to the military police in the Qaboun area to join military service,” Ziad said.

After that call, Kareem’s phone was confiscated. “We have not heard from him since that night,” he said.

“UNHCR fully recognizes the impact of hosting large numbers of refugees on Lebanon, especially given the country’s numerous challenges,” Abou Khaled said. “We continue, however, to advocate for the respect of principles of international law and to ensure that refugees in Lebanon are protected from refoulement.”

Signs of torture

Ahmad Adnan Shamsi al-Haydar, 19, was also deported to Syria in April. He had fled escalating violence in his hometown of Al-Bukamal, in eastern Syria, in 2022 and found construction work in Lebanon.

“Ahmad was detained by the 4th Division of the Syrian regime’s forces without any legal arrest warrant,” a relative told SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian in July. “He was not given the opportunity to contact his family or a lawyer, and his whereabouts were unknown for two months.”

“We documented several cases of defected soldiers who were tortured to death after their deportation.”

In late June, a Syrian military official contacted the family, saying Ahmad had died of a heart attack while detained by the Military Intelligence Directorate. The relative said Ahmad had been in good health when he was arrested, and his family believe he died as a result of torture.

“We were asked to collect his body from the military hospital in Deir Ezzor,” the relative said. “When we received the body, we observed clear signs of torture and mistreatment. We were later told that Ahmad had been arrested due to a case of mistaken identity, and that he was not the person originally wanted by the authorities.”

Syrian military defectors, activists, journalists, and anyone perceived to oppose al-Assad’s rule are likely to face torture after being deported to Syria, Hasan said.

“We documented several cases of defected soldiers who were tortured to death after their deportation,” he said.

Syria’s Interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment about al-Haydar’s death.

Wanted for military service

Also handed over to the 4th Armoured Division were two Syrian brothers who were deported from Lebanon in April 2023. SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian contacted one of the brothers in July, while he was trapped in military service.

“Lebanese army intelligence raided the places where Syrians lived… [and] arrested about 23 Syrians from their homes,” he recounted. “We were detained for hours. Then the Lebanese army intelligence left us all inside Syrian territory near the checkpoint of the 4th Division at the Masnaa crossing.”

A security check revealed that the two brothers, along with five other deportees, were wanted for compulsory service or were flagged for other security issues. They were sent to the Military Security Branch 248 in Damascus, where they were investigated for nine days, before being handed over to military police, and then assigned to separate military units for service.

“We are still in reserve military service,” the deportee said. “The security conditions are very bad, and I cannot go into more details.”

While Lebanon and Syria are thought to be collaborating on the deportations, ACHR does not believe the motivation is to address a shortage of conscripts in Syria. Rather, the group believes the Syrian army is permitting the deportations to raise funds from deportees seeking to flee back across the porous border into Lebanon.

“We observed that the 4th Division is coordinating with the human trafficking gangs and smugglers to extort money from deportees to allow them to escape Syria through irregular routes,” Hasan said.

“The 4th Division has an economic office whose mission is to collect money and finance the division,” said Jihad Yazigi, editor of the online economic bulletin The Syria Report. The division collects funds from people passing through various checkpoints, especially along roads between different areas of control, he said.

Financial concerns also motivate Lebanon’s role in the deportations, according to Hasan. Lebanon accelerated removals of refugees last year “as a strategic tool to pressure the international community for increased aid”, he told SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian.

Lebanon has struggled with an economic and political crisis for years, with poverty tripling over the past decade.

European governments are concerned about mass migration to their countries if Lebanon cannot care for its large refugee population, Abdulghany said.

In May, the EU pledged a billion-euro aid package to Lebanon to be distributed over several years. Part of the package will be spent on facilitating “voluntary returns” to Syria.

The EU’s humanitarian aid arm, ECHO, did not respond to requests for comment about its response to Lebanon’s deportation campaign or the risk of EU funds being used to forcibly return refugees to Syria.

Neither Syria’s interior ministry nor Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security responded to questions about their alleged roles in deporting Syrian refugees.

Lasting scars

Most deportees survive the process and are released into Syria, but some with lasting trauma.

One woman who was deported in April 2023 said Lebanese authorities came to her door at 9:30am and rounded up any Syrians they could find in their town square in Jbeil district. She and her two stepdaughters were forced onto trucks and taken to a military compound in the city of Aley, where there were around 200 other Syrians awaiting interrogation.

“One of the officers, who was from intelligence, took my handbag, searched it, found registration papers from UNHCR, tore them up, and started cursing us and the UN, accusing us of coming here to beg in Lebanon,” she told ACHR. SIRAJ and The New Humanitarian reviewed a transcript of her account.

“He also found makeup in my bag and told me that after the investigation, I should come to him and entertain him at his office,” she said, adding that she felt the officer was sexually harassing her.

That afternoon, the Syrians were forced back onto the trucks to be taken to the Syrian border. “The men were all tied with plastic ties,” she said.

After walking across the neutral zone at the Masnaa crossing for more than an hour, they were detained by a Syrian border guard unit for six days before being released and making their way to Damascus.

Once they arrived, the woman immediately contacted her husband and asked him to arrange for them to be smuggled back to Lebanon. “We could never stay there,” she said.

Even though she made it back to Lebanon with her stepdaughters, the experience had a prolonged impact. “Throughout this period, our children lived in a state of fear and terror, and they even experienced involuntary urination for more than a month,” the woman said. “They constantly woke up at night due to nightmares.”

With additional reporting by Urwah Iftikhar. Edited by Eric Reidy and Andrew Gully.

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