Amina, her husband, and five children arrived in Lebanon in 2012, seeking medical care for her husband who was injured in a bombing frenzy near Damascus. 

Amina and her family are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Beirut, and their basic needs, such as housing; food assistance; and the husband’s treatment are mainly provided by charities. They had no idea, however, that they needed to renew their Lebanese residence permits, which they learned of when Amina’s husband was notified of a non-renewal fine of US $800 (1,760,000 Syrian Pounds). By the time he managed to secure the fine’s money and went to pay it, Amina’s husband received a deportation order from the General Security. 

During her stay in Lebanon, Amina gave birth to two other sons. One was born with a congenital heart disease and needed treatment that was expensive in Lebanon. Considering that medical care was free in Syria, the mother set her mind to travelling back with her two younger sons. “On the Syrian border post, the Lebanese authorities gave me a pink form, which was supposedly to help me legalize my status in Syria, except that it contained an order of no-entry to Lebanon because I overstayed my residence permit’s duration,” Amina says.  

In keeping with the regulations enforced by the Lebanese government since early 2015, Syrian citizens adhere to certain entry procedures, whereby they must obtain the border authorities’ approval for entry and provide relevant supporting documents. Syrians are then granted permits of various stay periods. In cases of transit through Lebanon; medical visits; or an appointment with a foreign embassy, for instance, Syrians are allowed a 24 hours stay, which extends to a whole year for residents; university students; and the holders of a work authorization. It ought to be noted that these regulations have been declared illegal and annulled by Lebanon’s State Shura Council under Resolution No. 412/2017-2020, for being passed by an incompetent authority. 

Amina tried to return to Lebanon three months later, having completed her son’s treatment in Syria. It was then that the Lebanese Border Guard told her she was denied access, and the reason, to her shock, was the non-renewal of her Lebanese residence permit. She had no other choice but to return to Syria once again. Amina eventually returned to Lebanon through her husband’s Lebanese personal connections, who helped him send an official letter to the General Security on the border post. Upon entering the Lebanese territories, the authorities confiscated Amina’s passport, and those of her two sons. She was notified of the need to refer to the General Security Office (GSO) in Beirut. 

At the office in question, officials asked her to return 15 days later. She did, and again she was turned down. Amina, for quite a while, kept showing at the GSO, until finally one employee told her to never return, or otherwise he would arrest her. 

This is the story of many Syrian refugees in Lebanon, whose life has stopped because their official documents, particularly passports; identity documents; and residence permits are seized by the General Security. Refugees thus have limited mobility, within Lebanon, while not allowed to go abroad. In addition, they are deprived of their right to seeking job opportunities, and registering vital events at the Civil Registry. Syrian refugees cannot record marriages; or divorces; or even births.  

Playing on Terminology

It was the shared terrain between Syria and Lebanon why scores of Syrians living on the border strip flocked into Lebanon as combat escalated. 

Compared to its per capita, Lebanon has hosted the largest number of Syrian refugees since 2011. And because it is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Lebanon has enforced no laws to protect refugees’ rights, who are usually stripped of their legal status as refugees, and are rather referred to as internally displaced people (IDPs).  By opting for one term instead of the other, the Lebanese government manages to escape obligations it must adhere to should it recognize people it hosts as refugees. The latter are not offered a resettlement; or any of the other rights granted to citizens, including healthcare, education, and work. The distinction between the two legal terms is central; unlike refugees, IDPs have not crossed a border to find safety, and they are on the run at home. For their part, refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country.

According to Access Center for Human Rights, like Amina, 41 Syrian refugees in Lebanon were subjected to civil documents confiscations in 2019. In three of these cases, group confiscations were committed against civil society organizations employees. An additional 26 cases were documented by the center between early 2020 and 15 October, four of the victims were civil activists. Out of the whole, 22 of the people subjected to such seizures were registered with the UNHCR, and other 13 have entered Lebanon legally.    

As might be expected, seizure of documents denies refugees their right to movement within Lebanon, or travelling abroad; making a living under their poor economic conditions; or even filing civil registration requests, such as registering  marriages and divorces, or adding newborns to civil records.  

Compared to its per capita, Lebanon has hosted the largest number of Syrian refugees since 2011. And because it is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Lebanon has enforced no laws to protect refugees’ rights.

The confiscations committed by the local authorities are a blatant violation of human rights, well-established in multiple international conventions, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

Founded in 1921, the Lebanese General Security Directorate was called the “first bureau.”  Formally, it is one of the agencies affiliated to the Ministry of Interior, and municipalities, while it is the chief agency to handle refugees-related legal affairs in Lebanon.  

 “Those with reported offences, or working without ‘an authorization,’ are at the risk of having a deportation stamp on their official documents, when arrested by a checkpoint, or during a visit to the GSO. Most of these deportation orders are not implemented, however, because of the pressure imposed by human rights organizations on the Lebanese authorities,”  Nabil al-Halabi says, a Lebanese lawyer and the director of the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (LIFE). So, in most of the cases discussed here, people have to tolerate the victim/offender duality. Refugees are often coerced to breach the law due to such resolutions, which are in themselves a violation of local laws, and Lebanon’s international obligations. Deprivation of legal status makes refugees vulnerable, and an easy prey for the security checkpoints, as it allows for robbing them of their basic rights; denies them legal access to residency; and turns them into outlaws. Once these people leave Lebanon; they will not be able to return in any way. 

No Syrian refugee is spared this deadlock. Amounting to 879,529 registered persons, according to UNHCR figures, Syrians in Lebanon, who primarily reside in areas across Beqaa and northern regions, constitute 15.8% of the total number of Syrian refugees hosted on the world’s level. 

Confiscation Consequences

The Lebanon Crisis Response Plan 2017-2020 (LCRP), the UNHCR reports, seeks to provide a framework for an integrated humanitarian-development response in which the needs of the refugees are met– to the extent possible, based on national laws and policies. 

Despite the plan, Amina’s rights to her basic needs, and to reclaiming her confiscated official documents are nothing but a wish, she hopes will be fulfilled sometime soon.  

In 2020, Amina said, “we were asked to refer to the Amioun Municipality, with our children and their documents, for there were instructions to deport us to Syria. We were also to pay a fine of 3 million Lebanese Pounds (LP) on behalf of my eldest son, who is 20-year-old.” There, the family fingerprinted the deportation order; their civil documents were confiscated; and only their expired passports were returned. 

The family reached out to the UNHCR, which informed them to change their residence place. After they did so, Amina’s husband lost his job, and her eldest son, who got married and moved to live in another house, was no longer capable of working because his identity document was in the hold of the General Security. “We live in different areas, my son and I. We cannot visit each other for fear of leaving home. I have not seen him in five months,” Amina added.

Unable to retrieve her confiscated passport, nor those of her family, Amina missed the chance of traveling to Turkey in 2015. From Turkey, she intended to head to Europe as many other Syrian refugees did back then. She said, “my son and husband used to work, and now both are unemployed. My son was even offered a job opportunity at Tripoli Port, but he ended up losing it for not having an identity document.” Today, the family has no source of income, and lives in a 30-meter-room—actually a basement in a residential building. They were offered the room in return for tending the building’s door and cleaning its entrance.

According to the UNHCR in Lebanon, refugees face increased protection-related risks, given their lack of legal residency. They are vulnerable to arrest; deportation; eviction; sexual violence; gender-based violence; and child abuse. Furthermore, there is an extreme shortage of basic assistance, particularly in the fields of healthcare; shelter; and sanitation.

The confiscation of documents’ biggest loss, however, was Hassan Ahmad’s, a 28-year-old Syria refugee, who also chose to go by a pseudonym. He failed to register his marriage, and his son’s birth, at the Civil Registry. Hassan’s toddler is now more than a year old, and is stateless.  In 2019, Hassan, who is a Syrian army defector, sought to legalize his status and renew his residence permit through the sponsorship system (Kafala). He also paid 900,000 LP ($600 at the time), but the General Security seized his documents, and instead gave him a deportation form, claiming he entered Lebanon illegally. Hassan so far could not recover his documents.

Hassan got married and had his first son while still attempting to retrieve his confiscated documents. He was asked to pay 400,000 LP ($265) in exchange for his documents, and the General Security told him he must leave Lebanon once he is delivered the documents back.    

Hassan hopes to go to Erbil, in Iraq, but he fears the consequences of the journey. He might be “denied entry.” Such growing concerns are making the thought of travelling abroad a difficult thing, let alone making the decision.

“Neither my marriage, nor my son’s birth, are registered. My wife also entered Lebanon illegally. I dare not move around in Lebanon; I am scared the authorities might deport me to Syria for being an army defector,” he says. Hassan contacted organizations concerned with Syrian refugees’ affairs, including the Norwegian Council, but all his efforts were to no use. He even had an appointment with the protection department at the UNHCR, which was ultimately postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. 

450 Cases of Confiscated Documents

The refugees’ failure to obtain official documents is a major barrier to accessing basic and simple services, and may even hamper their daily activities. Among many others, there are as many as three distinct reasons for the unlawful confiscation of civil documents; some people’s documents are seized during arrest; others’ documents are withheld either during the renewal of these documents; or at hospitals, when refugees cannot afford to pay the cost of their patients’ treatment.

When Syrian refugees’ official documents are confiscated in Lebanon; they tend to suffer these consequences:

Arrested

Denied freedom of movement  

Dined travelling abroad

Denied the registration of vital events, such as marriages, divorces, or births

Denied seeking job opportunities

Denied university education

Denied receiving remittances

Denied obtaining internet services, or a sim card 

The Lebanese authorities embarked on two arrest drives in Arsal camps, in September 2014. They arrested a total of 450 Syrian refugees, over two stages and on the pretext of “terrorism”. All the detainees were subsequently, however, gradually, released, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

Among those arrested were the brothers Maher and Muhannad, who lived in the Baalbek area. In detention, Maher claimed being subjected to beating and torture.  As a result, he developed spinal disk problems, and could no longer work. After Maher and Muhannad were finally vindicated, the military seized their identity documents and released them. “The army told us to refer to the Arsal Municipality to retrieve our documents.  We went there only two days later, but the municipality denied having the documents,” Maher says.

For months, the two brothers sought the municipality, and they achieved nothing every time. In the end, one employee told them: “You better forget about those IDs,” indicating that they might have been lost somewhere between the military, the General Security, and the municipality.  Maher communicated with several concerned organizations, including the UNHCR. He had an appointment arranged with the latter, which was to offer him assistance because his health deteriorated severely, and he could not work. This attempt failed too, given the pandemic’s spread.

The confiscation occurred in 2014. Since then, Maher got married and had children, but was unable to register his marriage, or add his children to the civil records. Concerned organizations intervened, but still failed to help Maher do the registration, since he needed additional documents from Syria.  He could not obtain the requested documents because there was no way he could return to Syria, while a checkpoint of the Lebanese military stood between him and the Syrian Embassy in Beirut. The said checkpoint was set up at the entrance to the Syrian embassy’s area, and it frequently harassed the refugees approaching it.

The two brothers stressed that it was the seizure of their identity documents that they could not obtain passports; or refer to the UNHCR; or even seek job opportunities.  Without identity documents, they cannot navigate the streets policed by security checkpoints.

In a written response to the investigation team, the UNHCR said that “it supports the General Directorate of General Security (GDGS), providing it with equipment, software, and centers’ renovation to increase the directorate’s capacity to process Syrian refugees’ residence renewal requests. It similarly supplies the offices of the Personal Status Directorate (PSD), across Lebanon, with equipment and personnel to help the GDGS accommodate further requests of civil registration filed by refugees.”

The UNHCR added that, through its partners, it provides legal aid, including counseling and representation, and organizes awareness seminars and campaigns to enhance refugees’ knowledge on how to obtain legal residence permits, and civil documents to certify births; marriages; divorces; and deaths that occurred in Lebanon, and access procedures related to family affairs; domestic violence; civil or administrative disputes. Moreover, the UNHCR supports refugees as it conducts birth registrations on their behalf, at the foreigners departments of the PSD, while it also accompanies groups of refugees to the GSO to renew their residence permits.

Also with partners, it presents refugees individual legal advice on registering births, marriages, and deaths, and offers immediate assistance to families to register their children at the PSD and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In some particular cases, it even helps refugees obtain documents from the Sharia Courts, which confirm the children’s family lineage. The assistance it often offers includes obtaining retroactive evidence of marriages for those who have married informally earlier on, in addition to documenting marriages, and deaths.

“Voluntary” Return to Syria

The issue in question is not the withdrawal of documents, but it is rather deliberately keeping those documents in the authorities’ custody for extensive periods, for years at times, particularly if a security report is filed against Syrian refugees.  In these cases, the General Security considers these people to be opponents, who want to travel abroad, and recount what they have been through in Lebanon.  This is a security coordination process between the Lebanese authorities and the Syrian regime seeking to impede the lives of these refugees; make them miserable; and ultimately force them, in an indirect manner, to return to Syria, under the so-called “voluntary return,” the Lebanese lawyer Nabil al-Halbi says.

The express purpose of confiscating documents is to impose restrictions on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, according to lawyer al-Halabi. “Four years ago, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry made a statement, demonstrating how the Lebanese authorities are preventing Syrian refugees from traveling to Norway after they had been offered the opportunity to resettle in a third country.  Similar restrictive measures were applied to other refugees who were not allowed to travel to Canada or other countries.”

Violations of the Law

Even though the Lebanese local laws lack legal texts that regulate the confiscation of official documents belonging to persons residing within the country’s boundaries, the Lebanese authorities should comply with their human rights obligations, which are grounded in equally important international conventions and treaties, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  In the latter two conventions, several articles protect people’s right to freedom of movement and legal status, regardless of their place of residence; or the reasons that led them to leave their country of origin in the first place.

Furthermore, the nine core international human rights instruments grant people the right to nationality, as a non-derogable right, which cannot be abolished or suspended by the government, not even during emergency situations. Stressing this right, Article 6 and article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights respectively state that “everyone shall have the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.”

Individuals acquire legal recognition, when vital events are registered at the concerned departments, such as births; deaths; marriages; and divorces. This is a fundamental human right, through which individuals gain access to nationality, or legal residency, and the corresponding rights, privileges and responsibilities as citizens in a given country. Based on this, the confiscation of civil documents is a violation of these rights, because these proceedings prevent people from conducting necessary civil status registrations, and deny them access to humanitarian aid and basic services, including education; healthcare; and opening a bank account.  Worse yet, these confiscations increase the risk of statelessness.   

The seizure of documents also affects individuals’ right to unrestricted mobility, recognized by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whereby “everyone has the right to freedom of movement; to leave any country, including his own; and to return to his country,” and the first clause of Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, by which “everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.”

UNHCR’s Role

Of the 41 cases of document confiscations recorded by Access Center for Human Rights, 37 people are officially registered with the UNHCR, which failed to intervene, according to the refugees interviewed by the investigation team. This lack of action on the part of the High Commissioner is at odds with its obligations towards registered refugees, since registration entails protection.

 “The situation spirals when the Syrian refugees subjected to documents seizure are not registered with the UNHCR.  If so, the organization’s Protection Office cannot intervene and is not granted the UNHCR’s authorization to react, even when human rights organizations transfer refugee cases to the UNHCR,” lawyer al-Halabi said.

Al-Halabi urges the international community, and the UNHCR, to address the confiscation of documents, including the cases of refugees who are not registered with the High Commissioner. The UNHCR must act on the situation, and follow up on the matter with the Lebanese authorities, since these seizures have an impact on all rights, including the implied rights to freedom of movement, and work, particularly because the documents are often withheld for an indefinite period of time. “Should the confiscations the Lebanese security agencies embark on be considered legal entitlements, the confiscation’s duration must at least be clearly defined,” the lawyer said, or otherwise, the confiscation will be an “abuse of this entitlement.”  

What the UNHCR can do is to set up a protocol with the Lebanese General Security to process the files of persons whose documents are seized, while they do not have security-related issues. People in this group can at least be granted a six-month residence permit, till their situation is resolved, Muhammad Araji said, a Lebanese lawyer and the CEO of Access Center for Human Rights.

“We live in different areas, my son and I. We cannot visit each other for fear of leaving home. I have not seen him in five months,” Amina added.

The UNHCR, Araji said, must conduct a field survey to identify the number of Syrians who hold a residence permit, and those who have an illegal status, to tackle both groups’ problems in cooperation with the General Security.

In early 2020, the UNHCR reported as its propriety, “ensuring access to protection, temporary legal stay and birth and civil status documentation for refugees, and their protection from refoulement.”

As mentioned above, the investigation team requested the UNHCR’s comment with respect to the confiscation of documents; the steps it takes to address this violation; the measures it adopts to ensure that persons whose documents are seized are capable of conducting civil status documentations, and have proper access to hospitals, and the campaigns it launches with the Lebanese government to make certain that international laws are applied.

The UNHCR said, “should refugees report similar practices, the legal programs, for instance, the UNHCR will intercede with the Lebanese authorities. Responding to the High Commissioner’s unremitting advocacy efforts, the General Security issued an internal memo, demanding that all its affiliated centers refrain from taking originals of documents, such as identity documents; passports; civil extracts; and entry and exit visas, from Syrians renewing their residence permits. Instead, those centers are to ask for scanned colour copies of the original documents. The memo, thus, ensures that no documents will remain in the hold of the General Security, even when renewal requests are denied, while offering a solid legal ground for intervention should the confiscation violations continue to occur.”

The UNHCR said that it engages in continuous dialogue with the Public Security Directorate, on the central and local levels, to address any inconsistent practices and ensure they are all in harmony.

Concerning its measures, the UNHCR said that, “when documents are seized by individuals, say landlords, employers, etc., or private entities, including hospitals, the High Commissioner intervenes directly, or through legal partners. It plays the intermediary to ensure the documents are returned. In the cases where intermediary proves insufficient, other legal measures are adopted. A warrant is sent, for example, or the case is transferred to a higher authority, such as the Ministry of Public Health, if the perpetrator is a hospital.”

Should it happen that documents are confiscated or held by the authorities, UNHCR assists refugees to retrieve their documents, either by following the established administrative processes, for example, those adopted by the GSO, or through advocacy at the regional or central level, addressing the concerned authorities.

Lacking identity documents poses a challenge to refugees’ access to basic and simple services, and might disrupt their daily routine.

Regarding the education of children whose family documents were withheld, the UNHCR said that children without identity documents can register in schools, provided they have a proof of residence from the mukhtar, or a registration certificate issued by the High Commissioner.

Supported by the international community, other UN agencies, and the civil society, the UNHCR said it sustains communication with the Lebanese authorities to guarantee that Lebanon adheres to its local and international legal obligations.

The investigation team sent the General Directorate of Lebanese Security an email through its official address, copying the human rights directorate and organizations, as well as the immigration directorate, but the emailed entities did not respond. The email inquired into the General Security’s reasons for confiscating the Syrian refugees’ official documents; the requirements refugees must follow to recover these documents; whether the General Security facilitates document reclamation for refugees wishing to travel abroad, or provides them with alternative documents that grant them access to hospitals; or helps them register vital civil events, such as births; marriages; and divorces.

Meanwhile, Amina still waits anxiously to retrieve her documents and meet her son, who has been living away from her for years. Hassan, for his part, hopes to reclaim his documents to register his marriage and add his son to the civil records, so he would obtain an identity document, and never have to live on the margins of life like his parents.

This investigation is hosted by the Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ), and Accesses Center for Human Rights, while funded by Free Press Unlimited (FPU), and published in Daraj Media.

Contributors to investigation and data collection are Marielle Hayek, a human rights researcher, and Eid Al-khoder, a human rights activist. 

The post Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Confiscation of Identity Documents, and Denial of Rights appeared first on SIRAJ.

Dalya (46) is a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon. She is also a widow — her husband died in one of the Syrian regime’s barrel bomb attacks, which hit her home in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus Countryside. Besides chronic diseases, as an asthma, hypertension and diabetes patient, what adds to her suffering is that she could not afford to buy any of her medicines for almost six months. 

Working on the farms, Dalya barely made10, 000 Lebanese pounds (US$2) per day. However, as COVID-19 found its way to Lebanon and a nationwide emergency state was declared, in response, she lost her job. Dalya, accordingly, could no longer pay the rent for the place where she lived. 

Dalya, having spent an hour standing there on the street, now sits on her black suitcase, stuffed with all that she owns. I was living in a hangar [barn], set up for poultry farming in the first place, she said. She cleaned the place, connected it with the electrical power grid and laid down water lines. The place was made habitable for a monthly 150,000 Lebanese pounds (about US$25).

“I was two months late on paying the rent. The woman that owned the hangar decided to kick us out, despite these harsh conditions. Is it really possible that while people are ordered to stay at home, we get evicted?” She hugs her children, who were overcome by fatigue.   

A public bus finally stops for the woman and her children. With everything on board, the bus fares to Beirut.  

Dalya is subjected to forced eviction from shelters unfit for human use. Nevertheless, she was not alone in this. Thirty other Syrian families had to suffer the same fate after they sought refuge in Lebanon, escaping the atrocities of war that followed the March 2011 protests.  

Families at risk

Dozens of Syrian families lived in the al-Massri camp in Saadnayel before the landlord coerced them to evacuate, allowing them to stay there till the end of June. 

The camp people, thus, referred to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) several times, but all their attempts at reporting the situation were to no avail. The commissioner did not respond, and they were ultimately evicted. 

The interviewed refugees expressed the same sentiment over and over again; they all lacked stability, particularity under the pandemic. While people around the world seek to stay at home and commit themselves to quarantine, worried over contracting COVID-19, Syrian refugees are being forcibly evicted from their tents and houses. 

A large proportion of Syrians cannot afford to pay rent, neither for houses, nor the lands on which they have set up their tents, especially since many property owners have raised rents exponentially. Furthermore, rents must be exclusively paid in dollars nowadays, given the worsening economic downturn, crashing exchange rates of the Lebanese pound, spiking prices, and mounting rates of poverty and unemployment in Lebanon. 

Syrian refugees’ unemployment rates since mid-March 2020:

61% of women refugees

46% of men refugees

7% of the families are forcing children to work, after parents lost their jobs  

Source: UNHCR – Lebanon 

On June 19, a resident of the al-Massri camp live-streamed the forced evacuation of the camp’s population. The tents were dismantled, but the matter still went unaddressed by any official entities. The landlord denied media outlets and organizations access into the camp to assess the situation or even negotiate the possibility of allowing the people to stay in their sole shelter during these most challenging times while the country is in pandemic mode. 

Due to restrictive Lebanese residency policies, only 22% of an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon have the legal right to live in the country, leaving the vast majority to live under the radar, subject to arbitrary arrest, detention, and harassment. Their lack of legal status means they cannot move freely through the ubiquitous checkpoints that predate COVID19, have difficulty getting services such as health care or education, and find it difficult to register births, deaths, and marriages, Human Rights Watch stated in a report published last April. 

Post-eviction journey

Forcibly evicted from the al-Massri camp, only a few families managed to rent a garage or a small room in a nearby place. Others, however, sought their neighbours or moved to different camps, intending to live with relatives while searching for a place to shelter them. 

Tracking the movement of several families, seven ended up in two hangars, barns, within a 10-minute walk from the al-Massri camp. 

“The barns were still full of trash and livestock waste when we moved in. We rented them for 600,000 Lebanese pounds (US$100), which we divide among us. You can see it for yourself, we are cleaning the place of garbage and dirt. But still, it is not a place to live in,” one refugee said, standing in front of his new place of residence. 

The two barns, where 29 people, including 13 children, live today, have tin roofs, dilapidated, cracked and full of holes. The walls are either destroyed or about to collapse, threatening to crush the people living within them. The place is thus accessible to rats and snakes, while at the same time poorly ventilated and lacking in proper hygiene. The barns are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.  

 “What coerced us to move here [the barn] is that we cannot afford renting a cheap house. At the same time, we cannot set up a new tent due to state laws. So, we decided to use the tent’s canvas and wood to renovate the hangar. We also dismantled the bricks that made the tent’s bathroom and brought them here with us. We reassembled the bricks and patched up the holes in the hangar,” Abu Basil, a Syrian refugee evicted from the Saadnayel  camp, said.  

Abu Basil’s family does not only consist of eight people, but  one of his daughters is also extremely suffering, yet traumatized over her brother’s loss, who died in a car accident when they first sought refuge in Lebanon, seven years ago. 

Furthermore, his suckling granddaughter has been lately diagnosed as having a chronic disease, brain atrophy, and is in need of treatment and sustained healthcare. It is an abject situation that we are in, Abu Basil said, adding that aid and support are necessary. 

In one corner, two birds are kept in a cage, which they also moved to their new residence. Looking at the birds, the family says: “The reason we are keeping them is that we are caged ourselves.”  

23 forced eviction cases were recorded between mid-March and mid-July, all as a result of the refugees’ inability to pay rent for the house or land.

Source: Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR)

Living in non-viable places

Lying in the open air, being the remains of the place it once was, each of the holes in the hanger begs rain and the scorching heat during summer in, inviting also all types of insects and harmful creatures. The place is vast and high-roofed. The residents used the tents’ wood to create partitions. They divided it into smaller areas, craving order and privacy. However, it is impossible to spend winter in that place, for it is particularly hard to keep it warm.   

The families recount their stories, how they escaped death and sought refuge in Lebanon, scared for their lives of the Syrian regime, how they were arrested and their houses destroyed by air raids. They also recount the story of their forced eviction from the camp, keeping the landlord’s name a secret afraid of persecution and harm as they continue to live in the town.  

In fact, these families are scared of going back to Syria. Yet, their living conditions in Lebanon can barely be called safe. 

According to Abu Basil, he and his family were evicted due to the decision providing for dismantling and flattening the camp. The dismantlement of several tents and shelters every now and then grew into a familiar occurrence in different areas, seeking to prevent refugees from settling down there. One reason for demolishing the camp is that many families were two months late on paying the tents’ rent due to the lockdown and their inability to work under the state-imposed COVID-19 mitigation policies. 

A number of the forcibly evicted camp people stressed that the proposed justifications are only a hoax. The real thing, they said, is that the landlord decided to turn the land on which the camp was constructed into a horse barn. 

No matter what the actual reasons are, the reality is that the life of this family and many others has become unbearably difficult. They today live in an unviable place, even after they themselves cleaned it and turned it with their own money from a barn into their living place. 

One resident said that the UNHCR and other international partner organizations have visited the barn and assessed the refugees’ living conditions in their new shelter. They filmed the place and said they were sorry. They also apologized for their inability to provide any aid, “one organization helps camp residents exclusively. The other helps renovate houses, not farms.”

In the barn, the refugees contemplate their near future. Summer is ending and winter is around the corner. But still, the place is absolutely inhabitable. 

“It is harsher than COVID-19, which affects people everywhere. In the case of the virus, measures can be kept to prevent contracting it; medicines can be taken to help boost the immune system and recovery. But we are helpless, nothing can help us get a shelter,” one refugee described their situation as a group.   

In the al-Hindi camp in Bar Elias, another group of Syrian refugees is enduring the same suffering. They were asked to evacuate the camp, and a deadline was already set, while they have no other place to seek given the lockdown. 

Even though his family consists of nine people, Abdulkarim, the father, cannot send his children to work, for they do not have identity documents. To make a living, he thus attempts to find informal jobs, such as gardening, or working on farms during harvest seasons.  

“We were managing. We are now holding to patience because we have only till early September to evacuate the tent. Yesterday, [the landlord] saw me at the tent’s door and threatened me. ‘If you do not leave in a week, your stuff will end up on the street,’” Abdulkarim, a Syrian refugee, recounted his story and spoke of the circumstances pressing him to evacuate the al-Hindi Camp. 

The refugees’ living conditions turned severe when the landlord decided to raise the rent on the land where the tents are set up for a number of refugees. To his misfortune, Abdulkarim was among the refugees notified of the need to pay the additional rent money.  

The landlord is whimsical, Abdulkarim said.  He has relatives neither in the camp nor in the area, unlike several other families who make up a network of relatives there, preventing the landlord from pressing them into paying further money in rent, which he finally kept as it is. He asked Abdulkarim and numerous other families to pay 300,000 Lebanese pounds (US$), or otherwise leave. 

“What coerced us to move here [the barn] is that we cannot afford renting a cheap house. At the same time, we cannot set up a new tent due to state laws. So, we decided to use the tent’s canvas and wood to renovate the hangar. We also dismantled the bricks that made the tent’s bathroom and brought them here with us. We reassembled the bricks and patched up the holes in the hangar,” 

Abu Basil, a Syrian refugee who lives along with his family in a hangar near the al-Massri camp in al-Bekaa, Lebanon. 

Affected by Lebanese pound’s turmoil

Over twenty refugee families across al-Bekaa were interviewed, they were all equally distressed due to the dire living conditions in Lebanon, a situation that has been thus for months. 

They are basically grappling with mounting prices and the Lebanese pound turmoil, which has been begging to the dollar, for it takes between 6000 and 8000 Pounds to buy a dollar, while the official bank exchange rate is 1500 pounds. 

This spiralling reality increased the refugees’ inability to pay the rent for their homes, since many have turned unemployed with the spread of COVID-19 in Lebanon. To cope with their tightening finances, a group of Syrians is borrowing money to pay the rent, others are reducing their food consumption. 

Intissar (41), a Syrian woman, shared the same house with 11 members of her family, including her father, a pneumonia patient, her mother, who suffers from chronic diseases, her widowed sister, along with her children, her brother, his wife and their children.

Intissar’s family rented the house seven months before they were expelled from it. When COVID-19 hit Lebanon in March, Intissar’s volunteer work in an educational organization stopped, so did her monthly grant of 300,000 Lebanese pounds (less than US$50). Worse yet, digging wells, her brother’s work, also stopped due to the imposed curfew.

“We could not pay the rent for three months in a row, which prompted the women owning the house to evict us in June. We turned homeless at the most critical time. A few days before we left the house, we borrowed money and paid her all the dues, but she unscrew the taps, vandalized the house and filmed it. She then went to the police station, and filed a complaint against my father,” Intissar said. 

“On top of everything, and as if it was not enough that she expelled us from the house during the pandemic, she also demanded $100 as a compensation for the damage she did herself,” Intissar added, yelling. 

UNHCR’s role

A segment of Syrian refugees blames the United Nations High Commissioner for the deteriorating living conditions, especially when it denied a large proportion of refugees the aid it provided them, who could no longer afford food and drink, not to mention the rent, given that dozens of Syrians turned unemployed.

According to human rights reports, a large number of Syrian refugees lost their jobs. As a result, their living, economic, social and psychological conditions declined further, since most of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon depend on seasonal or day labour which either stopped completely or became rare. The lacking job opportunities, however, ensued the pandemic, which coincided with the country’s economic slump. Therefore, the refugees’ conditions under COVID-19 cannot be assessed in isolation from the existing economic crisis.

In a report, Access Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), a Syrian human rights organization that documents and monitors Lebanon-based Syrian refugees’ conditions, recorded over 23 cases of forced evictions and/or the threat of forced evictions between mid-May and mid-July 2020, all as a result of the refugees’ inability to pay rent for the house or land (in the case of those living in the camps). 

Cases of eviction and/or threat of eviction were not limited to individual cases, for others occurred on the camp level. Several Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon have been threatened with eviction, and a few families were indeed expelled from them. Furthermore, the ACHR recorded two cases of camp evictions, and other three cases of camps threatened with eviction. 

As of mid-March, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon found that 61% of Syrian refugee women and 46% of Syrian refugee men have lost their jobs, whereas 7% of the Syrian families are sending their children to work, after their parents turned unemployed. 

Due to a lack of money and rising food prices, the report added, refugees face difficulties buying their basic necessities. Till May 18, 75% of refugees went further into debt to pay for basic necessities, and 78% of families consulted reported difficulties buying food. 

 “Having lost their jobs, while goods prices soared insanely, the refugees have hit the low of almost no daily income — that is they cannot pay the rent for the house or the land on which the tent is set up. This increases the cases of both individual and mass eviction or threats of eviction of refugees from their residence places, whether in the camps or concrete homes, despite the COVID-19 outbreak and the urge to sustain quarantine,” an al-Bekaa-based Syrian human rights activist said, describing the living conditions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

The Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ)

The post Sleeping in the Open Air, or in a Barn: Syrian Refugees Left Homeless in Lebanon  appeared first on SIRAJ.

Many are aware of the fact that, inside Syria’s displaced persons’ camps, women are constantly subjected to sexual extortion. More obscure is what happens to their peers at the capital’s so-called shelters and those of the surrounding rural areas. Here, the identity of the perpetrator may vary, but the women’s lot of suffering and exploitation is just as gruesome. Whether in camps or government shelters, the “sex in return for food” deal is the order of the day.

Since 2012, 20 year-old Reem has been living with her family at the Kafr Sousa shelter in Damascus. For three consecutive months, she had been sexually assaulted by the shelter’s supervisor. Fearing defamation, she did not dare to whisper a word about it.

I met Reem outside her residence back in October of 2017. Terrified, she requested anonymity, both for the sake of her family’s safety and her own.

It had all started the year before when, one day, Reem’s mother sent her to collect the food ration. The family had been living off of this aid since they first moved into the shelter from rural Damascus.  That day, the supervisor in charge of distribution forced the young girl to have sex with him in exchange for her family’s share. The abuse continued for a while. When Reem finally asked her assaulter to stop, he threatened to throw her family out, and tell everyone about what happened between them.

“I was so scared.  I dreaded what would become of me and my family. I kept my mouth shut to protect us. He continued to assault me until he found another, younger girl. Only then did he let go of me,” Reem said.

Reem’s is only one of innumerable stories of Syrian women who have been subjugated to sexual exploitation, physical and verbal harassment, as well as leering, in temporary accommodation centers (shelters for the displaced) in Damascus and its surrounding rural areas. Women are coerced to have sex with shelters’ supervisors and officials in return for humanitarian aid. They are pressured to keep quiet, out of fear of being thrown out, defamed, and their aid cut off. They even risk being arrested, should it ever be discovered that they spoke up.

Women’s ordeal is aggravated by the shelters’ strict regulations.  They are not allowed to leave, even for a few hours, unless they submit an official request, the approval of which hangs on the management’s whim.  This prevents women from finding a job to insure a decent life, escape sexual oppression and the abominable conditions inside the shelters, as I have been told by five such women we met.

During my successive visits to several shelters in Damascus and its rural areas, I have interviewed eight women who have been forced by male managers and supervisors to yield sexual concessions.  Throughout this investigation, I have also met with thirty-five male and female volunteers at the shelters, who unanimously corroborated the systematic scale on which sexual extortion is practiced in exchange for food for displaced women.

But it was impossible to confront the officers in charge of the shelters with such revelations. That would put the victims’ very lives at risk, as well as compromise my own safety.

A report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), titled “Voices from Syria 2018”, upholds that humanitarian aid is being exchanged for sex in many regions in Syria.

The detailed document reveals that “women and young girls inside these shelters are being sexually harassed and exploited by those in positions of authority in return for housing and aid. The most vulnerable are those “without male protectors”: widows, divorcees, and the displaced.”

According to another study commissioned in 2014 by UNHCR, one in every three Syrian women never left her house, or only did so in cases of extreme necessity, for fear of harassment and insecurity.

In yet another study, conducted by UNFPA, in cooperation with the Syrian Ministry of Social Affairs, titled “Situation of Women in Temporary Accommodation Centers in Damascus”, it is shown that 3.5% of women have been sexually exploited after coming to these shelters, including being subjected to leering, and verbal and physical harassment.

The night of the rape

On the morning of January 24th, upon a visit to a shelter hosting over 500 displaced families, I sat with a group of women who told me about the sexual concessions they have to make in order to receive their share of the aid. None of them dared to go into specifics. But perhaps Um Saad, a strong woman in her 40s, speaks for all about the extent of the tragedy when she asks “Who will save us from retaliation if we speak up? And who will defend our rights?”

Hanan, a 30-year old widow and a mother of two, has been living in a shelter in Al-Duweir, ever since the death of her husband compelled her to leave Mayda’a in September of 2014.

I met Hanan outside the shelter on 28 March. She had gotten the permission to leave for a few hours, under the pretext of taking her child to a doctor in Damascus.

Back in 2016, when she went to pick up her food portion, the distributor gave her only a fraction of it and asked her to come back at night for the rest. When she returned that evening, he raped her.

She says that what happened to her is absolutely indescribable: “I could not yell at him. He approached me and began to touch my body. My tongue was tied. I tried to push him away, but he persisted.”

Hanan came out of his room not daring to tell anyone about what happened. For weeks on end, she continued to be raped without any means to escape. For there was no alternative shelter.

Getting advantage of women in need

What emboldens the offenders the most is the absence of the family’s male breadwinner coupled with the women’s lack of any skills that would qualify them for a job and a decent life, leaving them with no other safety net than the basket of humanitarian aid.

35 year-old Huda left the shelter after she could not take the manager’s sexual assaults anymore. I met her shortly thereafter at her house, on 23 July, 2017.

Huda took refuge with her two children in a shelter located in the upscale district of Kafr Sousa in Damascus, after her husband’s death drove her to flee Ein Tarma in Eastern Ghouta, in 2013.

In 2015, the officer in charge of distribution began making advances on Huda. When the latter did not reciprocate, he tried again, offering to give her and her children everything they needed in return for one night with her. Upon her rejection, he retaliated by withholding her food ration for more than three months.

Try as she might to survive, borrowing money and food from neighbours, she could not make ends meet. Faced with two hungry children, she ended up accepting the offer.

In August of 2016, her 9-year old son was diagnosed with diabetes, “God’s punishment for what I have done,” Huda thought. She decided to stop seeing the officer, left the shelter in October, and rented a room in Jaramana. She has since been earning her living working in a sweatshop, and selling homemade food supplies. She was never able to forget the painful details of her ordeal inside the shelter.

Now the head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Damascus University and the former head of the Syrian Forensic Medicine Authority Hussein Nofal, had declared in June of 2017 that violence against women and children has dramatically increased during the ongoing crisis. The chief reasons behind the upsurge being displacement and rising poverty levels which have forced many families to share housing with strangers or rent small rooms.

Anas has volunteered in three different centers after he ran away from Al Yarmouk Refugee Camp in 2013. He says sexual harassment is raging inside the shelters. He himself has witnessed women being pressured into having sex. Once he saw a woman knocking on the manager’s door in the middle of the night, a price she had to pay in exchange for a blanket, or an extra bottle of baby milk.

Fear of defamation

“I don’t want to ruin my own life,” said one woman I interviewed in September of 2017. She was sexually abused at a shelter in Al Tal city, north of Damascus, a couple months before.

Her words account for the obstacles I faced during the present investigation. They also elucidate why women refrain from denouncing their aggressors by filing complaints. Victims dread defamation. They are petrified of being hurt, arrested, or even excommunicated. Society here blames the victim. Even the woman’s family themselves would shun her.

Thanaa, a woman in her thirties who escaped Meda’a to a shelter, says: “I didn’t dare to tell anyone about what happened to me. I was so scared. He used me repeatedely for sex. I care for my children. I am scared of him. He manages the shelter. He can kick us out anytime. We don’t have any other place to run to. Not to mention that he’s capable of writing a spiteful report against me and have the police land me in prison.”

Victims’ stories vary. So do the facets of their suffering. But one element is common to all: fear.

Wedad, 35 years old, is a volunteer with the Syrian Red Crescent. In 2015 and 2016, she worked at a shelter in Rural Damascus. With her own eyes, she witnessed four women, between the ages of 20 and 40, being sexually exploited by the shelter’s supervisor.

The victims’ silence is the greatest hurdle to Wedad’s work. “I totally understand their fear, she says. They’re weak and vulnerable, especially the ones who have had their husbands killed, arrested or kidnapped. Those women are powerless, with no one to protect them. Their aggressors have power and privilege. Their links with the authorities scare the victims into remaining silent.”

“Who will save us from retaliation if we speak up? And who will defend our rights?”

A center for exploitation

Sociologist Aliaa Ahmed calls these shelters “centers for sexual exploitation of women.” What pains Ahmed the most is the way in which the victims seek to cover up the crime, in order to avoid being blamed. Society’s attitude toward rape victims is to condemn the victims themselves: “if she had behaved decently, none of this would have happened to her.”

Ahmed points out that “it is a common belief that in the absence of a law that protects women’s safety, only their men can fulfill that function. Some women live alone with their children in shelters, which makes them an easy target for perpetrators.”

She explains that “assailants do not stop at anything to coerce women into sex, using force against those who refuse to submit to their repugnant desires. They know that if a woman decided to denounce them, she would be inviting the worst consequences upon herself, and herself alone.  Noting that poor, displaced women in general is the group that is most vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Women coming from areas controlled by opposition fighters are at an even greater risk. Against the latter,  “political reasons” and “security concerns,” are threatening tools for sexual extortion.  “Terrorism” charges are always ready to be doled out to them. They are totally helpless.”

And she adds: “In such circumstances, many women find themselves obliged to submit to their assaulter and remain silent, or else escape and start a journey of endless torment, where they will have to face innumerable risks in search of alternatives that are equally bad.”

Silencing the voices

I contacted Kafr Sousa Police Department to inquire about the number of complaints filed by sexually exploited women. An officer who has served at the department between 2014 and 2015, proclaimed that they have received no more than five complaints from women living in shelters, all concerning “problems” with the shelters’ supervisors.

He added that whenever the police called on the shelter to see these women and issue a proper citation, the supervisor would immediately take the patrol chief aside, and persuade him to drop the issue, belittling it as mere “women trouble.” The case would end here. No further proceedings, no official investigation. Nothing is even documented, thus depriving the abused of her right to file a formal complaint and pursue her case in court.

The policeman observed signs of abuse visible on women who come to file complaints: a messed up hijab here, torn and dirty clothes there, tears, and refusal to tell what happened.

His daily chats with colleagues at the police station leave no doubt that shelters’ supervisors have clout and are more powerful than chief patrols. He and his colleagues have heard numerous stories about women being subjected to sexual abuse as a price for the food aid, the distribution of which is personally controlled by supervisors.

On the other hand, four women from an Adra al- ‘Amaliyah shelter North of the capital filed a complaint against the supervisor who forced them to have sex with him and threatened to expulse them if they refuse, according to volunteers who have witnessed the complaint.

The governorate of Damascus and the Supreme Committee for Relief investigated the issue with residents at the center. But then, the case was closed, as if nothing had happened. The supervisor remained in his position. It was later discovered that the grievants were expelled from the center.

I was not able to find those women. And when I inquired about them at the governorate’s offices, the officer refused to cooperate, claiming we were dealing here with “classified information.”

Minor girls were also molested

I met five girls between the ages of 13 and 15 who have been sexually harassed, one by an officer, the other four by residents and workers of the rural Damascene shelter, back in 2016. None of them dared to tell anyone except their mothers who asked them to keep quiet out of fear for their reputation, and the danger of expulsion.

13-year old Walaa is one of those girls. She and her family were displaced from Adra in 2013 and settled in a shelter near Damascus. Walaa lives with her mother and siblings in a small room. Her mother double-locks the door at night. She lives in fear for the safety of her daughters, ever since her husband was detained in 2014 and she has been kept in the dark about his fate.

Walaa’s mother felt utterly helpless when her daughter came home in tears one day after being molested by the supervisor who gave her the family’s food portion.

Walaa recounts: “first, when he talked to me in a weird way, I didn’t care. I was very tired from the long wait. I was thinking about the dinner my mother was preparing, and I wanted to take the basket and leave quickly, especially that mother always warned us not to hang around the center after sunset. But then he began to touch me. I tried to scream but he put his hand on my mouth and touched my private parts.” She continues, “ I went to my mom. We cried a lot. We didn’t dare take any action. My father has been missing for three years. We know nothing of his whereabouts. Those people can harm us. No one is here to protect us. What can we do?”

Psychological effects

Psychiatrist Mohammed Mohsen reflects on the psychological damage of sexual extortion: “the victim feels oppressed and neglected. Replaying the details of the assault in her head can result in severe depression as well. In some cases, stress, anxiety, and a gloomy view of life could lead to suicide. The psychological harm resulting from sexual coercion needs serious medical attention.”

The law forbids but filing a complaint is impossible

In its “Public Morality Crimes” section, Syrian law distinguishes between “rape” and “honor crime.”

Given the “coercion” element in sexual extortion, the penal code classifies it under “rape.”

However, “in the absence of a clear mechanism for filing complaints, we have lost all hope that those committing such atrocities be held accountable for their crimes,” said Basema Jabry, a board member of the Syrian Women Network.

Conditions of coercion or menace in the Syrian law

“Non-consent necessarily implies physical coercion by violence or threat, or moral coercion, or abuse of power, or abuse of minors. In the absence of these acts, the offender cannot be punished.” (Resolution 886/1984 – Basis 1194 – Court of Cassation – Criminal Chambers – Syria.)

Jabry emphasizes that the law is on the victim’s side, were she to have to courage to report the crime. She adds, however, that “the fears that hold sway over the victims are justified: from fear of parents who play a negative role, to fear of society and defamation, and finally the fear of the offender himself, especially if he is in a position of power.”

*This report was produced with the support of “Open Media Hub”, funding from the European Union, and supervision from Ahmad Haj Hamdo– SIRAJ. Published on Daraj

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Suddenly, the Syrian girl Reem (36 years ) found herself alone in Egyptian Aswan governorate ‘streets , without any shelter or breadwinner ,after her Egyptian husband Mohammad gave up of her and denying/disavowal of her rights as a result of their “the Arfi /customary/informal “ marriage, which is undocumented at the Egyptian courts .

Reem couldn’t able for documenting her marriage contract from Mohamad because she couldn’t register her divorce from her Syrian ex-husband at the Syrian official departments.

While “The foreigners’ marriage office “ in Egypt is requiring from the foreign woman who desires to marry an Egyptian must have a civil status record clarifying her marital status, and due to Reem still married in her Syrian documents, So she couldn’t register her marriage from the Egyptian Mohamad .

Reem entered to Egypt in April 2012, after she has separated with her Syrian husband, and in the same month of the year 2014, she got married Mohamad and she lived with him at Nasir city and after that in Al Sharkia governorate, for one year and eight months.

Reem is saying that she returned back Syria to see her children , then she returned back again Egypt to find her husband disavowal of her , by a phone call telling her that he got married from Egyptian girl and he started with her a new life, and he don’t want any problems.

Reem couldn’t able for documenting her marriage contract from Mohamad because she couldn’t register her divorce from her Syrian ex-husband at the Syrian official departments.

This investigation has documented during six months stories of six Syrian refugees women, between of them Reem, who they got married from Egyptians by undocumented Arfi /customary contracts, then they were divorced after passing months of the marriage by their husbands, and the disclaimer/disavowal of all the rights, including the alimony, accommodation and joy (amount of money) and confirming/registering the marriage and children’s descent.

he Arfi/customary marriage doesn’t require only a paper signed by both parties at one of the lawyers’ office then they become spouses.

The investigation has monitored the exploitation of the Egyptians men for economical circumstances of Syrians refugees women in Egypt, and due to not having their documents to get married from them by “external ” contract, and thus this marriage will be finished from the husband’s side, and what is exacerbates the problem, the high cost which imposed by the Syrian embassy for extracting documents or amending data and the impossibility of extracting some of it.

That is happened during failure of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in its role in providing the assistance to the Syrians women. In addition inability of the Syrian & Egyptian civil society organizations which is taking care of the woman to provide actual assistance for those women, and the social outlook that accompanies women after divorce.

The woman rights after divorce in the Egyptian law:

1-The alimony: including food, clothes, accommodation and treatment expenses according to article No.1 of personal status law.

2-List of movables things: devices, furniture, value of gold, component of marriage accommodation and the advanced & deferred dowry, according to marriage contract as per articles No.10-20-15 of law No.1 of year 2000.

3-The joy (money ): it is estimated by an expenses and it can be imposed for long period at least two years ,according to article No.18 of law No.25 of year 1929 which added by law No.100 of year 1985.

Passing visa

At 8th of July 2013 , the Cairo airport authorities is returned-back plane affiliated to Syrian airlines to Syria – Lattakia governorate, by virtue of start applying the new entrance measures on Syrians , and that was the date of imposing visa and prior security approval for entering the Syrians to Egypt.

After this date for more than two years, Reem felt in longing for her children in Syria, so she traveled to see them, then she returned back in November 2016 but entering Egypt in this time was not easy, Reem surprised by imposing visa “elusive ” and that pushed her to travel to Sudan, then to Egypt by smuggling way, across the southern border.

Reem is clarifying that after her coming to Egypt she called to her husband, who in his turn has disavowed of her and has married an Egyptian woman without giving her any of her rights.

And that forced her later to resident at “Madkour” garden in Aswan governorate southern of Egypt, and she lost over there her documents including her marriage contract, until “the Syrian commission for refugees’ affairs in Egypt” has ensured her sponsorship and taking care up to date.

“We took Reem to psychiatrist in order to rehabilitate her from the shock which she is exposed to” as saying head of the commission Taysir Alnajar “.

The Reem’s story is similar with the Syrian young girl Kinda (33 years –alias) because she had to get married an Egyptian by Arfi/customary contract, because she doesn’t have the official documents to register her marriage officially, due to her entering to Egypt for the first time illegally across the Sudanese border, but the tragedy’s face in kinda’s story that she has given birth from this marriage relationship.

And she is saying that her husband left her with her infant, and he denied all of his responsibility under the pressure of his first wife, and the young girl with her infant remained without any shelter or sustenance.

Kinda arrived to Egypt in March 2014 , and had lived in one of her relatives house , then she got married in July 2017 from Ayman (alias ), who is working as a teacher in Azhari Institute, and she has divorced in June 2018, after giving birth a baby from her Egyptian husband.

who he is starting to extract new documents for her and her son before the interfering of his first wife and start to threat the lawyer to stop extracting the documents to prevent making kinda’s status legally on the Egyptian lands.

Kinda is saying that “Her husband’s wife has engaged her for him , by her will , in order to have a child , because she couldn’t have children for him but herself turned over her ” clarifying that these pressures finished after the husband divorced kinda.

And she is referring that she accepted the Arfi marriage because she wants to establish a new life and to have a house, good life, and to get rid of material pressures and the burden of staying at her relatives.

The lawyer Yousef Al -Mutani , a member of the Egyptian association for international law , is referring that ” The most prominent reasons which prevent Syrians to register their marriages in Egypt are entering some of them from Sudan by the smuggling way , due to that they cannot obtain an official entrance visa , and that make them violators on the Egyptian lands“.

The organizations inability/failure

Kinda knocked door of the organizations which are concerning in woman, some of them like “The general commission for Syrians refugees in Egypt, Syrians association, Syrian relief committee and Syriana “, but the answer was “we can’t do anything”.

Latifa Daghman head of Suriat Almaadi and Hilwan association, which is an association concerns in woman affairs & refugees integration, is saying that “we cannot do anything toward these cases, because their marriages not documented, so the official departments don’t recognize it absolutely “.

And she added “we are trying in friendly way to communicate with the husband for recovering his wife’s rights, by reactivate the religious deterrent inside him, because we have no other choice”.

Steps and costs of marriage registration for Syrian woman in Egypt:

1- Extracting of civil status record & marriage approval from the Syrian embassy cost of $ 40.

2- Power of attorney of lawyer to file lawsuit at the Egyptian family court to confirm/register the marriage in cost of between $200-500 according to the lawyer fee.

3- After obtaining a verdict in the marriage relationship, the marriage will be documented or extracting birth certificate for the child at “the civil registry “.

“we don’t interfere in like these matters , we only are providing the material, medical and psychological assistances , and in case we received any complain , we are trying to solve it by a friendly ways , in case of failure it , there is no other way ” as saying Taisyer Alnajar , Head of the Syrian commission for refugee affairs in Egypt .

Like kinda’s case, the lawyer Issam Hamed asserts, who is caring about the Syrians affairs in Egypt, that proving of her infant’s descent requires power of attorney of lawyer and file a lawsuit to confirm/register the marriage, then after it, proving of the child’s descent/ ancestry case, and she has been failed in that due to her illegal status at the Egyptian lands.

Half million Syrian refugees

According to the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Sisi in his dialogue with French journal Le Figaro in October of 2017, the number of Syrians in Egypt reached to 500 thousands, between them 127 thousands registered at “The United Nation High Commission for Refugees’ Affairs” in Egypt according to its electronic website.

This Syrians presence in Egypt has made 10 thousands marriage status, between Egyptian man and Syrian woman in 2012, according the national statistic center for woman, and the number decreased during year of 2017.

Where the foreign marriage office which affiliated to Egyptian Ministry of Justice in registering of 472 marriage status documented at the governmental departments between Egyptian man & Syrian woman.

And at the absence the statistics about the Arfi marriage, the person who prepared this investigation tried to statistic the lawsuits number of “external” marriage which have prepared by three Egyptians lawyers at Cairo governorate.

They were chosen for their specialty in these cases, where the Egyptian lawyer Rabeh Aldaswki has worked on /200/ marriage registration suits among Syrians women and Egyptians men between years of 2016-2018 half of it have been succeeded at least until now.

while the lawyer Yousef Al – Mutani has worked on /110/ marriage registration suits during years of 2017-2018 , and while the lawyer Issam Hamed has worked on /900/ marriage registration suits among Syrians women and Egyptians men between years of 2013-2018.

The Syrian lawyer Firas Alhaj manger of the “Syrian Legal Gathering” is saying “that he is receiving daily calls for inquiring about marriage procedures and clarifying that /10 % /of these cases the husband is Egyptian, and between /60-70 %/of these cases the marriage is undocumented (not registered officially) “.

And the lawyer Issam Hamed is saying that ” 70% of the undocumented marriage cases the woman lost her rights due to the husband’s disavowal“, pointing out that he has met more than /100/ Syrian refugees woman her husband left her alone and disappeared, varied between who was divorced without obtaining her rights, and the other women who did not get the divorce, and some of them have indeed given birth and remained without registration.

The previous marriage‘s maze

“Stay at your friend ,you are divorced “a brief short call, Nadin has received – alias – (39 years old) from her Egyptian husband Amer , to finish by it a marriage life which has kept to 14 months, and Nadin was living with him in apartment at Cairo.

Nadin left her house to visit her friend in Egyptian Obour City, and during her presence over there, her husband divorced her by a phone call, under pressure from his family who was refused the marriage because Nadin was divorced, and he is a virgin and older than him in 6 years and she has a children.

Nadin is saying:”I have come to Egypt, and I has introduced to Amer(alias) by one of my friends , who was working with her in the dairy & cheese plant ,and after two weeks from our meeting , he asked me for marriage and convinced me to accept due to we both are living alone .

I accepted immediately because I was living at one of my acquaintances house in the popular Sharabiya area in Cairo, and my daughter & I were forming a burden on them”.

Amer convinced Nadin in marriage by virtue of Arfi contract, and accepted because she didn’t register her divorce with her previous Syrian husband.

Nadin is clarifying that she don’t have any acquaintances in Syria in order to file the separation lawsuit (breaking up) with her previous husband on behalf of her , and she don’t have the sufficient money for that.

During Nadin marriage with Amer she was facing a fierce opposition from his family, and she is saying that she tried to conciliate with this family but in vain until ending of the matter, by Amer’s acquiescence to his family requests and divorcing her by phone.

After the divorce Nadin tried to looking for Amer in different ways to obtain her rights, but he has changed his residency place, job and his phone number, and she is saying: “No one knows her place like a pinch of salt which has melted (proverb)”.

Nadin one of three girls who were met by the person who prepared this investigation and they have accepted the Arfi marriage due to not registering their old divorce from their husbands, one of them her husband is living with her in Egypt and he is refusing divorce her at the court before she waived to him on her owned estate (property) in Syria.

“The verbal divorce not consider a divorce until confirmation (registering) it in the court“, as was commented on this case by the Syrian lawyer Rehada Abdoush.

And Abdoush added” the Syrian woman who is living outside Syria who desires to register her divorce has to power of attorney one of her acquaintances in Syria to file the separation lawsuit on behalf of her”, clarifying the main problem in this lawsuit, that it takes a long period, it may takes three years, especially in case of insisting the husband and refusing the divorce, and it costs about /$300/ inside Syria, and /$100/ outside it, to be the total amount of /$400/.

Steps of confirmation /registering the divorce for Syrian woman in Egypt in the absence of the husband:

1- Power of attorney of one of her relative in Syria by the Syrian embassy.

2- Certifying on the powers of attorney from the Syrian & Egyptian foreign ministry.

3- The authorized person should power of attorney a lawyer.

4- File a separation suit.

5- Obtaining a separation verdict.

6- Transferring the suit from the court to the civil status registry to change the marital status from married to divorced.

Mixing /confusing the Egyptian & Syrian laws

The confusing between Syrian & Egyptian law is one of the largest problems which is facing the Syrian women during the marriage, according to the Egyptian lawyer Yousef Al – Mutani who is interested about the Syrians cases.

And he is saying:” the Syrians are getting married in their country by the proxy (sheikh), and then they register their marriage at the Sharia court.

while in Egypt there the matter is different ,where the marriage contract is concluded at the foreigners’ marriage office which affiliated to Egyptian Ministry of Justice in case of one of the spouses is foreign, or the marriage contract is concluded at a lawyer office, then power of attorney a lawyer to file a marriage confirmation/registering suit”.

And this is unknown matter by most of the Syrian in Egypt, because this method required complicated documents are:” a new civil status record its duration not exceed on three months and clarifying the marital status and documented/approved by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In addition to the wife’s guardian approval that he doesn’t mind the marriage and approved by the Syrian embassy, a valid residency, passport, in addition a two health certificates that there nothing prevents the marriage”.

Al – Mutani referred to that : there are many Syrians cannot extract a civil status record from the Syrian lands , because they don’t have relatives in Syria or that the war in Syria is hampering their movement to extract it and they don’t have choice but the Syrian embassy to extract it.

But the documents at the Syrian embassy is considers with a high cost in comparison with the economical status of most of the Syrians women in Egypt, the cost of slow passport extracting reached to /$300/,

And urgent passport cost of /$800/, while the cost of the general power of attorney is /$100/, and a residency deed/ $50 /, and that according to the Syrian embassy website in Cairo.

These prices were the main hamper in front of Kinda, who has got married by the Arfi contract because she wasn’t able to pay a lot of money for her country embassy, so that made her unable to file a lawsuit for confirmation her marriage and also for infant’s descent confirmation/registration.

In this context, Dugman asserts that:” the high costs of extracting documents from embassy form a motive at many Syrian refugees in Egypt for not extracting any documents from the embassy, and for not registering any changing in their social status, because they should pay for any obtained document, during difficult circumstances which they are living here”.

As also most of Syrians who opposite the Syrian regime don’t go to the Syrian consulates & embassies for extracting the documents.

But the lawyer Issam Hamed asserts that in case of the marriage was really happened by the Arfi contract and if the wife desired to confirm the marriage, thus “The United Nation High Commission for Refugee’s Affairs “ in Egypt will bear the cost.

And the Egyptian courts exclude condition of valid residency availability, and he is clarifying that after he has explained this point in an awareness seminar in front of Syrians women , he found that 400 hundred women asked to file a marriage confirmation/registration lawsuit , adding “they was ignorant that information”.

And the Syrian lawyer Rehada Abdoush asserts that the Syrian woman in Egypt in case if she married an Egyptian she can pursue him in a lawsuit for confirmation /registering her marriage.

$140: Not received dowry!

The Syrian woman Ahlam is living with her three children in Al Giza governorate in bad economical circumstances that prevent her & children from renewal her residency and her children residency, until she has received news of the death of her daughter’s husband in Syria.

And that necessitate her travel to Syria, to console her daughter and to be with her, and due to that she doesn’t not has a residency inside Egypt, thus in case she traveled to Syria she will not be able to return back.

“I was working in buffet/cafeteria at one of the institutions to save money for my family, until we started to leave some of the food kinds and meat for making the salary sufficient”. As Ahlam said.

The renewal of the residency transaction is costs about /550 /pounds, and in addition its Delay penalties up to/ 1053 /pounds, for the three first delaying months, and 550 pounds on every three months follow after it, thus the fines has accumulated on Ahlam and that made her unable to extract the residency.

70% of undocumented marriage cases, the woman rights are lost due the husband’s disavowal:

Ahlam went to an Egyptian lawyer called Mahmoud to help her, but he take advantaged her circumstance, to force her to marry him by Arfi contract, to assistance her in extracting residencies for her & her children, after he convinced her that this the marriage is the only way to extract the residency and he promised to help her in extracting the residences by his

acquaintances and bearing its costs.

Ahlam has agreed to marry him after closing all the ways in front of her, and she gave up all the expenses of marriage for him, even he lived in his house in October area at Al Giza.

“He took me to one of his known lawyers’ office by him, and wrote the marriage contract over there and he appointed the dowry in /1000/ Egyptian pound as an advanced dowry and /1000/ Egyptian pounds as an deferred dowry ($ 140), thus I agreed and signed the contract after he convinced me that he will save the money for marriage expenses and extracting the residences”. As Ahlam said.

The Ahlam’s Arfi (unregistered) marriage contract

After the marriage , he obtained a six months residency for her ,and that enabled her travel Syria and returning back to Egypt , and he refused to extract any residency for her children as he promised lately ,arguing that they are adults and can make money.

Ahlam is saying that:” disavowed what he promised me, and he has been coming one day a week and giving me the house expenses between /100-200/  Egyptian pounds (7-14 dollars) and he don’t pay the apartment’s rent”.

All that pushed Ahlma to ask divorce, and he divorced her without giving

her any of her rights including the advanced & deferred /2000/ Egyptian pounds dowry, then he started to threaten her to deport her with her children to Syria, if she did not send him the Arfi’s contract to prevent her obtaining of her rights.

We offered all the obtained marriage contracts regarding the Syrians women to the Egyptian lawyer Mohamad Atef , who specialized in the civil law , and he asserted that the contracts are correct, due to its containing of all data ,including names of the both contract parties , dowry and the witnesses.

(UNHCR) and the favoritisms

In front of these big difficulties which the Syrians women are confronting it, thus “United Nations High Commission for Refugees” is intervened after happening the Arfi’s marriage, where it is powering of attorney a lawyer to file a lawsuit at the court for confirming/registering the marriage and bearing the suit costs.

But in this process “the favoritisms are intervening in it, where the cases are powering of attorney to lawyers with little experience, who are not caring, but they are only filing the lawsuit on behalf the affected woman in front of the court and obtaining their fees from the UNHCR, without the actual interesting in the case details or follow up it at the courts, and that resulted not obtaining the woman her right”, as are

referring by the Syrian lawyer Firas Haj Yahia.

And Haj Yahia added that:”if the lawyer was unspecialized or with little experience, the woman loses the lawsuit, and she will lose her legal, material and literary right”. Pointing that he has met many Syrians women who they suffered from lack of lawyers’ experience.

The lawyer Yousef Al – Mutani is saying:”the foreigners’ marriage confirmation lawsuits have a special mechanism, a lot of the lawyers lose it, due to the lawyer should present a copy of Syrian Civil Status Law documented by the Syrian Foreign Ministry to the judge, to base his verdict upon its articles”.

The lawyer Issam Hamed asserts that more than 70% of the marriage confirmation lawsuits for Syrians women which he has worked on it, he was as the second lawyer in it, after failure of the previous lawyers.

We asked many questions to the UNHCR, about its procedures in case if it is received a complaint from a woman married by Arfi’s contract, and the provided assistance from it, and if it can provide assistance in extracting the documents, but we have not been received any respond up to moment of publishing the investigation.

Since her entering illegally to Egypt in the last of 2016 until now, Reem still does not know which road to walk in, due to the psychological & physical shock which she has exposed to it, and she has been perplexed in returning back to her country for living in it, which the war are grinding it, or staying in a strange country, her husband abandoned her in it, after she has been passed a long distances at the desert between Egypt & Sudan for reaching it.

*This investigation was conducted under supervision of the Syrian Investigative Reporting Unit – SIRAJ. Published on DARAJ.

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