Unable to bear economic pressures in Lebanon, Syrian refugees head back home

Syrian refugees wave from on board a bus in a Beirut suburb as they prepare to return home to neighboring Syria. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 31 August 2021
Follow

Unable to bear economic pressures in Lebanon, Syrian refugees head back home

  • PM-designate Najib Mikati has so far failed to overcome obstacles and form govt

BEIRUT: The economic crisis in Lebanon is prompting a remarkable number of Syrian workers residing in the country to return to Syria.

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has decreased to 851,717, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees’ latest census, though the Lebanese government stopped allowing the UNHCR to register Syrians as refugees in 2015.

The crisis has also led to confrontations between Lebanese and Syrian refugees, with the financial collapse exacerbated by the country’s political paralysis. Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati has so far failed to overcome a series of long-running obstacles and form a government.

Syrian workers and refugees are paying a heavy price as a result, with the World Bank ranking the situation among the world’s three worst financial crises since the mid-19th century.

Mahmoud, a concierge in one of Beirut’s residential neighborhoods, said that he came from Syria in 2005, settled in Lebanon and had six children.

With his monthly salary and the assistance provided by residents in the building, he explained that he was able to make ends meet, but with the vast rise in prices, he cannot now provide for his family.

Mahmoud is no longer able to stay in Lebanon, so has decided to return to Manbij in northern Syria after his relatives, who were also working in Lebanon, went back and encouraged him to follow.

UNHCR spokeswoman Lisa Abu Khaled told Arab News: “Like all communities in Lebanon, refugees are deeply affected by the compounded crisis and critical situation affecting the country, with … around 90 percent living in extreme poverty and making difficult choices of survival every single day, including skipping meals, not seeking urgent medical treatment, and sending children to work.”

She noted: “Over the last 18 months, the Lebanese currency lost more than 85 percent of its value, with the poorest communities being the hardest hit.”

Abu Khaled added: “As is the case in all communities, the situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon had been quite difficult long before the economic meltdown. Their situation is made even more impossible today.”

A few years back, numerous Syrians crossed into Lebanon illegally. But refugees now speak about some families silently returning as they can no longer bear the economic pressures they face.

Voice of Syrian Refugees’ Lebanon spokesperson Abu Ahmed Soaiba said the UNHCR had recently received more than 150 requests from Syrian refugees living in rented houses, asking it to allow them to set up tents inside refugee camps in Lebanon.

She told Arab News: “Landlords are demanding refugees to pay rent either in dollars or in Lebanese pounds according to the daily exchange rate on the black market. Where would an unemployed refugee come up with 1.5 million Lebanese pounds ($995) to pay rent for a mere studio apartment?”

Soaiba added: “A Syrian refugee left his tent at midnight on Sunday in the town of Arsal, which includes the largest concentration of refugees in Lebanon, and started screaming hysterically. He wanted to burn the tent with his family in it and then commit suicide, saying that he was no longer able to put food on the table for his wife and children. He was crying out that death is more honorable than helplessness.”

A UN report has warned that half of the Syrian refugee families in Lebanon suffer from food insecurity.

Soaiba said a Syrian woman took her son, who suffers from a severe disability in his back, to Beirut to be examined by a doctor.

“When she returned, she started crying in the middle of the camp, saying that transportation to Beirut and back cost them 700,000 Lebanese pounds, and the doctor told her that there was nothing he could do for her son and referred them to another doctor with a different specialty.”

The aid the refugees receive as part of the response plan to the Syrian refugee crisis funded by international community organizations has lost 69 percent of its value.

It has decreased to around 100,000 Lebanese pounds per person.

A refugee receives $27, but the bank pays it in Lebanese pounds, at the exchange rate of 3,900 pounds to the dollar.

A refugee in Bekaa said: “The owner of the electricity generator raised the subscription fee from 55,000 Lebanese pounds to 220,000 Lebanese pounds for one ampere. If I pay this fee I will no longer be able to afford a bundle of bread. Our life inside the plastic tent has become hell.”

Many Syrian refugees, much like the Lebanese who are affected by the severe economic crisis, resorted to adapting to the situation by reducing health and education expenses.

The phenomena of Syrian child labor and early marriage among females have also increased.

A Syrian refugee is not legally allowed to work in Lebanon, while a Syrian worker has the right to work specific jobs in the construction, agriculture and cleaning services sectors.

Lebanon is one of the world’s smallest countries hosting one of the largest number of refugees in the world, but the Lebanese authorities refuse to officially recognize them as refugees, calling them displaced people instead, and urging the international community to facilitate their return to Syria.

Several revealed that many of them have been subjected to exploitation and racist treatment.

Soaiba said: “Syrian refugees rely on motorcycles for transportation, which is less expensive than using cabs. Nowadays, they are insulted at gas stations, where they are either refused service or forced to pay more than the specified price.”

On Saturday, a dispute occurred in the town of Kawkaba in western Bekaa between young men from the town and Syrians.

The dispute turned into a fight with weapons, which led to the serious injury of two Lebanese youths.

The situation in the town, which has been inhabited by nearly 900 Syrian refugees for years, has remained tense, necessitating the intervention of army intelligence and security services, which surrounded the town until the early hours of the morning to prevent any further escalation.

The townspeople in Kawkaba unanimously asked the Syrian families to leave the town within hours.

Most of the refugees, the majority of whom work in agriculture and the construction sector, vacated their homes and moved their belongings outside the town.

Tension is not limited to conflicts between Lebanese and Syrians but has become prevalent among many Lebanese themselves.

On Sunday, disputes renewed between the people of Maghdoucheh, east of Sidon, and the people of the neighboring town of Aanqoun, against the background of access to fuel from a station in Maghdoucheh.

These tensions almost turned into sectarian clashes between the two towns, as a group of Shiite youths stormed the Christian town of Maghdoucheh, leading to retaliation, with several people injured. Calm was restored after political and religious figures met on Sunday night.


Gaza rescuers say Israeli air strikes kill 25

A displaced Palestinian woman cooks near an unexploded ordnance, with explosive materials left behind by Israeli troops (AFP)
Updated 58 min 26 sec ago
Follow

Gaza rescuers say Israeli air strikes kill 25

  • The overall death toll in the Gaza war has reached 51,201
  • Israel resumed its aerial and ground assault on Gaza on March 18

GAZA:: Gaza’s civil defense agency reported that Israeli air strikes since dawn on Sunday have killed at least 25 people across the Gaza Strip, including women and children.
Israel resumed its aerial and ground assault on Gaza on March 18, reigniting fighting after a two-month ceasefire that had paused more than 15 months of war in the coastal territory.
“Since dawn today, the occupation’s air strikes have killed 20 people and injured dozens more, including children and women across the Gaza Strip,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency told AFP.
In a separate statement later, the agency reported that five people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a group of civilians in eastern Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday vowed to continue the war and bring home the remaining hostages held in Gaza without yielding to Hamas’s demands.
“We are at a critical stage of the campaign, and at this point, we need patience and determination to win,” Netanyahu said in a statement, rejecting calls from the militants to end the war and withdraw troops from Gaza.
Since Israel resumed its offensive last month, at least 1,827 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The overall death toll in the Gaza war has reached 51,201, the majority of them civilians, according to the ministry, figures the UN considers reliable.
The war broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
During that attack, Palestinian militants abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held hostage in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.


Syrian Airlines announces resumption of direct flights to the UAE

Workers give maintenance to a Syrian Arab Airlines Airbus A320-200 aircraft at Damascus international airport (AFP)
Updated 20 April 2025
Follow

Syrian Airlines announces resumption of direct flights to the UAE

  • Syrian Airlines said that it is working to expand its network as quickly as possible

DUBAI: Syrian Airlines on Sunday officially announced the resumption of direct flights between Syria and the UAE, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

The initial phase will include exceptional flights to Dubai and Sharjah.

According to a statement on the airline’s official Facebook page, four weekly flights will operate between Damascus and Dubai on Saturdays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with plans to expand to daily services soon.

Flights to Sharjah will run on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, with efforts underway to increase them to daily flights.

Damascus-Abu Dhabi routes will operate on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Syrian Airlines said that it is working to expand its network as quickly as possible, pending the necessary approvals from relevant authorities.

Travelers are encouraged to contact the airline’s offices inside or outside Syria for more information.


Yemen’s Houthis say two killed in US stikes on Sanaa area

Updated 20 April 2025
Follow

Yemen’s Houthis say two killed in US stikes on Sanaa area

  • The Iran-backed group reported two deaths and 11 injured in the “US aggression on Sanaa”

SANAA: At least two people were killed in overnight US strikes in and around Yemen’s capital Sanaa, media controlled by the Houthi militants reported Sunday, in the latest such air raid.
The Iran-backed group’s Al-Masirah channel, citing the militants’ health ministry, reported two deaths and 11 injured in the “US aggression on Sanaa, the capital, and the governorate.”
The channel earlier said one person was killed in an air strike on the governorate’s Bani Matar area, where a deadly US raid was reported a week ago.
Beyond Sanaa, the Houthis said Sunday that air strikes also hit Yemen’s Marib and Amran provinces.
Earlier this week, the group said that US strikes on the fuel port of Ras Issa killed at least 80 people and wounded 150 in the deadliest attack of Washington’s 15-month campaign against the Houthis.
The US military has hammered the Yemeni Houthis with near-daily air strikes for the past month in a bid to stamp out their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Claiming solidarity with Palestinians, the rebels began attacking the key maritime route and Israeli territory after the Gaza war began in October 2023.
The US strikes began in January 2024 but have multiplied under President Donald Trump, starting with an offensive that killed 53 people on March 15.
Houthi attacks on the Red Sea shipping route, which normally carries about 12 percent of global trade, have forced many companies into costly detours around the tip of southern Africa.


Lebanese authorities detain people they say were planning rockets attacks on Israel

Updated 32 min 55 sec ago
Follow

Lebanese authorities detain people they say were planning rockets attacks on Israel

  • Aoun said Sunday that disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah group was a “delicate” matter
  • The army said on Sunday that its forces had confiscated rockets and launchers in south Lebanon’s Sidon-Zahrani

BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities have detained several people who they say were planning to launch rockets into Israel and confiscated the weapons they were intending to use, the military said Sunday.
The army said in a statement that the arrests are linked to other detentions announced earlier this week. It added that as military intelligence was investigating that case they got information that a new rocket attack was being planned.
The army said troops raided an apartment near the southern port city of Sidon and confiscated some of the rockets and the launchers and “detained several people who were involved in the operation.” it said the detainees were referred to judicial authorities.

On Sunday, Lebanon's health ministry said an "Israeli enemy strike on a vehicle in Kaouthariyet al-Saiyad", located inland between the southern cities of Sidon and Tyre, killed "one person" and wounded two others.
It later said a separate "Israeli enemy" strike "on a house in Hula", near the border, killed one person.
The Israeli military did not immediately release any official statement on the strikes.

Disarming Hezbollah 

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Sunday that disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah group was a “delicate” matter whose implementation required the right circumstances, warning that forcing the issue could lead the country to ruin.
Restricting the bearing of arms to the state is “a sensitive, delicate issue that is fundamental to preserving civil peace” and requires due “consideration and responsibility,” Aoun told reporters.
“We will implement” a state monopoly on bearing arms “but we have to wait for the circumstances” to allow this, he said, adding that “nobody is speaking to me about timing or pressure.”
“Any controversial domestic issue in Lebanon can only be approached through conciliatory, non-confrontational dialogue and communication. If not, we will lead Lebanon to ruin,” he added.
Hezbollah, long a dominant force in Lebanon, was left weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel, sparked by the Gaza war, including an Israeli ground incursion and two months of heavy bombardment that decimated the group’s leadership.
On Friday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said the group “will not let anyone disarm” it, as Washington presses Beirut to compel the movement to hand over its weapons.
Qassem said his group was ready for dialogue on a “defense strategy,” “but not under the pressure of occupation” by Israel.
Israel has continued to conduct regular strikes in Lebanon despite a November 27 ceasefire and still holds five positions in south Lebanon that it deems “strategic.”
 


'I thought I'd died.' How land mines are continuing to claim lives in post-Assad Syria

Updated 20 April 2025
Follow

'I thought I'd died.' How land mines are continuing to claim lives in post-Assad Syria

  • Contamination from land mines and explosive remnants has killed at least 249 people, including 60 children, and injured another 379 since Dec. 8
  • Farming remains the main source of income for residents in rural Idlib, making the presence of mines a daily hazard

IDLIB: Suleiman Khalil was harvesting olives in a Syrian orchard with two friends four months ago, unaware the soil beneath them still hid deadly remnants of war.
The trio suddenly noticed a visible mine lying on the ground. Panicked, Khalil and his friends tried to leave, but he stepped on a land mine and it exploded. His friends, terrified, ran to find an ambulance, but Khalil, 21, thought they had abandoned him.
“I started crawling, then the second land mine exploded,” Khalil told The Associated Press. “At first, I thought I’d died. I didn’t think I would survive this.”
Khalil’s left leg was badly wounded in the first explosion, while his right leg was blown off from above the knee in the second. He used his shirt to tourniquet the stump and screamed for help until a soldier nearby heard him and rushed for his aid.
“There were days I didn’t want to live anymore,” Khalil said, sitting on a thin mattress, his amputated leg still wrapped in a white cloth four months after the incident. Khalil, who is from the village of Qaminas, in the southern part of Syria’s Idlib province, is engaged and dreams of a prosthetic limb so he can return to work and support his family again.
While the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war came to an end with the fall of Bashar Assad on Dec. 8, war remnants continue to kill and maim. Contamination from land mines and explosive remnants has killed at least 249 people, including 60 children, and injured another 379 since Dec. 8, according to INSO, an international organization which coordinates safety for aid workers.
Mines and explosive remnants — widely used since 2011 by Syrian government forces, its allies, and armed opposition groups — have contaminated vast areas, many of which only became accessible after the Assad government’s collapse, leading to a surge in the number of land mine casualties, according to a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.
‘It will take ages to clear them all’
Prior to Dec. 8, land mines and explosive remnants of war also frequently injured or killed civilians returning home and accessing agricultural land.
“Without urgent, nationwide clearance efforts, more civilians returning home to reclaim critical rights, lives, livelihoods, and land will be injured and killed,” said Richard Weir, a senior crisis and conflict researcher at HRW.
Experts estimate that tens of thousands of land mines remain buried across Syria, particularly in former front-line regions like rural Idlib.
“We don’t even have an exact number,” said Ahmad Jomaa, a member of a demining unit under Syria’s defense ministry. “It will take ages to clear them all.”
Jomaa spoke while scanning farmland in a rural area east of Maarrat Al-Numan with a handheld detector, pointing at a visible anti-personnel mine nestled in dry soil.
“This one can take off a leg,” he said. “We have to detonate it manually.”
Psychological trauma and broader harm
Farming remains the main source of income for residents in rural Idlib, making the presence of mines a daily hazard. Days earlier a tractor exploded nearby, severely injuring several farm workers, Jomaa said. “Most of the mines here are meant for individuals and light vehicles, like the ones used by farmers,” he said.
Jomaa’s demining team began dismantling the mines immediately after the previous government was ousted. But their work comes at a steep cost.
“We’ve had 15 to 20 (deminers) lose limbs, and around a dozen of our brothers were killed doing this job,” he said. Advanced scanners, needed to detect buried or improvised devices, are in short supply, he said. Many land mines are still visible to the naked eye, but others are more sophisticated and harder to detect.
Land mines not only kill and maim but also cause long-term psychological trauma and broader harm, such as displacement, loss of property, and reduced access to essential services, HRW says.
The rights group has urged the transitional government to establish a civilian-led mine action authority in coordination with the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) to streamline and expand demining efforts.
Syria’s military under the Assad government laid explosives years ago to deter opposition fighters. Even after the government seized nearby territories, it made little effort to clear the mines it left behind.
‘Every day someone is dying’
Standing before his brother’s grave, Salah Sweid holds up a photo on his phone of Mohammad, smiling behind a pile of dismantled mines. “My mother, like any other mother would do, warned him against going,” Salah said. “But he told them, ‘If I don’t go and others don’t go, who will? Every day someone is dying.’”
Mohammad was 39 when he died on Jan. 12 while demining in a village in Idlib. A former Syrian Republican Guard member trained in planting and dismantling mines, he later joined the opposition during the uprising, scavenging weapon debris to make arms.
He worked with Turkish units in Azaz, a city in northwest Syria, using advanced equipment, but on the day he died, he was on his own. As he defused one mine, another hidden beneath it detonated. After Assad’s ouster, mines littered his village in rural Idlib. He had begun volunteering to clear them — often without proper equipment — responding to residents’ pleas for help, even on holidays when his demining team was off duty, his brother said.
For every mine cleared by people like Mohammad, many more remain.
In a nearby village, Jalal Al-Maarouf, 22, was tending to his goats three days after the Assad government’s collapse when he stepped on a mine. Fellow shepherds rushed him to a hospital, where doctors amputated his left leg.
He has added his name to a waiting list for a prosthetic, “but there’s nothing so far,” he said from his home, gently running a hand over the smooth edge of his stump. “As you can see, I can’t walk.” The cost of a prosthetic limb is in excess of $3,000 and far beyond his means.