BEIRUT: European aid sent to Lebanon in an attempt to regulate migration by sea is funding practices that violate human rights, according to a global watchdog report published Wednesday.
As part of a policy to contain migration, authorities in Cyprus have physically pushed Syrian refugees back to Lebanon, and Lebanese security agencies have deported them, the Human Rights Watch report said.
The report, based on interviews with 16 Syrians who tried to leave Lebanon via smuggler boats, found that 15 of them “suffered human rights violations at the hands of Lebanese and/or Cypriot authorities.”
Rights groups have frequently criticized the tactics of authorities in both Lebanon and Cyprus in dealing with would-be migrants and asylum seekers. Officials from the two countries deny violating any laws but say they are overwhelmed by the migration they are facing.
Lebanon, which has been in the throes of a severe financial crisis since 2019, hosts around 775,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands more unregistered, the world’s highest refugee population per capita.
Lebanese political officials have pushed for western countries to resettle the refugees or assist in returning them to Syria — voluntarily or not. At the same time, Lebanon has an agreement with Cyprus to halt the smuggling of migrants and has received substantial funding from the European Union and European countries for border control.
In some cases, Syrian refugees who were caught by the Lebanese army attempting to leave to Cyprus by sea have been driven to the Lebanon-Syria border and dumped on the Syrian side, Human Rights Watch said. Allegedly, some of them were then detained by the Syrian army, while others were extorted by smugglers for passage back to Lebanon.
Cyprus, meanwhile, suspended processing of Syrian asylum applications in April. Human Rights Watch accused Cypriot authorities of forcibly turning back boats carrying asylum seekers coming from Lebanon.
In some cases, Cypriot authorities forcibly prevented asylum seekers from landing, and in other cases they made it to shore but “were not given the opportunity to claim asylum” and instead were detained and then returned to Lebanon, where some were then deported to Syria, the report said.
“Both Lebanese and Cypriot authorities used excessive force at the time of arrest and during detention,” Human Rights Watch said.
The European Union and European countries gave Lebanon some 16.7 million euros ($18.5 million) from 2020 to 2023 for border management “mainly in the form of capacity-building projects explicitly aimed at enhancing Lebanon’s ability to prevent irregular migration,” the report said. In August, the European Union allocated another 32 million euros ($35.3 million) to “continue implementing border management enhancement projects in Lebanon through 2025,” it said.
Cyprus’ Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection in a statement denied carrying out so-called pushbacks. It noted that Cyprus is a “small frontline country” that has “received massive migrant flows over the last few years.”
“The state’s capacity to host additional migrants is overstretched,” the statement said. “Therefore, we aim to strike a balance between our legal obligations and the realities on the ground.”
Lebanon’s General Security agency told Human Rights Watch that between Jan. 1, 2022, and Aug. 1, 2024, it recorded 1,388 people, including 821 Syrians, on 15 departing boats, who were caught attempting to leave Lebanon. General Security maintained that every deportation of which it “had knowledge and on which it coordinated, was subject to international human rights law standards.”
Acting Director-General Beate Gminder of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs said in a response to the report’s findings that the commission “takes allegations of wrongdoings very seriously,” but that it is the responsibility of national authorities to “investigate any allegations of violations of fundamental rights” and to prosecute wrongdoing.
Rights group alleges Lebanon and Cyprus violated refugees’ human rights and EU funds paid for it
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Rights group alleges Lebanon and Cyprus violated refugees’ human rights and EU funds paid for it
- Rights groups have frequently criticized the tactics of authorities in both Lebanon and Cyprus in dealing with would-be migrants and asylum seekers
- Officials from the two countries deny violating any laws but say they are overwhelmed by the migration they are facing
Wildfires kill two in western Turkiye, little-known group claims arson attacks
A group calling itself “Children of Fire” claimed responsibility
ISTANBUL: A wildfire killed a second person in Türkiye’s western Izmir province on Tuesday as blazes raged for a seventh day across several regions, while a little-known group claiming ties to Kurdish militants said it was behind dozens of arson attacks.
The latest casualty was a backhoe operator, Ibrahim Demir, who died while battling the flames in the Odemis district, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Earlier, an 81-year-old bedridden man who was home alone in the same area died when fire reached his house, marking the first death since the fires began.
A group calling itself “Children of Fire” claimed responsibility for “tens of fires across six Turkish cities”, according to a statement shared online.
The group, which is little known, says it is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the United States and European Union. The PKK, which said in May that it was ending a 40-year insurgency and disbanding, has not commented on the claim.
Firefighters continued to battle flames with helicopters and planes dropping water over mountainous terrain in Izmir, while authorities closed some roads to the Aegean resort town of Cesme, Anadolu said.
Broadcasters showed footage of flames lining the main highway as water tankers arrived.
Türkiye, Greece and other countries in the Mediterranean are in an area scientists dub “a wildfire hotspot” — with blazes common during hot and dry summers. These have become more destructive in recent years due to a fast-changing climate.
Wildfires across Türkiye’s west have damaged around 200 homes and victims have been provided alternative accommodation, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. Some 50,000 people were temporarily evacuated earlier this week from areas of fires fueled by high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds.
New fires also broke out on Thursday in the southern resort province of Antalya and in forested areas near Istanbul, Türkiye’s largest city, Anadolu said. Authorities have managed to contain several of the blazes.
US imposes fresh sanctions targeting Iran oil trade, Hezbollah
“Treasury will continue to target Tehran’s revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime’s access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
The US has imposed waves of sanctions on Iran’s oil exports over its nuclear program and funding of militant groups across the Middle East.
Reuters reported late last year that a fuel oil smuggling network that generates at least $1 billion a year for Iran and its proxies has
flourished in Iraq since 2022.
Thursday’s sanctions came after the US carried out strikes on June 22 on three Iranian nuclear sites, including its most deeply buried enrichment plant Fordow. The Pentagon said on Wednesday the strikes had degraded Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, despite a far more cautious initial assessment that had leaked to the public.
The US and Iran are expected to hold talks about its nuclear program next week in Oslo, Axios reported.
The Treasury Department also issued sanctions against several senior officials and one entity associated with the Hezbollah-controlled financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan.
The officials, the department said, conducted millions of dollars in transactions that ultimately benefited, but obscured, Hezbollah.
One person killed, 4 injured in Israeli airstrike on car in Beirut
- Israeli military spokesperson says the army ‘targeted a terrorist in Lebanon who was involved in arms smuggling and advancing terrorist plots against Israeli citizens and army forces’
- Israeli army forces enter Kfar Kila, the closest Lebanese town to Israel, on Thursday morning and blow up a civilian home
BEIRUT: An Israeli drone attack hit a car on Khaldeh Road in southern Beirut at about 5 p.m. on Thursday. Initial reports suggested one person was killed and at least four injured.
The drone fired two guided missiles at the vehicle, scoring direct hits. The road on which it was traveling was described as a typically busy road.
The Israeli army confirmed the attack. In a message posted on social media platform X, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said: “The Israeli army targeted a terrorist in Lebanon who was involved in arms smuggling and advancing terrorist plots against Israeli citizens and army forces on behalf of the Iranian Quds Force.”
The attack took place three days before US envoy Thomas Barrack is due visit to Beirut to receive Lebanon’s response to US disarmament proposals designed to restrict control of weapons in the country to the Lebanese state, and a day after Hezbollah reiterated its rejection of the demand.
Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Naim Qassem, said on Wednesday that the group “categorically rejects any efforts to disarm. We do not accept being led into humiliation, nor surrendering our land or weapons to the Israeli enemy.”
The matter of weapons is “an internal Lebanese issue that must be addressed internally, without external supervision or interference,” he added.
“The party will not submit to any external threat or pressure. No one decides for us or imposes choices on us that we do not accept. Our weapons are our legitimate and legal right to confront the Israeli occupation.”
On Thursday morning, Israeli army forces entered the southern town of Kfar Kila and blew up a civilian home. Located across the border from the Israeli settlement of Metula, Kfar Kila is the closest Lebanese town to Israel, separated only by a border fence. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon and the Lebanese army maintain a permanent presence in the area.
Algeria jails historian who questioned Amazigh culture
- He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity“
- Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court sentenced him to five years
ALGIERS: An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced historian Mohamed Amine Belghit to five years in prison for offending national symbols, his lawyer said, after remarks questioning the existence of the native Amazigh culture.
Belghit sparked outrage in the North African country when he said in a recent interview that “the Amazigh language is an ideological project of Franco-Zionist origin,” and that “there’s no such thing as Amazigh culture.”
He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity” by targeting “symbols of the nation and the republic” as well as “disseminating hate speech,” the prosecution said at the time.
On Thursday, Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court outside the capital Algiers sentenced him to five years behind bars.
The prosecutor had requested seven years jailtime and a fine of 700,000 dinars ($5,400).
Algeria in 2016 granted official status to Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh people, who are also known as Berbers.
The Berber new year celebration, Yennayer, was added in 2017 to the list of national holidays.
Belghit, a university professor, is no stranger to controversies.
His remarks often cause uproar, with critics accusing him of historical revisionism and hostility toward the Amazigh people.
Iran committed to Non-Proliferation Treaty, foreign minister says
- Abbas Araqchi made the comment a day after Tehran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog
- Iran has accused the IAEA of siding with Western countries and providing a justification for Israel’s airstrikes
Iran remains committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its safeguards agreement, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday, a day after Tehran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
“Our cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) will be channeled through Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for obvious safety and security reasons,” Araqchi wrote in a post on X.
President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday enacted the legislation passed by parliament last week to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, a move the US called “unacceptable.”
Araqchi’s comment on X was in response to a call from Germany’s Foreign Ministry urging Tehran to reverse its decision to shelve cooperation with the IAEA.
Araqchi accused Germany of “explicit support for Israel’s unlawful attack on Iran, including safeguarded nuclear sites.”
Iran has accused the IAEA of siding with Western countries and providing a justification for Israel’sJune 13-24 airstrikes on Iranian nuclear installations, which began a day after the UN agency’s board of governors voted to declare Tehran in violation of its obligations under the NPT.
Western powers have long suspected that Iran has sought to develop the means to build atomic bombs through its declared civilian atomic energy program. Iran has repeatedly said it is enriching uranium only for peaceful nuclear ends.
IAEA inspectors are mandated to ensure compliance with the NPT by seeking to verify that nuclear programs in treaty countries are not diverted for military purposes.
The law that went into effect on Wednesday mandates that any future inspection of Iranian nuclear sites by the IAEA needs approval by Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“We are aware of these reports. The IAEA is awaiting further official information from Iran,” the Vienna-based global nuclear watchdog said in a statement.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a regular briefing on Wednesday that Iran needed to cooperate fully with the IAEA without further delay.
