ANSD : UNHCR won’t encourage refugee return, but will assist

SAT 23 - 11 - 2024

Date: Jun 22, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

UNHCR won’t encourage refugee return, but will assist

_{Joseph Haboush| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: The U.N. refugee agency Thursday denied it was encouraging the return of Syrian refugees, a day after the Foreign Ministry said it had received a letter from the agency with a “complete change” in tone on the issue.

A source from the ministry had said the UNHCR would begin encouraging the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland “without promoting it.”

The agency confirmed that it had expressed this in a letter sent to the Foreign Ministry.

In an email to The Daily Star, the UNHCR said it would continue discussions with relevant Lebanese authorities “on all matters related to refugees, including their eventual return to Syria.”

It added: “In all refugee situations, when refugees individually decide to return to their countries of origin, the UNHCR respects their decisions and is there to help them to the extent possible as they prepare to leave so they are better equipped to re-establish their lives upon their return.”

Since 2017 the agency said it has “documented 13,000 such returns from Lebanon to Syria.”

But it stopped short of saying it would encourage return. “The Government of Lebanon, including the Foreign Ministry, is aware that the UNHCR, and the U.N. at large, is not currently in a position to start encouraging or organizing the return of Syrian refugees,” the agency wrote in the email.

The agency said that it is looking forward to pursuing its dialogue with the Lebanese authorities “as the tasks ahead warrant ever stronger collaboration.”

One of the new steps the UNHCR will pursue, according to the letter seen by The Daily Star Wednesday, is to facilitate the refugee return in the absence of the safeguards of U.N. protocol for a safe return.

In the letter, the UNHCR said it is not currently in a position to organize the return, however, it reaffirmed the U.N.’s respect for the decision of those who wish to return now, individually or in groups.

The letter also proposed a roundtable with all Lebanese ministries involved in the refugee issue to discuss a plan for their return.

“They also agreed to [caretaker Foreign] Minister [Gebran] Bassil’s calls to split the refugees into different categories,” Foreign Ministry Chief of Cabinet Hadi Hashem told The Daily Star Wednesday.

The Foreign Ministry has proposed dividing refugees into categories – those wanting to return who have places to stay, those who go to and from Syria freely and those who want to return but don’t have a place to stay.

A run-in between the Foreign Ministry and the UNHCR took place after Bassil issued an order to freeze the issuance or renewal of residency permits for the agency’s staff after disapproving of its tactics in dealing with refugees in Lebanon.

Bassil met with the agency’s commissioner in Geneva last week demanding a new approach and clear plan that would help refugees return in a “safe and voluntary manner.”

Since the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, millions of Syrians have fled their homes for locations inside and outside the country. Lebanon, now hosts 982,012 Syrian refugees who are registered with the UNHCR. Lebanese officials believe some 1.5 million Syrian refugees, registered and non-registered, are in the country. There are some 4 million Lebanese living in the country.

The refugee influx has strained already-weak public services such as electricity, water and transportation.

With many of the arrivals Sunni Muslim, it has also threatened to enflame sectarian tensions in a country that maintains a careful balance between religious groups.

Many in the country worry that the refugees may stay permanently, upsetting this balance. As the war in Syria has seemingly begun to wind down, calls for refugee return have become louder and more frequent.

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