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Syrian refugees are constantly looking for solutions to leave Lebanon, and have launched campaigns on social media since 2016 calling on the international community to get them out of Lebanon, due to Lebanese authorities continuously adopting arbitrary decisions against them, conducting and/or failing to stop hate speech, arbitrary arrests, arbitrary deportations, as well as ongoing threats to return refugees to their country, and conducting arbitrary deportations in coordination with Syrian authorities, causing great cause for concern among refugees. Refugee voices remain unheard despite the repeated calls for protection or resettlement to third countries that preserve their dignity and give them a safer and more stable environment than Lebanon.
Syrian refugees have not been spared from leaving Lebanon, as the human rights situation in the country is unstable, and where staying is misery and leaving is challenging. In light of the crises that have afflicted Lebanon for nearly the last two years, cases of migration from Lebanon to different countries have become noticeable, with Cyprus being one of the most prominent destinations, followed by Italy, Germany and then Greece, after a sharp drop in the value of the Lebanese pound and the deterioration of the living and security conditions.
Over the past six months, Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR) has monitored the conditions of migrants across land, sea, and air borders, from Lebanon towards various European countries, and documented a number of human rights violations against travelers during their trips. Cases of arbitrary arrest and kidnapping were monitored during the year 2021 until 20 November of the same year, in which Syrian refugees were subjected to ill-treatment, as well as arbitrary deportation, with ACHR recording 49 cases of arbitrary deportation, including 33 cases of those who tried traveling to Cyprus illegally by sea, but the Cypriot authorities returned them to Lebanon who in turn arbitrarily deported them to Syria under difficult conditions.
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