The World Lebanese Cultural Union Geographic Regional Council of Australia & NZ headed by Sheikh Joe Arida conveyed the following Message in regard to the Displaced Syrians in Lebanon Crisis, to the H.E. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General – United Nations, H.E. Philippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Geneva and Ivo Freijsen, Representative United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Lebanon:
“Dear Secretary-General, High Commissioner and Representative,
We, the undersigned, write to you in a collective concern that requires the need to both
bring to your attention but more importantly to highlight on behalf of the Lebanese
populace and the diaspora, with whom we are integrally connected and concerned to bring
to your attention the impact of the Displaced Syrian Persons (DSP) who are as much of a
concern to us as their toll is equally of and on the Lebanese State is equally a competing
concern to Lebanon and her people situate within and without as to the fate of the nation of
Lebanon as a result of what the consequences are quickly becoming with respect to the DSP.
At the outset one must deal with issues of international legal obligation and clearly, within
Lebanon there is no responsibility upon Lebanon as a sovereign state to be responsible for
displaced persons, stateless persons and/or refugees simply because the need for
conventions to be both ratified, acceded to and equally signed does not exist within the
Lebanese state.
The reality has been that since the war in Syria and the abdication of the role of Syria as a
responsible sovereign state, the situation has unleashed upon Lebanon a problem
represented by the influx of at least 1.5 million displaced persons who are and have been,
within Lebanon, a cause for its current crisis, apart from but in addition to what Lebanon also
sadly suffers from, which is a government that is both inept and incapable of addressing the
national needs.
The concerned consensus with Lebanon has engaged from within the spectrum of relevant
actors in society, interests represented by the Patriarch of Lebanon, Bechara Al Rahi, who has
called for the respectful but swift repatriation of displaced Syrians, as recently as 7 March
2023.
In turn, this was reiterated by the General Federation of Lebanese Trade Unions (GFLTU)
which launched the campaign titled: “The National Campaign to Liberate Lebanon from the
Syrian Demographic Occupation”.
The presence of the DSP within Lebanon both detracts from and undermines Lebanon’s
attempts to be a sovereign and neutral nation, which it needs to be able to pursue and
ensure its economic and sovereign revival.
The UN and its Agency the UNHCR, whilst undertaking the work that is required to assist and
alleviate the suffering of the DSP, has regrettably not undertaken it with the need in mind to
do so effectively and more importantly with an initiative to ensure respectful but swift
repatriation.
The same problems that have been encountered in Lebanon are being repeated in
Bangladesh which, like Lebanon, is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees with
respect to the Rohingya refugees who are currently living in camps in South Eastern
Bangladesh, fleeing Myanmar.
Essentially, for there to be in a region such as Bangladesh a replication of what is not only
occurring in Lebanon but by a government that is somewhat more democratically organised
than the Lebanese Government where it has now put in place strict rules to prevent social
integration in referring to the Rohingya as “forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals” instead of
“refugees” is hardly surprising. The hostility of the host nation in Bangladesh is both
worrisome and may well increase, in terms of its resentment.
The parallel but more importantly the lesson that the UNHCR is failing to assess and adopt is
that by replicating in Bangladesh what it has regrettably undertaken and failed to resolve
within Lebanon is not enabling the laudable precepts of the United Nations Charter to be
both implemented and more importantly fairly undertaken.
Accordingly, we call on the UN to assess and more importantly act swiftly to intervene and
engage in the General Assembly to resolve the impasse that is neither warranted, nor can it
be any longer countenanced, to engage in the repatriation of the DSP to Syria, with the
dignity and the respect that they both deserve and equally, in terms of its entitlement, to the
Lebanese populace, in a reciprocal and respectful fashion.
In closing, whilst it is acknowledged that integration of the DSP is not the avowed aim of the
UNHCR, nevertheless the integration by inertia will lead to the disintegration of Lebanon as a
sovereign nation.”