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18-05-2023
BEIRUT/ DAMASCUS: For seven years, Moussa al-Omari has been postponing his military service in Syria but knowing he was running out of legitimate reasons, he left the country in August last year and entered Lebanon legally through the airport.
Seeing March this year was the final month of his exemption from service, al-Omari whose name has been changed for security reasons was hoping he would receive legal residency in Lebanon, but he said his request was rejected by the Lebanese authorities.
“They told me; ‘It’s OK, you can stay illegally. No one will bother you.’ And just three or four weeks ago, they started deporting everyone who doesn’t have a legal stay,” al-Omari told media.
“I’ve just been hiding at home since then.”
Twenty-five-year-old al-Omari, along with more than a million Syrians finding refuge in Lebanon, the majority of whom have been in the country since the eruption of civil war in Syria 11 years ago are now terrified of the current crackdown on their presence.
According to UNHCR spokesperson Paula Barrachina, there have been at least 73 confirmed raids on Syrian communities across the country in April.
Barrachina also confirmed to media without providing a number that Syrians had been detained and deported, including those registered with UNHCR.
“UNHCR takes reports of deportations of Syrian refugees very seriously and is concerned about current developments,” Barrachina told media.
The Lebanese interior ministry has not responded to media’s requests for comment.
A senior humanitarian source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told media that more than 1,100 Syrians have been arrested and 600 deported since the start of 2023.
Some of these deportations have left minors separated from their families.
Waad, 31, and her husband Raad who asked for their last name to be withheld fled to Lebanon from Deraa in southern Syria in 2006.
Their stay became legal in 2012 due to Raad gaining sponsorship through his employer, but this lasted only one year as he lost his job. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
