Is Lebanon using EU aid to push illegal refugees to Syria?

Syrian refugees trying to reach Cyprus from Lebanon are being pushed back by EU-funded Lebanese authorities and forcibly deported to their home country – even though that is precisely where they are fleeing war and persecution. The NGO Human Rights Watch accuses the Lebanese authorities of this in a new report.

It goes on to say: The Cypriot coast guard enables these forced deportations by pushing refugees back to Lebanon. The EU then finances the Lebanese armed forces, which are repeatedly responsible for human rights violations.

“Despite lip service to human rights commitments by European donors, European funding continued to be provided to Lebanese security authorities for border management. The same authorities carry out abusive pullbacks and all expulsions of Syrian refugees,” the report says.

Syrian refugees report human rights violations

The findings were compiled by the NGO based on photographic and video evidence, aircraft and boat tracking data, and the testimony of 16 Syrian refugees and asylum seekers. All 16 had attempted to leave Lebanon, where they faced increasingly hostile conditions.

Of the sixteen refugees, fifteen have been victims of human rights violations by Lebanese or Cypriot authorities, including detention, beatings, handcuffs and verbal abuse.

Eleven of them were forcibly returned to Syria by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), including four who had previously been returned to Lebanon from Cyprus.

“Not only is this a blatant violation of the right to seek international protection – which is their right and was briefly denied by both Cypriot and Lebanese authorities – they have also been beaten, shoved, handcuffed, arbitrarily detained and treated inhumanely,” Nadia Hardman, a researcher with the refugee and migrant rights division at Human Rights Watch, told Euronews.

Hardmann explains that the refugees were then forced to return to Syria: “Where we, like many other organizations, know and have documented how refugees and returnees are arbitrarily detained, disappear and sometimes killed after their return to Syria.”

Too many refugees in Cyprus? The EU reacts and sends money to Lebanon

Hardman believes that the actions of the Cypriot and Lebanese authorities represent a clear violation of the legal principle of non-refoulement. This prohibits a state from deporting a person to a country where he or she would face cruel or degrading treatment.

Lebanon manages the world’s largest number of refugees per capita, including 1.5 million Syrian refugees. However, hostility towards refugees has increased in Lebanon.

Cyprus recorded a sharp increase in the number of Syrian refugees arriving irregularly in April, prompting the Cypriot authorities to suspend the processing of asylum applications.

The EU responded and in May adopted a 1 billion euro financial package for Lebanon until 2026. This also includes funds for the equipment and training of the Lebanese armed forces to improve border protection.

Half of the package (€500 million) was adopted in August, of which €368 million was earmarked to support people in need in Lebanon, including Syrian refugees. The remaining €132 million was earmarked for the implementation of a series of economic and security reforms, including “enhanced support to the security sector and border management,” according to the Commission.

EU “finances” authorities without “meaningful controls”

According to Human Rights Watch, the EU provides funds to Lebanese authorities and institutions without checking whether they comply with fundamental rights.

“There is no real requirement that these institutions, these authorities, respect basic human rights principles,” Hardman told Euronews. “With the EU-Lebanon agreement, we saw that it is a quick reward.”

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Hardmann added that Human Rights Watch is not fundamentally opposed to funding the Lebanese authorities, but that clear conditions and monitoring mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that the EU is not complicit in these abuses.

The NGO also questions whether the EU Commission can verify whether the partners it entrusts with assisting the Lebanese authorities in border management respect fundamental rights. Partner organisations such as the Vienna-based International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) do not understand the EU’s human rights framework.

The European Commission told Human Rights Watch in an August 20 letter that the ICMPD’s EU-funded interventions “are being closely monitored by the European Commission, including through the EU Delegation in Beirut.”

According to Human Rights Watch, the letter goes on to say: “Before any payment.” [an das ICMPD] The EU shall carry out an assessment of financial and operational progress on the basis of the reports and financial statements submitted by the implementing partner.

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In internal EU Commission documents, to which Human Rights Watch has access, the NGO is said to say that “security actors who benefit from EU projects may violate international human rights standards.”

Cyprus seeks role as Mediterranean Commissioner

Human Rights Watch’s revelations come at a time when EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is putting together the new Commission.

The new EU Commission will have a new Commissioner for the Mediterranean region. His task: to oversee the EU migration agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, Mauritania and Tunisia, among others, to stem the flow of migration.

Some of these agreements have been heavily criticized by human rights activists for ignoring documented human rights violations in these countries.

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In her political priorities for the coming legislative period, von der Leyen promises to continue to develop “strategic relations” with non-EU countries in the areas of migration and security. She adds that a “new pact for the Mediterranean” will aim to deepen these partnerships.

Human Rights Watch doubts that the allocation of the portfolio to Cyprus is appropriate. “Cyprus is engaged in illegal deportations. The country is bound by the EU’s strict human rights laws and standards, which are being ignored,” said Hardman.

“As long as there is no investigation and accountability for these blatant violations of international law, I do not believe they should be entrusted with a portfolio where they are responsible for important issues such as migration.”