Akram Al-Bunni – The ordeal of Syrian asylum in Lebanon!

The tears in his eyes did not hide his displeasure and anger at the humiliation he was subjected to when the owner of one of the Lebanese bakeries refused to sell him bread because he was Syrian. Did you catch madness? Understood, she added; Yes, life here is abhorrent, but you know that our stay here is less bad, and you also know how many Lebanese people sympathized with us and did not delay in helping us in difficulties.
It is understandable that the fear of the Syrian refugees has exacerbated, not only from the factors of nature in its cold and sweltering, or from the decline in aid, the deterioration of their living conditions in the camps, and the loss of the future of millions of their children, but also from the change in the attitude of the expatriate societies towards them, which is an explanatory matter, the Syrians’ feeling of bitterness and oppression from alienating attitudes To them, and sometimes hostility from some Lebanese, has reached many times to treat them inappropriately to humans, and sometimes as untouchables, but what is not acceptable is that it comes to circulating the hashtag “No to the Syrian in Lebanon” on social media, and the daring of Michel Aoun, the highest authority In the country, and Hezbollah’s “strategic” ally, to incite them to evict them from Lebanon, this is due to Hezbollah’s direct intervention in the bloody Syrian conflict, and the main bloc of refugees’ affiliation to a “sect” that is haunted by the curse of terrorism and attached to every operation it undertakes. There are “Al-Nusra” and “ISIS” groups on Lebanese territory, which has greatly facilitated feeding a social and psychological climate against their presence, linked to the growing pressures on them from Lebanese political and economic parties and security services, which tend to normalize their relations with the regime and satisfy it.
He had told his sister, after returning angrily from the oven, that he had decided to register his name with those wishing to return to Syria, and added perhaps encouraging himself; They have become hundreds, and there are reassurances that they will not be harmed or arrested. Then he asked her; Why do we fear? Didn’t we leave the country when you were 10 years old and I was 9? Were we aware of what was going on around us to bear any responsibility?
With an explicit question, Sister Hazemeh interrupted him; Do you not think that there are many stalkers, and that the agents of the Syrian regime here must have sent their reports about our lives and our positions? What fate awaits us if someone has revealed some of our attacks and insults to the regime, or our sympathy with the opponents? Is it my duty to remind you, every time the idea of ​​a demonic return comes to you, what happened with your friend Ahmed, who also went out when he was your age? Is there any news about his fate and the fate of his father and brother a year after their return to Syria? Is his mother still writhing and panting until now as she moves from one security branch to another to ask about them? Then where are the hundreds, who wish to return? Did you not hear that the number announced by the Lebanese authorities on the first day of more than 700 people, did not exceed dozens, announced by the same authorities, on the second day? Then she leaned over his head tenderly and asked, “Will you leave me here alone?” You know I won’t go back to that hell, where I’m forced every day to look and smile at those who buried my parents and my sister in the rubble? Then where can we live? How do we restore family property rights? Did they not destroy and burn our house and what is in it, and take our land? Did they not threaten your uncle Khaled with imprisonment and death if he repeated his demand for his home and land?
It is a fact that is not hidden from anyone that the seizure of everything that falls under the hand of homes and property has become a common custom in Syria among the owners of the “great victory”, while woe, defeat and great matters await everyone who tries to recover his right and dares to claim his property, especially in the areas that witnessed Long sieges, the most dangerous when certain “sectarian” groups have premeditated intentions to seize neighborhoods and towns of religious and security interest to them, in order to create a population homogeneity of the same “sectarian” type, which they rely on to strengthen control.
The sister felt for a moment that her talk did not achieve what she hoped for, and did not discourage her brother from reversing the decision to return, so she started wondering; Have you thought about the conditions of the countries that we will return to? How can we provide the simplest necessities of living? Have you missed the state of starvation experienced by our people there… their inability to provide food, clothing, and heating… the lack of job opportunities… the theft of aid offered to them? Have you forgotten the stories about the armed men’s infringements and their violations of people’s rights and dignity… about innocent citizens who, for trivial reasons, were subjected to humiliation, extortion, harm and even murder, without the perpetrators being held accountable or punished?!
The case, while emphasizing the regime’s responsibility towards the exacerbation of the Syrian refugee crisis, is that it will not change its hostile attitude towards them and its declaration that they have no place or rights in its homogeneous society, while also emphasizing the negative role of the Syrian opposition in dealing with this file, and its inability for years to create channels It is healthy for communication and solidarity with the refugees, perhaps because it considers their issue marginal to the priority of military and political action, and perhaps because it is easy to evade its responsibility towards them as long as it is easy to blame the regime, and if we add that the refugees in Lebanon are at the mercy of the chronic division in Lebanese society between two opposing political currents in the position of the Syrian regime We have also added the remarkable decline in international aid and assistance to protect refugees and enable them to live. We can imagine the situation and the choices that await these afflicted Syrians in Lebanon.
It is correct to consider the suffering of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, the deterioration of their conditions of life, and the growth of humiliating violations and abuses against them, as a human catastrophe, but in terms of causes and consequences, it is a political issue. But it is not sufficient, as long as it is not accompanied by a political path to extinguish the Syrian hotbed of tension, expel foreign forces from it, and address the roots of the ongoing conflict in accordance with UN Resolution (2254), which means imposing a solution that meets the aspirations and rights of Syrians, and provides encouraging security, political and economic conditions for a dignified return for millions of refugees. to their home and country.