Restrictions are increasing against the survivors of the Syrian civil war. Beirut says prepare their gradual dismissal in their homeland.
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At the height of the “bread crisis” that rocked Lebanon this summer, the young Youssef, a 13 -year -old Syrian refugee, went out in the night to queue at the bakery, in order to increase his chances of Report a precious sachet of bread at home, in Bourj Hammoud, on the edge of Beirut. “In La File, Lebanese said” We must identify the Syrians at home “,” The crisis in Lebanon is their fault “”, recalls Youssef, originally from Idlib (north-west of Syria). Because of the lack of bread, arguments broke out in the country. Syrian anti-refugee rhetoric has climbed a notch. In some regions, bakeries even, in July, organized separate queues according to nationality, by favoring Lebanese.
Hanane, Youssef’s mother, then taught him to “be silent in the face of humiliations, so as not to have problems”. For this woman separated from her husband, mother of three children, two of whom are out of school and who trimes in a neighborhood grocery store, these shortages that occurred against the backdrop of financial collapse and speculation were a “political game, where the Syrians served as scapegoats “. Tensions have also found an echo in the media and on social networks. “Not all Lebanese are racist towards us,” said Hanane, anxious not to generalize. But she recognizes that “with the crisis, life is very hard for everyone” and “relationships will deteriorate”.
Of the 6 million people living in Lebanon, Syrian refugees are more than 800,000, according to the United Nations (1.5 million, according to Beirut). This makes Lebanon the State which hosts the greatest number of survivors of the Syrian civil war per capita. Since the start of this influx, in 2011, violent incidents, such as the fire of camps, have remained rare.
But for lack of an integration policy that successive governments refused to conduct in the name of the fragility of the economy and denominational and social considerations, the status of these hosts has always been precarious. The long-term implantation of refugees, Sunnis in their immense majority and often from poor rural or peri-urban environments, would shake up the delicate socio-religious balance on which the country rests.
Faramine financial assistance
The international community, for its part, paid to Beirut, from 2011, a staggering financial aid, officially intended to amortize the impact of the massive crisis of the displaced. But this windfall, renewed from year to year, actually served as a screen for the refusal of Western countries – except Germany – to take their share in the reception of these exiles. Syrians’ reinstallations in a third country have been done in drops.
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