Lebanon’s Minister of the Displaced visited Damascus over the weekend to discuss the return of Syrian refugees with officials in President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, despite dire warnings from human rights groups about the dangers they face in Syria.
Issam Sharafeddine met with Syrian regime Interior Minister Muhammad Rahmoun, to discuss repatriating Syrian refugees currently residing in Lebanon.
Refugees returning to Syria are in danger of arrest, torture, and execution by regime forces, as documented by human rights groups.
They are also at risk of being drafted into the regime’s army and are likely to face extreme poverty in Syria, where infrastructure has been destroyed and the economy has been wrecked following 12 years of brutal war.
The UN has documented about 800,000 Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon, but the Lebanese government says the number is far greater.
Most of them fled Syria following a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests by the Assad regime in 2011, which was followed by indiscriminate regime bombing of civilian areas which were captured by opposition forces.
In a statement, the Syrian regime’s interior ministry said the meeting between Sharafeddine and Rahmoun discussed ways to enhance cooperation for the return of refugees to their homeland.
He also claimed that the Syrian regime had provided all necessary facilities for its nationals – despite Syria suffering its worst economic crisis in decades, with millions living in extreme poverty due to corruption, mismanagement and economic sanctions.
Sharafeddine said his latest visit to Syria came amid a push for a “serious and rapid” solution to the refugee crisis “in order to facilitate the safe and dignified return of the displaced Syrians”.
Lebanon has been widely criticised for “forcing” Syrians to return home and making life unbearable for those refugees who remain in the country.
Lebanese officials have been increasingly reaching out to the Syrian regime, which is believed to have detained around 130,000 Syrians since peaceful protests broke out in 2011. Few of the relatives of the detained know the whereabouts of their loved ones.
Sharafeddine also met with Syria’s Local Administration and Environment Minister Hussein Makhlouf on Saturday, appointed by Damascus to oversee the refugee issue.
A Lebanese ministerial delegation is expected to visit the Syrian capital following Sharafeddine’s visit, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
Lebanon did not cut ties with Syria during the 12-year Syrian conflict, but relations between the two remain distant. Some Lebanese politicians close to the regime have paid visits to Damascus, but there has been no official visit by a Lebanese head of state or prime minister since 2011.
The recent outreach comes amid Syria’s return to the Arab League last month and growing Arab rapprochement with Bashar Al-Assad and his regime.
Rights groups have slammed governments around the world for repatriating Syrians, saying they face an unknown fate at the hands of regime authorities, especially if they are on regime ‘wanted’ lists.
Lebanon has drawn up plans before to begin repatriating Syrian refugees but these never materialised. Only a few thousand have voluntarily returned in recent years, while about 60 – some of which are said to be members of the Syrian opposition – have been detained and deported in recent weeks.
Sharafeddine – affiliated with Lebanese Druze politician Talal Arslan who is a close ally of Bashar Al-Assad – has previously claimed that 90 percent of Syrian areas under the regime’s control, are now “safe.” Rights groups and Syria experts strongly dispute this.
He also claimed that refugees would not be pursued by Syrian authorities upon their return if they obtain the necessary approvals from the regime, but monitors have documented numerous cases of returnees being detained and disappeared.
It was not clear who the source of the minister’s claim was.
