The EU funds training and infrastructure for Lebanese security forces involved in border management who forcibly send Syrian refugees back to Syria after their expulsion from Cyprus, a practice that goes against human rights laws, a Human Rights Watch report has found.
HRW, which spoke to 15 Syrians who claimed to have suffered human rights violations at the hands of Lebanese and Cypriot authorities, said Cyprus did not allow them to make asylum claims and in some cases violently forced them on vessels bound for Beirut – a practice that is also against international law. Both Lebanese and Cypriot authorities have denied human rights violations.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it is aware of possible violations of human rights by Lebanese security actors but it appears this has not stopped it from increasing its funding to an external think tank, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, that works with those security forces.
In May, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a €1 billion ($1.1 billion) package for Lebanon, which included funding for security forces, although it remains unclear what exactly they have received. One week later, Lebanon's most powerful security agency, General Security, announced new measures to restrict Syrians' ability to obtain legal status, said HRW.
Under a Dutch-funded project, the ICPMD provides them human rights courses, but appears not to measure whether this translates in compliance in border actions, said HRW.
'Inherent contradiction'
“The omission is particularly concerning as many abuses committed by Lebanese security actors against Syrian refugees and asylum seekers had continued between June and September 2023, after ICMPD supposedly delivered the above training in May 2023,” said the report.
“The inherent and unacceptable contradiction is obvious: as the ICMPD continued receiving sizeable project funding and hailing the Lebanese security agencies’ “significant progress” in human rights compliance, the very same agencies continued to commit abuses against Syrian refugees.”
The EU and European countries gave Lebanon about 16.7 million euros ($18.5 million) from 2020 to 2023 for border management “mainly in the form of capacity-building projects explicitly aimed at enhancing Lebanon’s ability to prevent irregular migration”, the report said. In August, the EU allocated another 32 million euros ($35.3 million) to “continue implementing border management enhancement projects in Lebanon through 2025”, it said.
Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees per capita in the world – about 1.5 million Syrians – and stopped allowing them to be registered as refugees in 2015.
Burdened by an unprecedented and protracted financial crisis, the small Mediterranean country has turned increasingly hostile to Syrians, who are “trapped in perpetual vulnerability in Lebanon”, said HRW.
Syrians are increasingly trying to make it to Cyprus, which has witnessed a surge of arrivals and stopped issuing Syrian asylum applications in April. There are about 30,000 Syrians in Cyprus, a country of 900,000 inhabitants.
Syria's 13-year-old civil war has pushed millions to flee abroad. Less than one per cent want to return home, the UN has found, because of economic and security concerns.
Cyprus returns irregular migrants to Lebanon as part of a 2020 agreement, the Cypriot Ministry of Interior told HRW, but said practical details were in the hands of the police, which did not give further details.
Some EU countries are increasingly vocal about wanting to send Syrians back to Syria despite a lack of a political solution to the conflict and President Bashar Al Assad's statements saying he does not want refugees back for economic, political and sectarian reasons.
The National exclusively reported in June that the Czech Republic was working on a fact-finding mission in Syria to establish “safe zones” and that Cyprus had expressed interest.
In the HRW report, Habib, a 15-year-old Syrian from Idlib who moved to Lebanon when he was three years old and travelled alone to Cyprus, described having his hands zip-tied with other children as he was forced to sail back to Lebanon.
After the seven-hour trip to Beirut, the Lebanese army was waiting and beat one of the men during questioning, Habib said.
“They started making fun of us and said they would send us to Maher Al Assad who is in charge of the Syrian army’s Fourth Division,” he said, referring to a branch of Syria's much-feared security forces run by a brother of Mr Al Assad.
The Lebanese army then loaded them on a bus, drove them to the Syrian border, at Masnaa crossing point, and told them to walk across the border. Some were detained by the Syrian army, but they all paid smugglers to bring them back to Lebanon.
Beate Gminder of the European Commission’s Migration and Home Affairs directorate said in a response to the report’s findings that the commission “takes allegations of wrongdoings very seriously”, but that it is the responsibility of national authorities to “investigate any allegations of violations of fundamental rights” and to prosecute wrongdoing.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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UNpaid bills:
Countries with largest unpaid bill for UN budget in 2019
USA – $1.055 billion
Brazil – $143 million
Argentina – $52 million
Mexico – $36 million
Iran – $27 million
Israel – $18 million
Venezuela – $17 million
Korea – $10 million
Countries with largest unpaid bill for UN peacekeeping operations in 2019
USA – $2.38 billion
Brazil – $287 million
Spain – $110 million
France – $103 million
Ukraine – $100 million
Company%20profile
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
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Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.
It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.
Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.
Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
The biog
Favourite book: You Are the Placebo – Making your mind matter, by Dr Joe Dispenza
Hobby: Running and watching Welsh rugby
Travel destination: Cyprus in the summer
Life goals: To be an aspirational and passionate University educator, enjoy life, be healthy and be the best dad possible.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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- 600-seat auditorium
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
