Lebanon is also seen as a haven for all those fleeing from the region’s conflicts, authoritarian regimes and systematic violations of human rights (Iraq, Sudan, Somalia...).
Hundreds of thousands of foreigners of different origins and statuses now live in an already multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Lebanon with a total population of 4 million.
The FIDH’s report on Non-Palestinian refugees and asylum seekers (http://www.fidh.org/magmoyen/rapport/2002/lb335f.pdf) reveals that those people, already deprived of protection in their country of origin, suffer from a total lack of respect of their elementary rights in Lebanon. Many overwhelming testimonies gathered by the mission show the social, economic and legal insecurity in which thousands of asylum seekers and refugees live. Article 32 of the 1963 Lebanese law on entrance and stay of foreigners provides for from one month to 3 years prison sentences, a file and deportation for those who enter illegally into the country. Many persons who have been recognised with refugee status by the UNHCR are arrested, detained - sometimes in dreadful conditions - and deported.
Population displacement contributes to the development of the mafia network. In a difficult social and economic context since the end of the Lebanon war, the population and the political leaders often see the presence of refugees and asylum seekers as the cause of economic difficulties and insecurity. Their situation is dealt with as an issue related to illegal immigration and the Lebanese authorities intend to solve the problem in an expeditious way, in violation of international standards and the Lebanese constitution itself. The fact that the countries of origin of asylum seekers are often not only authoritarian regimes but also bankrupt economies facilitates that confusion.
At the ending of the report, the FIDH addresses the following recommendations to the Lebanese authorities :
– Respect of international standards and in particular the non-deportation policy;
– Put an end to arbitrary detention of asylum seekers;
– Ratify Geneva Convention relative to the status of refugees and modify the Lebanese legislation in consequence in order to distinguish asylum seekers and refugees from other migrants.
The FIDH insists on the necessity to urgently re-establish a trustworthy relation between the UNDHCR and the Lebanese authority.
Finally, the FIDH demands to the European Union to urge the Lebanese authority to respect fundamental rights of asylum seekers and refugees, in conformity with the article 2 (the " human rights clause ") of the EU-Lebanon Association agreement..
Non-Palestinian Refugees and asylum seekers: what future? Publication of an investigative mission report
With globalisation of migratory flows, many countries from the South have become recipient countries for migrants,. Lebanon, traditionally a country of emigration has thus become an immigration land. For Palestinians first and also for thousands of workers from poor countries (Sri Lanka, Philippines), who constitute a cheap manpower for often illegal jobs, with deplorable living conditions and treatment.