Q&A: Access Center for Human Rights on Challenges for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
Syrian refugees in Lebanon have consistently been forgotten and made invisible.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon have long faced a dire range of challenges in their host country, and the recent Israel-Hezbollah escalation has exposed them to even greater vulnerabilities. Turned away from Lebanese emergency shelters, many have felt compelled to return to Syria, only to face further human rights abuses, including detention, torture, and forced disappearance, at the hands of the Assad government and Syrian forces there. Based out of Lebanon, the Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR) is a refugee-led organization that has documented and raised alarm over these vulnerabilities over the last several years, advocating for better local and international support for Syrian refugees in the region.
Refugees International’s Shizah Kashif interviewed a team of representatives from ACHR during their visit to the U.S. prior to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. The reality for Syrian refugees in the region continues to rapidly evolve with these developments, but their need for dignity and refuge in their host countries remain irrespectively constant. In this Q&A, they explain how Syrian refugees constitute an underappreciated humanitarian dimension of ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, and what the U.S. government and international organizations can do to better support them.
Q: Tell us a bit about the Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR) and why you were founded.
The Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR) is a refugee-led, non-profit, non-governmental human rights organization founded in Lebanon in 2017 and re-established in France in 2020. Our organization consists of a group of human rights defenders with experience in law, and local and international advocacy. ACHR was established in response to a significant increase in serious violations suffered by Syrian refugees in Lebanon since the start of the refugee crisis in 2011. Today, it continues to be one of the only refugee-led organizations specializing in monitoring and documenting human rights violations faced by refugees in Lebanon, the broader region, and internationally, while seeking sustainable solutions to support refugees and guarantee their rights.
Our efforts have contributed significantly to raising international awareness of the issues faced by Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and we seek to expand our activities to other countries as resources become available. We also publish periodic publications with the aim of raising awareness and contributing to national and international advocacy efforts to ensure refugees’ rights in their countries of asylum until their voluntary, dignified, and safe return to their country of origin.
While ACHR has long been following and reporting on forced deportations of Syrians from Lebanon to Syria, we have now pivoted to monitoring violations that occurred to Syrians who feel forced to return to Syria.
Q: What has your work focused on in the years since the war in Syria forced nearly 1.5 million Syrian refugees into Lebanon? How has that work and focus shifted amid the recent Israeli escalation and invasion of Lebanon?
Since it was established, ACHR has focused on four key areas, including:
1. The documentation of human rights violations against Syrian refugees;
2. Advocacy to raise awareness and influence policy changes that protect the rights of refugees;
3. Research to identify the root causes of human rights violations; and
4. Accountability to hold perpetrators accountable and seek justice for victims through legal mechanisms and public awareness.
In light of the Israeli escalation and invasion of Lebanon, we have actively and flexibly shifted to fill what we perceive to be massive gaps in the understanding of how Syrian refugees are experiencing this moment in time. For instance, while ACHR has long been following and reporting on forced deportations of Syrians from Lebanon to Syria, we have now pivoted to monitoring violations that occurred to Syrians who feel forced to return to Syria. They are especially vulnerable, and we have recorded multiple accounts of Syrians being arrested and tortured upon return.
Given significant data gaps and a lack of disaggregated data by nationality, we have also started issuing situational reports on the specific challenges and human rights violations faced by Syrian refugees, including those that are missing, killed, or internally displaced . We feel very powerfully about this work and believe it elevates Syrian refugee voices.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon continue to ask themselves one question over and over again: Where do we go?
Q: What are some of the most pressing challenges and needs facing Syrian refugees in Lebanon today?
Syrian refugees face significant challenges and needs that have been made exponentially worse by the recent Israeli invasion and bombardment. When we speak to Syrian refugees, they cite a number of challenges including security raids, their inability to access legal paperwork and documentation (made nearly impossible by the Lebanese government), and systemic discrimination and racism. This has made violence against them common, creating a structural barrier to their access to basic services like education and shelter.
We have also witnessed security campaigns led by the Lebanese army against refugee camps after the recently announced end of the war on Lebanon, with the aim of restricting the camps and forcing Syrian refugees to return to unsafe conditions in Syria.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon continue to ask themselves one question over and over again: Where do we go? The question underlines the precarity and desperation of the situation in Lebanon and explains why many feel forced to either go back to Syria or even attempt to escape through unsafe routes from Lebanon on boats to Europe. None of these options are safe. None of these options are dignified.
While the brutality and violence of the Syrian regime and Hezbollah is well-documented and understood, less highlighted is the suffering of Syrian refugees at the hands of Lebanese security forces.
Q: Can you share a story of someone you’re working with that feels emblematic of the current situation for Syrian refugees in Lebanon?
One such story is Ahmed’s*, who spoke to us in July 2024 under a pseudonym.
Ahmed* is a young Syrian refugee who lived in Lebanon for over a decade. While he initially entered the country legally, the additional and complex requirements to renew documentation enacted by the Lebanese government prevented him from being able to renew his permit. One night, army personnel launched an arbitrary security raid in his neighborhood, forcibly entered his home, and searched all his belongings and his phone. Without any pretext or justification, he was arbitrarily arrested and forcibly taken to a military zone where he was brutally interrogated and tortured. He was then forcibly deported to Syria and delivered to regime forces. After 12 days in Syria, where he was interrogated and set to be forcibly conscripted into the military, he was able to evade regime forces and secure the expensive services of a smuggler to help him escape Syria. Ahmed has since returned to Lebanon, where he faces heightened challenges and insecurities due to widespread Israeli attacks and a severe risk of torture if deported again. He has reached out to UNHCR, requesting protection or resettlement, but has yet to receive a response.
Meanwhile he continues to suffer from the trauma of his experiences, expressing anxiety, fear, and difficulties in resuming his old life. He shared:
“I feel very afraid, and shake whenever I see a soldier in the street. I have begun to be afraid of being alone. My psychological state has become bad. I have lost a lot of weight, and in terms of health, I am no longer the same as I was. Even if I get a job, I am afraid to leave the house.”
Ahmed’s story is extremely common and highlights the continuous precarity of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon who, like him, have often been accused of illegally entering the country and face risks of forced deportation and further risks once back in Syria. These include the risk of arrest due to evading compulsory military service and risk of torture in detention.
Q: The situation in Lebanon and Syria is being widely reported on, but there still seems to be some lack of understanding of the reality on the ground. What have you and your team identified as the biggest blindspots in public and international understandings?
Refugees in Lebanon have consistently been forgotten and made invisible. This is largely because of the inability of refugees to access forums and spaces that elevate their voices, as well as the significantly shrinking civic space in Lebanon which makes the work we and other human rights defenders do increasingly risky. Refugees have the right to voice their concerns and challenges in their own words and to do so without fear of persecution.
“I feel very afraid, and shake whenever I see a soldier in the street. I have begun to be afraid of being alone.”
Also, while the brutality and violence of the Syrian regime and Hezbollah is well documented and understood, less highlighted is the suffering of Syrian refugees at the hands of Lebanese security forces. ACHR has documented cases of torture, forced deportation, and push backs that raise significant human rights concerns. We must call out all actors that engage in violent and illegal practices, whoever they are. Growing impunity for human rights violations in Lebanon has led to an increase in those same violations.
Lastly, one of the biggest blind spots we at ACHR must debunk, especially in the current context of “returnees” to Syria, is the assumption that Syria is safe for returns and that the Syrian Government is a changed actor, willing and able to meet the needs of civilians. The UN and other human rights actors have stated that Syria is not safe for return and have shown that serious ongoing human rights violations such as torture continue to happen by regime forces. ACHR’s work highlights how these violations continue to occur. Therefore, we reject political narratives that seek to depict the Syrian government as a changed actor.
Q: We have heard widespread reports of Syrians being turned away from government shelters in Lebanon. How have communities and NGOs on the ground in Lebanon filled the gaps to respond to the needs of displaced Syrians?
Syrian refugees have long faced systemic and structural challenges accessing their basic right to safe and dignified housing in Lebanon. Even before these recent escalations, refugees faced forced eviction campaigns led by Lebanese security authorities as well as various local municipalities, and also struggled with widespread racism as a significant barrier to housing.
While the National Emergency Plan established more than 900 collective shelters for internally displaced people, a majority have turned away Syrian refugees.
Now, amid the recent Israeli invasion and violence, access to housing for Syrian refugees internally displaced in Lebanon is even more precarious. Multiple municipalities have issued warnings that refugees fleeing the south would not be welcomed in their governorates and that any refugee hosting another family fleeing the south would be forcibly deported. This was worsened by the confusion created by the Ministry of Interior when it ignored the behavior of municipalities in the south and did not issue any clarifications regarding the fate of the refugees fleeing from there
Many landlords are also raising rental rates for refugees, asking for unaffordable monthly advances. In some cases landlords reneged on previously established rental agreements to evict refugees. This has exacerbated their already vulnerable position and has led to largescale homelessness among refugees, with multiple reports of refugees living on the streets and in limited public spaces.
While the National Emergency Plan established more than 900 collective shelters for internally displaced people, a majority have turned away Syrian refugees, with reports suggesting local authorities and host communities have either refused or restricted access based on nationality. In some cases, refugees have even been evicted from shelters to accommodate displaced Lebanese individuals. Given that these shelters remain a key centralized point of aid provision for multiple needs, Syrian refugees who are unable to access them are often also excluded from other forms of humanitarian aid provision, becoming heavily reliant on NGOs and other ad hoc aid. In light of this complete absence of government protection, some portions of Lebanese civil society have carried out interventions to assist Syrians but not to a scale that adequately meets their needs.
Unfortunately, we have seen a gradual decline in foreign governments’ support for refugee-led organizations, particularly those working with refugees in an advocacy capacity.
Q: What should the United States, EU, and regional governments do to meet the urgent needs of Syrian refugees caught in the escalation in Lebanon? Who do we look to for leadership in this moment?
Now more than ever, the United States, EU, and other foreign governments need to provide significant assistance to Syrian refugees and other groups that are especially vulnerable to human rights abuses, in line with humanitarian principles. Governments should continue to underline the importance of access to aid, and how discriminatory or racist policies that prevent vulnerable groups from accessing aid are unacceptable. Unfortunately, we have seen a gradual decline in foreign governments’ support for refugee-led organizations, particularly those working with refugees in an advocacy capacity. We urge governments to restore their support to organizations working with refugees to prevent further marginalization of refugees and their needs.
Further, ACHR continuously echoes the conclusion of the UN and multiple human rights organizations that Syria is not safe for return. While some Lebanese politicians and other Governments might assume that the scale of returns suggests safety in Syria, we and others continue to report on widescale human rights abuses and unsafe conditions inside Syria. In this moment, we refugees, whether in Lebanon or writ large in the world, need leadership that can strongly underline abiding by international obligations to protect refugees and ensure that politicized and securitized anti-refugee narratives do not undermine principles of non-refoulement.
Q: What have been some of the dangers or risks of doing the work you do over the years, and especially now amid regional escalation? What systems of support and protection exist for NGOs such as yourself in Lebanon and internationally, that you’ve been able to rely on? Alternatively, how have some of these systems and supports failed?
Lebanon has become an increasingly difficult context to work in for a human rights organization, especially a refugees-led one like ACHR that the state has actively sought to suppress. The Lebanese government has increasingly sought to control the financial resources that go to civil society by mandating that aid be channeled through government ministries. This is only one of several forms of administrative pressure the Lebanese government has used to make working with refugees difficult. In 2020, we released a report on these pressures called, “The Fears Of Civil Society Organizations Amid Lebanese Government Restrictions.” The impact of these pressures is reflected in the sharp decrease in refugee-led organizations in Lebanon now when compared to previous years.
Over the years, multiple members of our staff have faced threats directly related to the human rights work they engage in. Just recently, one of our staff was arrested and tortured. While he was released afterwards, he continues to face fears of being targeted in the future.
While ACHR relies on the strong networks we have built with refugees on the ground and with international actors, we need better support and more pressure from regional and international governments to deter such human rights violations and to ensure perpetrators are held accountable and not provided with foreign assistance. We rely most heavily on cross-national advocacy and solidarity that has continued to provide us with support and assistance in a situation that is both deeply fluid and dangerous.
When human rights obligations have been so significantly undermined in the region over the years, especially in the recent Israeli genocide in Gaza, we fear these actions allow actors to act with increasing impunity.
Q: What would a protracted regional war mean for the refugee landscape and existing humanitarian infrastructure in the Levant?
There are so many uncertainties about the future of refugees in Lebanon and the region at large. When human rights obligations have been so significantly undermined in the region over the years, especially in the recent Israeli genocide in Gaza, we fear these actions allow actors to act with increasing impunity. This impunity will ultimately impact those who are most vulnerable: refugees. A protracted regional war will have grave ramifications for the refugees in Lebanon who are already at a breaking point, and could potentially lead to further violence against them, both in Lebanon and Syria. While ACHR supports increased humanitarian assistance in such moments of precarity, we believe political agreements that recognize and ensure the protection of human rights are key to realizing a full and dignified human existence. Understanding and dealing with the root causes of conflict are pathways to sustainable and long lasting solutions for refugee rights protection.
Featured image: Syrian children are seen on the streets in the Lebanese city of Sidon on October 7, 2024, where refugees, who do not want to return to Syria due to security concerns, are turned away from Lebanese shelters on account of their nationality. Photo by Murat Sengul/Anadolu via Getty Images.