Amnesty urges Lebanon to halt plan to return Syrian refugees

BEIRUT, Lebanon

Human rights group Amnesty International has called on the Lebanese authorities to stop its plan to return Syrian refugees to war-torn Syria.

"The Lebanese authorities are scaling up the so-called voluntary returns, a plan which has been in place for four years, when it is well established that Syrian refugees in Lebanon are not in a position to take a free and informed decision about their return," Diana Semaan, Amnesty’s Acting Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

She warned that the Lebanese repatriation plan would put Syrian refugees "at risk of suffering from heinous abuse and persecution upon their return to Syria."

Semaan stressed that Lebanon should respect its obligations under international law and must "halt its plans to return Syrian refugees en-masse."

On Wednesday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Lebanon will start returning Syrian refugees to their home country next week.

Recently, the Lebanese government set a plan to return 15,000 Syrian refugees to Syria every month. The plan, however, was rejected by the United Nations saying that security in Syria has not yet been restored.

Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees, about 900,000 of whom are registered at UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Most of the refugees suffer from tough living conditions, especially with the exacerbation of the Lebanese economic crisis on one hand and the global economic crisis on the other.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar