Regulations unclear regarding humanitarian cases: UNHCR

BEIRUT: The U.N. refugee agency said Sunday it was unclear whether humanitarian cases would be permitted entry under new visa requirements for Syrians adopted by Lebanon’s General Security, set to go into effect Monday.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said in remarks published Sunday that the new visa requirements for Syrian nationals at official border crossings were meant to distinguish visitors from arrivals seeking refugee status.

“To implement the new security strategy, [we] have to organize the entry and exit of Syrians,” Derbas told a local daily, stressing that the policy was the only way to differentiate refugees from other travelers.

The new measures, the minister clarified, did not entail border closure and would not result in deportation of Syrian refugees in the country.

The minister’s comments came after Lebanon approved unprecedented entry restrictions for Syrians, who will require a visa to enter the country beginning Monday, according to a General Security statement.

The security body will issue six types of visas for Syrians – tourist, business, student, transit, short stay and medical.

From the perspective of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the new restrictions are well within Lebanon’s sovereign rights but many ambiguities remain over how exactly they will affect refugees.

After examining the regulations, the UNCHR’s main concern is that they do not detail explicit provisions for the continuation of humanitarian exceptions, explained spokesperson Ron Redmond, who added that the agency’s lawyer had examined the General Security document Saturday.

“It’s just not clear that it will be continued,” he said.

Social Affairs Ministry spokesperson Hala al-Helou told The Daily Star last week that “extreme humanitarian cases” would still be granted entry into the country and that the criteria to assess such cases were being drafted by the ministry.

She said they applied to “vulnerable individuals,” providing examples such as severe medical cases, people with severe disabilities and children at risk who have family in Lebanon. The ministry would work in tandem with General Security over such cases, she added.

Citing public statements made by the minister and representatives that urgent cases would be permitted entry, Redmond said the agency preferred a formal pronouncement from the government.

“We’d just like to see something official and something that would give some indication of how that’s going to work,” he said.

Redmond said that while Lebanon was entitled to manage its borders, the UNHCR’s main concern was that the new regulations do not deprive refugees from accessing assistance and protection.

“We understand why Lebanon, and other countries in the region, are taking these measures,” he added. “We’ve said repeatedly that we know the burden that [1.2 million registered refugees] is placing on this country and its people, but we have an international responsibility and mandate to make sure that refugees who are in extremely vulnerably situations can receive the protection they need.”

The Syrian government welcomed the new measures, but the country’s envoy to Lebanon stressed that implementing them required cooperation between Beirut and Damascus.

“These measures are part of a [larger] equation to find means of organizing [the refugee crisis] because there are great pressures on the government… as well as foreign pressure,” Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdel-Karim Ali told reporters after meeting with former Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss Saturday.

“The issue of Syrians entering and exiting [Lebanon] requires coordination and integration between concerned agencies in both countries,” he said.

Referring to the new requirements explicitly, the ambassador said, “I think that the steps taken are better than previous ones employed, and we are with the Lebanese government [on that],” and added, “This issue requires correct judgment and coordination between both countries.”

Derbas said the Lebanese government was ready to cooperate with Damascus to allow for the return of displaced Syrians in safe areas, blaming the lack of coordination on the Syrian side.

Lebanon started tightening control on the entry of Syrian refugees last year by limiting access to extreme humanitarian and medical cases.