BEIRUT: In the joint Lebanon Crisis Response Plan, launched by the government and the U.N. this week, displaced persons from Syria are referred to, curiously, as “de facto refugees.”
The compromise reached on how to formally refer to the more than 1.2 million registered refugees who over the course of nearly four years have overwhelmed Lebanese public services is indicative of the plan itself – which combines both the UNHCR’s mission to provide basic services to the displaced and the government’s interest in preserving its sovereignty and security.
While the government argues the success of the plan rests solely on the willingness of international donors to fund it, activists deeply involved in mitigating the refugee crisis and local actors contend that, though promising in theory, by itself the plan does not contain durable solutions for Lebanon’s refugee crisis.
In a nutshell, the response plan seeks to forward an integrated response plan to address refugee protection and humanitarian assistance needs, typically delivered under the purview of the UNHCR, while simultaneously reinforcing state institutions.
Unlike last year’s strategy to manage Lebanon’s refugee crisis, the current one underscores stabilization priorities as voiced by the government, which in previous years opted to take the backseat in service delivery, will lead the response this time around through the Social Affairs Ministry and supervised by the Crisis Cell.
Already, according to a government source, the ministry will be working with the UNHCR to supervise the registration process.
In the parlance of the report, stabilization translates to strengthening institutional capacities to address poverty and social tensions aggravated by the deluge of refugees.
The rhetorical shift from a crisis understood in purely humanitarian terms to one concerned with stability could be seen as early as August, according to a concept note circulated by the U.N. predating the drafting of the response plan which was leaked to The Daily Star. It states that the United Nations Country Team “is committed to an integrated and strategic planning that elevates conflict risk and vulnerability in prominence. Entering the fourth year of the emergency, adjustments are required to manage an increasingly complex, expensive and protracted emergency.”
The $2.14 billion plan aims to provide both direct humanitarian assistance to 2.2 million individuals, the majority of them refugees from Syria, and invest in services and institutions, that in total will reach 2.9 million people in Lebanon’s most impoverished localities.
For George Ghali of ALEF, while emphasis on institutional support was encouraging, the question of how the plan’s broad aims would translate into practice loomed.
“Currently we are concerned that this plan is very ambiguous and it is yet unclear how it will take shape,” he told The Daily Star.
“Institutional support is definitely needed. However, the problem is that this support lacks a human rights perspective.”
Lebanon came under fire from international organizations in recent months over incidents of alleged forced deportations, effective border closures and changing entry policies that some organizations argued are discriminatory and arbitrary. In November, for instance, Human Rights Watch accused Lebanon of forcibly deporting Syrian national Mahmoud Abdul Rahman, who it said was at risk of torture and execution.
“What is good about the plan from a human rights perspective is that to a certain extent the state’s institutions are getting more and more responsibility [with respect to managing refugees], for years the state had been outside the scope of implementation,” Ghali said. “This plan can be a catalyst to expose state institutions to their obligations in the crisis and expose the government in general to how to cope with it, within certain limitations.”
But he argued the plan itself required some form of accountability, “especially if you are building the capacity of the General Security, and the next day General Security commits a human rights violation.”
“We need to build the capacity of institutions, but this also requires accountability,” he said.
Last week ALEF released a report detailing potential solutions to the refugee crisis in Lebanon. Of the several recommendations, the NGO called for the government to draft a national policy concerning refugees, including formalizing the concept of temporary protection. “The plan is promising but with the absence of a comprehensive policy, it doesn’t offer solutions,” Ghali said.
A government source well acquainted with the issue disagreed with ALEF’s contention, arguing a three-point paper issued in October outlined its parameters sufficiently.
The document highlighted the government’s main concern with respect to managing the refugee crisis and included reducing the number of individuals registered as refugees from Syria, addressing rising security concerns in the country and expanding the humanitarian response to include an institutional and developmental approach.
Rather, the government source argued the effectiveness of the plan was the responsibility of international donors.
“The most important element of the [response] plan is that it underlines the need for the international community to respond, not only for humanitarian assistance purposes but also for host communities,” the source said.
“It’s about sharing the burden.”
“I think the ball is on the international community’s court, and if it won’t step up support then we will enter a crisis that no one knows how to stop,” the source said.
Perceptions of Cabinet division, he added, were being invoked as an “excuse” by donors to not fund the plan. “There are issues of consensus on some issues, but not others. The major issue of disagreement is [establishing official camps], but not other things.”
For their part local government figures, often at the front lines of the refugee crisis, complained that they were not consulted during the drafting of the response.
“It’s all just talk now,” said Saad Maita, mayor of Barr Elias, which hosts a sizable refugee population of 40,000. “Nothing was discussed with the mayors.”
“Usually, we are notified by different ministries about anything related to any plan, but this time we weren’t consulted by the government.”
Maita said every level of his administration has been affected by the crisis, from food, to water and electricity. A durable plan, he argued, should empower municipalities.
“We want to stand on our feet,” he added.
“And when we do we will be able to help Lebanese citizens feel that refugees are not a danger to them, their rights or their needs.”
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