The sit-in of the Iraqis in Almatihaff

Changing to hunger strike at Monday

On the 2nd day, sit-in participants in the UNHCR's garage in Almatihaff decided to change their open sit-in into a hunger strike on the following Monday if the key actors (the UNHCR and USA government) could not put an end for their tragic situation. The strikers were Iraqi refugees who had been waiting for one year for travel to the USA. Like all Iraqi and non-Iraqi refugees whom live in Lebanon, the group, numbering nearly 400 refugees, are exposed to arrest and deportation to their countries.

The USA government, which had suspended their files for reconsideration without taking into consideration their agony while waiting, it considered itself not responsible for them "<< because they aren't yet USA citizens>>" as the ambassador told the refugees in a brief phone call. When <<assafir>> asked the same question to the US embassy in Beirut, there was no answer!

The strikers waited for the day of their supposed reconsideration, while the UNHCR refused to withdraw the files from the US resettlement program and refer it to another country, such as Australia or Canada. When notification about the files’ reconsideration didn't come from the US embassy in Lebanon, it came – instead- from the authorized intermediary in Lebanon (ICMC); only one employee, Maha Keny, working inside the office of the UNHCR in the Almatihaf district, where the refugees conducted their sit-in.

Through Keny, the striking refugees sent their letter, which announced their intent to change the sit-in to a hunger strike. Taking into account that she was the representative for the American delegation in Lebanon, through her the letter was sent, via the American delegation in Turkey, to the US Department of Justice. Also in the letter they urged the authorities to remember the principles and the basis on which the United States was built on: Respect for human rights.