The UNHCR simply expects the refugees to live forever in Lebanon without any help or rights, facing risks day after day so bad that it could even lead to death, alone and caught in cutch the mice game between the government of Lebanon and the UNHCR.

Because the UNHCR has refused any obligation to solve the problem of the refugees within one year like the government of Lebanon suggested. The government of Lebanon found that it’s not possible to let the refugees live in Lebanon freely forever. In other words, every refugee is considered by the government like any other illegal resident and is subject for the Lebanon immigration law. Problems encountered by refugees

What I’m speaking about here is the period between the years 1996-2003, I entered Lebanon in 1996 and I started working on this book in 2003. For all those years the relationship between the government of Lebanon and the UNHCR got worse. The number of asylum seekers and refugees on the other hand grew bigger every year. The number of refugees was not a burden on the UNHCR; the entire problem for UNHCR was a small paper given to each refugee (alleged refugee card) and message to the MECC (Middle East Council of Churches) showing that the holder of the message is a registered refugee with the UNHCR office in Beirut. MECC will open a file for that refugee to help him with some basic needs from charitable donations that the organization collects from the community (without human-buttons). The growth in numbers of asylum seekers effects the time of applications for refugee status. That time starts when an asylum seeker submits an application for refugee status and finish’s when he gets the result (acceptance or refusal). That time was 6 months in1996 and it grew year after year with the growth of the number of applicants, until it became 2 years in 2000!

The UNHCR didn't increase the number of the employees to meet the increasing number of asylum seekers, but instead they made the asylum seekers wait for years for the result just to save some money! That affected badly the relationship with the government of Lebanon. Imagine when the government arrests an asylum seeker and puts him in jail waiting for results from the UNHCR and waiting for the resettlement in a 3d country, which take years! Lebanon arrests hundreds of asylum seekers every year and if Lebanon waited for the results from UNHCR so Lebanon would need to build new prisons and hire more policemen and people to feed those asylum seekers and refugees just because the UNHCR didn't hire more employees! At same time the Lebanese are watching the UNHCR using these refugees as reason to collect more money from donors without paying one penny to solve the problem of asylum seekers and the refugees.

This has caused tension in the personal relationship between the Security General Chief Major General Jamil Sayyed (from Lebanon government) and Mr. Rafiq Al Saidy the head of the UNHCR mission in Lebanon. It wasn’t possible for them even to meet. And the government of Lebanon insisted on replacing him without any further cooperation. I hope you’ll notice that UNHCR has diplomatic status in Lebanon. For that the UNHCR replaced Mr. Al Saidy with Mr. Aljmal.

In this situation refugees find themselves facing two options: They must either find a way to leave Lebanon by themselves, or they must hide themselves and avoid arrest and deportation waiting for resettlement for unlimited long years. So we refugees find that we are living in something much like a game - we're waiting to be caught by the 3rd-country resettlement program, or by the police. Yes, a game between the UNHCR and the Lebanese government on who will catch the refugees first, we the refugees, is being the mice!

The UNHCR wants the Government of Lebanon to cooperate with the protection of the Office of the UNHCR and to secure the safety of the Employees of The UNHCR so they can do their work for the asylum seekers and the refugees! Of course that was very easy for the Lebanese, they just posted 2 or 3 policemen in front of office of UNHCR (I spoke about one of them in ‘MY CAMPAIGN’ he was the God of the refugees in Lebanon). That was the relationship between the UNHCR and the government of Lebanon. Each one of those players did his job well, the government of Lebanon protects the refugees and asylum seekers in side the office of the UNHCR only (not anywhere else) and the employees of UNHCR are doing their jobs with the asylum seekers and refugees inside the office only! Like you see the two players agreed to provide the protection for refugees in side the office of UNHCR!

Maybe the People of UNHCR didn’t want better than that! There are good accommodations for the staff with security so they can do their job, but do you know what their job is exactly? I’ll tell you: Their job is to receive the applications of asylum seekers for refugee status; they fill the files and determine the eligibility of the applications. If the application is approved they’ll award the applicant refugee status and they’ll issue papers as notification. They’ll then ask the refugee to provide a phone number, and tell them with: “go and wait until we call you”. That, in simple words, is the job of the UNHCR in Lebanon - they don't tell the refugees what their notification papers are good for, and they offer no further assistance except for the promise of a phone call that might take years, if ever to come.

The relation between the refugees and the UNHCR is only that call phone. The relation is only waiting for hope to join the 3d country resettlement. The time of waiting is unlimited, I met refugee whom spent 12 years waiting for that call phone. I spent 8 years by now! More details in my other books.

The government of Lebanon found that situation of the refugees with that waiting isn’t good for political, security and humanitarian reasons. Thus the government asked the UNHCR to solve the problem of the refugees in one year because it’s not good for refugees to wondering aimlessly for ever in the country without help or some one to look for them. No one government will agree on that even if it signatory state. Now the security is the first concern for any government. Those people representing fruitful soil for criminal acts how possible that UNHCR think that Lebanon or any government will agree on that?!

The government of Lebanon fount itself in very critical situation because the refusal of UNHCR for that deal. If that government will agree on keeping the problem of refugees unsolved for ever, that will produce many political, security, economical and social problems, in same time that against the law of Lebanon. In other hand if the government of Lebanon stop the UNHCR from working in the country because UNHCR refused to cooperate with government, it refused to work with the UN51 convention and ignored the law of Lebanon (I’ll tell more about that next). That will cause many problems for government of Lebanon specially regard the reputation of Lebanon toward respect the democracy and human rights aspects.

Therefore the government of Lebanon found some balance in that situation with current polices. The current situation is like this:

Lebanon government gave all the rights for UNHCR to work in Lebanon and it insure the safe reaches for all refugees to the office of UNHCR, that helped the UNHCR to deal with the asylum seekers and refugees according to the Un51 convention (not according to the government policies) also the government of Lebanon in sure the UNHCR and the refugees the rights to leave the country according some regulation when the refugees join any programs with UNHCR like return the refugees to their homes or with 3d country resettlement.

Because the UNHCR refused any obligation to solve the problem of the refugees with in one year like the government of Lebanon suggested. The government of Lebanon found that it’s not possible to let the refugees live in Lebanon freely forever. In other words, every refugee is considered by the government like any other illegal resident and must be subject to the Lebanese immigration laws. According to that law and to the policies of the UNHCR, the government of Lebanon thought that it’s best to solve the problem of refugees by implementing the Lebanese immigration law on the asylum seekers and the refugees, by considering them as illegal immigrants on Lebanese territory only. On the other hand the government of Lebanon will respect the UN51 convention only inside the UNHCR office. The reason given for this behavior was the ignorance of the UNHCR to the Lebanese laws and regulations and further more is the refusal of the one-year proposal.

Like you see the government of Lebanon didn’t close the door in the face of the UNHCR 100% or even open it 100%! There was strange balance in that game between the Lebanese and the UNHCR. It was deadly balance and we were the ballasts in that balance, we paid in lives and suffering, we shed blood and tears for long years. It was very painful for us and we tried maintaining that balance, but unfortunately we failed until this very day.

The problem in my opinion in that game was that both players (UNHCR and the government of Lebanon) aren't making much effort to win the game. Both players are making the minimum efforts and sometime those efforts equal zero where the refugees are concerned. Both players have found that maintaining the current situation is better than waging a war, risking many casualties when neither player aren’t sure of victory.

To put things in perspective, consider this: If you win $10 by investing $5 without any risk you'll be happy; but to invest $50 to win $100 with significant risk of losing your money makes you think twice.

Both players are essentially satisfied with the current situation despite it being a no-win compromise for both sides, so neither likes to make more effort. During the periods where their efforts reach the zero point or near it, we refugees must take the opportunity to raise our heads out of the sand and make some fuss with political manifestations like hunger strikes or sit-ins. Both players like to do the minimum because for them the game brings each some benefits, but for us refugees, it's our lives they're playing with. Maintaining the current situation means death for us, so when we see the time is good to agitate the players, we take it. Our only means of recourse is to put some heat under our case in the hopes of bringing an end to our suffering in their game.

Mouse or cow

That was the game “who will catch the mice first” I was part of that game since 17/6/1996 and I had been caught by the Lebanese police after 3 days of my application for refugee status, I was trapped for 2 months. The police released me because at that time the border wasn’t open yet between Syria and Iraq so the Syrian didn’t accept Iraqis to pass through the borders and also there were no airlines at that time because of the UN embargo on Iraq. So I was a lucky mouse. I kept watching that game for many years and I wasn’t able to keep my mouth closed, my problem is that I have a big mouth and I think that I have some kind of schizophrenia, maybe I thought that I’m like ‘Stewart little’ the mouse in the movie who thinks that he is human. I started to use my rights like any other human (normal one not a mouse) and speak my opinions.

Because of that the police arrested me for the 2d time after the UNHCR invited me to the office for a meeting, I found the police waiting for me. But that time I explained everything (what you’re reading in this book) to the officer who questioned me, and like you read in this book he found that I’m speaking the truth so he released me after a few hours. The UNHCR wasn’t happy with that so they worked with someone at a higher level than the first officer. One day the combined forces of the army and security forces raided my place where I was living and worked to arrest me again! I was lucky mouse this time also and I wasn’t there, that give my neighbor enough chance to warn me, so I left my place and lost both the security of my job and my home.

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