My comments

 

The current situation of refugees

 

You're still reading my comments on point 5*

 

The situation now for the refugees is simple; in the face of the law they're just illegal immigrants living in Lebanon without a sponsor. That is the legal definition for the refugees according to Lebanese law.

 

My friend, our problems as refugees in Lebanon amounts to one thing - MISSING THE SPONSOR who will look out for us and help us. I know of some refugees who have found sponsors and gained their reconciliation by their own means, through finding a wife or someone other than the UNHCR to act as their sponsor. To date, the UNHCR has refused to work according to Lebanese law, and continues pushing the refugees to look for other ways to save their own lives!  

 

Lebanon moves Kurdish asylum-seekers to buffer zone along the Israeli border, U.N. says

 

16 Kurds fled in March into Israel

 

 

If those refugees felt that the UNHCR will help them then they wouldn't have needed to risk fleeing from Lebanon seeking refuge in Israel or "threatened to kill themselves if they are forces to return back to the Lebanese territories". They passed through a war zone between Lebanon and Israel and risked their lives! And how is it possible for the government of Lebanon to ignore all these problems of the refugees just because simply the UNHCR refused to help them or at least to give them some hope!

 

As you see the government of Lebanon has the right to insist on its offer (one-year deal) because it's legal, logical and it's the best for the refugees and bad only for the UNHCR so UNHCR refused it. To help you understand more I'll show you simply the current situation of the refugees because of that refusal and suppositional situation in the case that the UNHCR will accept the offer of the Lebanese government:

 

The current situation

Suppositional situation

This is what is happing now with the refugees in Lebanon:

 

  1. The UNHCR works freely with the asylum seekers without intervention from the Lebanese, granting the refugee status and issuing the notification papers, resulting in temporary asylum up to unlimited time (without recognition from Lebanese government).

 

 

   

 

  1. We (the refugees) provide a phone number and begin an indefinite waiting period for the UNHCR to find us permanent residency, which rarely happens.

   

  1. We must find ourselves shelter and possibly work (in the black market) to support ourselves.

 

  1. We avoid the Lebanese government's right to arrest and jail us for an unlimited time, with our only three options for release being:

  • Get reconciliation if we have sponsor, which is unlikely to happen.

  • Leave Lebanon for another country if we have a passport, visa, and airplane ticket. Unfortunately, these are very hard to come by with no money or other resources, unless the UNHCR can prove that our third-country resettlement has been arranged, which doesn't happen in most cases.

  • Deportation to our native country, regardless of the danger we may face there.

In the event that the UNHCR accepted Lebanon's offer:

 

1.      The UNHCR works freely with the asylum seekers without intervention from the Lebanese, granting the refugee status and issuing the notification papers, in accordance with the Lebanese government, which includes legal residency for one year, provided that the UNHCR commits to finding us a permanent solution within one year, and encourages us to check in every 2-4 weeks to review each of our cases.

 

2.      We refugees obtain legal residency so we are able to seek and find work, with legal protection, thereby improving our chances of finding a sponsor and/or raising our own funds to assist with our daily life.

 

3.      After the period of one-year, and if the UNHCR failed to find us a durable solution, Lebanon will not renew our legal status and the government will deal with us as illegal residents. That mean we’ll return to the situation that was before the agreement until we or the UNHCR will find a durable solution, one of these points:

 

  • Get reconciliation if we have sponsor, which is unlikely to happen.

  • Leave Lebanon for another country if we have a passport, visa, and airplane ticket. Unfortunately, these are very hard to come by with no money or other resources, unless the UNHCR can prove that our third-country resettlement has been arranged, which doesn't happen in most cases.

 

  • Deportation to our native country, regardless of the danger we may face there. 

 

 

The one-year deal is good for us and we (refugees) can accept. Legal status for one year is better than nothing; we didn’t enjoy protection in Lebanon as refugees even for one day in the past 10 years! I spent the past 17 years of my life living in illegal status in Iraq and in Lebanon, I dream that one day in my life I’ll live like any normal human being has all of his rights. Yet the UNHCR remains resistant the one-year deal, and so we instead remain displaced, without adequate health care, unable to work to support ourselves, receiving no day-to-day assistance from the UNHCR, and risk arrest or deportation on a daily basis.  

 

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