«The soldier at the checkpoint asked the driver to pull over to the right. We were thirty women and girls stuffed in the back of the small truck, which the owner of an apricot grove had sent to pick us up so we could harvest his trees last May. The soldier kept us for three hours in the sun without asking us any questions then ordered the driver to turn around and go back. The next day, the same thing happened again, and we were not able to know why. We refused to go on the third day with the same driver,; less than an hour later, the grove owner came and showered us with insults and threats».
That is just the tip of an iceberg of what one Syrian refugee narrated to me – the abundance of her suffering – in the North-Bekaa. Her circumstances compelled her to work, along with her children, during the harvest season, to earn one dollar per hour. She pleaded not to mention her name or any clues of her identity because she was living in fear of a security forces raid. She whispered, «You might not believe it, but I sleep with one eye open».
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Most Syrian refugees in the North-Bekaa don’t wake up to old worries; theirs are repeated every morning.
This section of land stretches from Laboua through the villages of Nabi Othman, el-Ain, Jdeideh, el-Fakiha, Ras-Baalbek and Qaa’ and its projects, to Hermel and its northern border at al-Qasr. Some of the Syrians used to know the inhabitants here through the ties of neighborliness, or through work in a bygone era, but things are no longer the same. There are refugees living among the homes and groves of al-Qasr, but most camps are spread in the area of al-Qaa’ projects and the two sides of the road connecting the Syrian and Lebanese border posts. A few camps fall among the northern border, in the direction of Hermel and outside Ras-Baalbek and al-Fakiha.
Year after year, the condition of the refugees slips backwards, as does their hope of returning to the land that bore them and in which they lived. Meanwhile, their hardships mount:
-Because of the prejudice of the Lebanese, which hardens every day. This region is dominated by a political force that is effectively an extension of the Syrian regime, and the inhabitants are suspicious of the refugee presence. To them, the refugees look like partisans, either for or against the regime, depending on their sect. Distrust deepened after «Nusra» and «ISIS» kidnapped Lebanese soldiers in Arsal, and after some Syrian militants departed the camps with their ammunition in tow. So, the Lebanese security forces upped their surveillance and their intrusions of the camps and the homes of the refugees, and many of the refugees have had to put with night visits, which do not even spare the guardians of the camp.
-Because their rights are violated each time they go to a government office, where, especially at the security offices, the standard scene is to see Syrians standing under the sun, waiting for the attention of a government employee. There is no oversight or accountability, and this is confirmed in reports by human rights organizations, which accuse Lebanon of violating the rights of foreigners on its soil.
-Because the UN has reduced their allowances by about 55%, to the point that each refugee receives just $13 a month for food and clothes, while knowing full well that refugees are forbidden from working under Lebanese law.
-Because misguided educational policies have made it so that their children are effectively out of school. This will lead to a new, social disaster in the near future, because the children’s circumstances are worsening day after day.
-Because health insurance is covering no more than 65% of emergency cases and medical expenses - bills are enormous and unregulated – while knowing full well that refugees are deprived of any regular or preventive care.
-Because of the ongoing efforts to establish a central camp to gather all the refugees to the side of the road between Qaa’ and Hermel, considering the indications that the Syrian conflict will last longer still and arriving at any resolution will be difficult. There is, too, the possibility of another Palestinian exodus. Most camp refugees will not be able to return to their lands easily, for that is illegal. In Qusair and the villages around it, journalists are reporting the start of the school year and the renovation of some residences there in preparation for the transfer of the Shia populations of the besieged villages near Aleppo and Idlib, within the framework of a transaction with the armed opposition in Zabadani, as a return to north Syria, where Daesh controls, is impossible. Most of the refugees here are from that land.
-Because the depletion of job opportunities day after day, especially in the agricultural sector, due to the losses this year owing to the difficulty of exporting produce to the Gulf countries.
-Because of the residency laws, which deprive those who were not able to bring their identification papers with them to exile. They are given a six-month residency permit, with the condition that they make the impossible return to Syria afterwards.
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The Lebanese state has abandoned its former self. It has succeeded in forsaking any humanitarian commitment to lessen the hardship of the refugees who have fled from the hell that is the Syrian War.