During the very first months of my arrival, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to volunteer for one of the Lebanese non-governmental organizations that works to raise awareness about the dangers of drugs. Although my volunteering work with the Soukoun organization was short, and was limited to data entry, I found the idea of volunteering for an advocacy project in Parliament to change the laws that criminalize drug users with the aim of encouraging them to seek help and treatment very interesting. This experience came as a strange surprise by its very nature for a young man coming from Syria, where concepts such as civil society, mobilization and advocacy sound like concepts from an alien planet. Later, I would meet through my studies a number of amazing non-governmental organizations and initiatives, such as Offre Joie, which on two occasions undertook tremendous efforts with the affected people of the Ashrafieh neighborhood where I lived. The first one was following the collapse of the building on Fassouh and the second after following the bombing on Sassine Square.
Later, in September of 2012, after my return from a mission with the local church in South Sudan with young men and women from Lebanon and Egypt, I met by chance groups of Lebanese and Syrian friends who were in the process of launching non-governmental initiatives in different regions to help the large numbers of Syrian refugees who were beginning to arrive in Lebanon. They were trying to secure the refugees’ basic needs, in addition to helping their hosts prepare shelters. We announced the initiative and our need for clothing and blankets, and anything else people could donate. The mobilization was impressive. We received large amounts of clothing and food that we collected in the basement of the church and in a warehouse offered by some friends. And when we launched, with the start of the winter, a campaign to collect 200 blankets, we received 2,000. We subsequently received generous cash donations that we were able to use to establish an emergency fund for medical cases.
Six months later, thanks to the in-kind and cash donations that were granted by Lebanese families who sprang to help, we were able to organize big relief campaigns: from Majdal Anjar in Bekaa to Shebaa in South, and the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut to Abu Samra in Tripoli. Later, during an evaluation session in March 2013, it became clear to most of the volunteers that the humanitarian catastrophe that we were witnessing was not about to end any time soon. We wondered whether there was anything we could do that would help us take the reins of the initiative instead of resigning ourselves to simply responding to the different waves of displacement, or the disasters that hit Lebanon from time to time. Moreover, the six months of close cooperation between the volunteers of different nationalities–Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, and even foreign students–had offered us a glimpse of what non-governmental action founded on cooperation and mutual respect could achieve. We saw in our partnership an opportunity to redress some of the preconceptions that we held of one another, and a step towards achieving reconciliation that was much-needed by our peoples in this difficult conjuncture. During our search for a way to capitalize on what had already been achieved, Lebanese members of the group proposed that we register as a Lebanese non-governmental organization, so that we would be able to institutionalize our work and manage volunteers better. Thus was born the «Basma and Zaitounah» organization, whose board of Directors I have the honor of chairing.
I consider myself lucky for fate bringing me to Lebanon at this stage of my life. I am indebted to my stay in Lebanon and to my Lebanese friends whom I met and who touched me for learning so many invaluable skills. I learned, for example, that fear of the other can give way to understanding, with a little effort to get to know this other personally, away from stereotypes. I personally admit that my fears relating to coming to Lebanon in 2010 and the rejection that I could come across, given the long bitter history between our two countries, dissipated faster than I had imagined, and I gained friends with whom I established partnerships and alliances. I learned to look beyond the bickering on social media, so as to see in the human solidarity, compassion and generosity shown by the Lebanese families in support of the organization, humanism that is absented from the prevailing narratives in the media. I learned that the Shatila camp was not just a hotbed of corruption and criminality as it was widely represented, but that in spite of the neglect and deprivation it had suffered for decades, it had so much warmth and love, that made it the small house that was big enough for thousands of friends coming from Syria. I learned that human beings lived there who dream of a normal life, clean water to wash, uninterrupted electricity, clean streets and sun-flooded houses. I learned and I continue to learn a lot from the organization’s volunteers in Tripoli el-Qobbe who carry out a variety of programs for civil peace between two Lebanese groups that share a difficult history, about the kind of challenges that we will face in Syria once the war is over.
I learned from the struggle of my colleagues in the Lebanese human rights organizations that rights are not distributed by the kilo–five kilos of rights for Lebanese citizens first, and then granting five grams for foreign workers, refugees or the displaced–and that any social or rights achievement is a gain for all. I also learned from my Lebanese friends to be bolder in expressing my concern that the current policy in dealing with Syrian refugees in Lebanon cannot continue to go down the same road without leading the country to an explosion.
According to the Legal Agenda NGO, the instructions for the residency permits for Syrians issued in January of 2015, and their subsequent draconian application, turned around 70% of Syrians in Lebanon into illegal residents who are afraid to leave their homes for fear of arrest. The danger in this does not only lie in the loss of such a large proportion of Syrians of their legal status, but in that it makes these people invisible to the Lebanese authorities and the security services, and opens the security of Lebanon and Syrian refugees alike to risks. Is there a need to state the obvious here, that all this runs contrary to the purpose of issuing these regulations in the first place? Moreover, reports published by many Lebanese human rights and non-governmental organizations, such as Alef and Lebanon Support, mention the negative impact posed by these residency procedures, coupled with depriving Syrians of working legally, on the rise in child labor rates and the increase in school dropout rates. The recommendations of the policy brief published by Lebanon Support to the Lebanese government include expanding the three sectors to which the work of Syrians is limited to other sectors. Such decision will not only help Lebanon fulfill the commitment it made at the donors conference in London to provide 100 thousand jobs for Syrians, but would also organize Syrian labor in Lebanon, which in turn would bring additional revenue to the treasury through taxes paid by these workers. In addition, such a move would open the door to foreign investors, whom we meet and who wish to support Lebanon’s economy, through creating jobs for Syrian refugees and their host communities alike, and who have so far abstained from undertaking this in the absence of a legal framework to govern the employment of Syrians and incentivize such investment.
I realize, as do the other Syrians living here, the economic and social pressure posed by the presence of 1.5 million Syrian refugees in a country of such small area and limited resources as Lebanon. Let us not kid ourselves by underestimating the magnitude of the challenges posed by this reality. And while we long to see the day when we would be able to return to our country and land, without fear or threat, we never forget the hospitality extended to us by our Lebanese brothers in different regions, and we will forever remain indebted to them in the hope of returning the favor one day. However, our commitment to maintaining the best possible relations between our two peoples, today and tomorrow, drives us to insist that the solutions to the refugee crisis cannot in any way ensue from permanently persecuting them, especially in the residency and work permits dossier, which increase tensions and add layers to the crisis. The efforts of the Lebanese civil society to redirect the debate about Syrian refugees to a rights-based approach really warms the heart. However, this should be accompanied by intensive work with policy and decision-makers in the country to achieve advanced policies that take into account the rightful concerns of large segments of the Lebanese people, and at the same time takes the burden off thousands of Syrians, until they are able to return to their homes. I believe we have before us a crisis and an opportunity, and the way we tackle the challenge will either exacerbate the severity of the crisis or open more opportunities for success, learning and investing in the future.