Cyprus is favored route for thousands of Syrian migrants escaping Lebanon
Nearly 60 times as many people, mostly Syrians, are leaving Lebanon by boats en route to Europe when compared with last year — a number expected rise in the next few months during peak migration season.
5 May 2024
Beirut, Lebanon – Over a cup of Arabic coffee in his one-room Beirut apartment, 31-year-old Ahmad al-Izzo said it has become “impossible” for Syrians to live in Lebanon.
In 2014, Ahmad fled to Lebanon from Homs in Syria, where, he says, “there is nothing left” now. Ahmad’s home was destroyed in the over 12-year-long Syrian war, which has also left the country’s economy in ruins.
In Lebanon, violence against Syrians has spiked following the killing of Pascal Sleiman, a senior official with the Lebanese Forces (LF), a right-wing Christian party. The Lebanese army said Sleiman was abducted and killed in a carjacking attempt on April 7 by Syrian gang members.
Since Sleiman’s killing, the Lebanese police and army clamped down on Syrians, closing their businesses, evicting those without residency documents and intensifying their campaign to deport them.
Ahmad’s residency papers are outdated, which is not uncommon for Syrians in Lebanon, because he has been unable to update them due to high renewal fees. This has left him terrified of deportation. “We can’t live in Syria or in Lebanon,” he told Al-Monitor.
His last hope for his wife and two young children, aged four and six, is to climb aboard a boat and attempt the dangerous passage across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.
He is still searching for a smuggler, whom he would pay thousands of dollars to take his family across the sea.
The number of people, mostly Syrians, leaving Lebanon’s coast on boats en route to Europe has surged compared with last year.
On Thursday, the European Union announced an aid package for Lebanon of 1 billion euros — about $1.06 billion — to help Lebanon improve border control and counter the growing smuggling industry.
Between January and April 17, the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) verified 59 boats with a total of 3,191 passengers that departed from Lebanon’s shores. During the same period last year, only three boats with 54 passengers on board left Lebanon — reflecting nearly a 60-fold increase this year, UNHCR spokesperson Lisa Abou Khaled told Al-Monitor.
Abou Khaled said the “desperate journeys” were undertaken because of “the inability to survive in Lebanon due to the deteriorating economy situation, the lack of access to basic services and limited job opportunities and having relatives or community members in destination countries.”