9 February 2024 

Tripoli/Beirut, Lebanon – In Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, Abdullah’s phone rings off the hook. Dozens of callers ask about the whereabouts of his relative, Yassin al-Atar. His voice is hoarse, his eyes bloodshot. Since January 25, the day Abdullah heard Yassin would be deported, he has barely slept.

Abdullah (a pseudonym) is working around the clock—speaking with lawyers, journalists and human rights organizations—to try to prevent 27-year-old Yassin from being deported to Syria, where he feels certain he “would be killed.”

Yassin’s is one of hundreds of deportation cases against Syrians in Lebanon in recent years, as the country’s government presses forward in its efforts to induce refugees to leave, whether “voluntarily” or by force. Lebanon currently hosts approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

In October 2022, the Lebanese government resumed what it calls a “voluntary return” plan, aiming to send back 15,000 Syrian refugees per month under the contention that Syria is safe for return. Since then, the number of Syrian refugees deported from Lebanon has spiked. 

Last year, the Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR), a human rights organization based in Beirut and Paris, documented 1,080 arbitrary arrests and the deportation of 763 Syrians. In 2022, just 154 Syrians were deported, and 59 in 2021, according to ACHR. 

“Syria is not safe for returns,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher in Lebanon, Ramzi Kaiss, told Syria Direct. In 2023, HRW documented the arrest, forced conscription and torture of multiple deportees once back in Syria.

While all deportees face risks, the danger is enormous for those, like Yassin, who have been openly involved in opposition activities against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.